Dork Party for World Mental Health Day
Happy World Mental Health Day! According to the World Health Organization “world mental health day is observed on 10 October every year with the overall objective of raising awareness of mental health issues around the world and mobilizing efforts in support of mental health. The day provides an opportunity for all stakeholders working on mental health issues to talk about their work, and what more needs to be done to make mental health care a reality for people worldwide.”
This day provides opportunity. At #dorkdancing, we are seizing it.
To celebrate the day, Dork Dancing is collaborating with The Workshop, CORMIS, and other mental health initiatives to forward a MENTAL mission within the Da Nang, Vietnam community.
We are doing this by throwing a party, bringing together people and resources within the mental health ecosystem. The objective of our event is threefold: raise awareness for the issue, share mental health resources, and support a local NGO that is caring for the mental health of marginalized, disabled populations.
Originally we planned for a full Mental Health symposium and fundraiser, but because of the rain we postponed the larger event, still hosting a Dork party to celebrate the day and raise awareness. With rain, we still danced — and did more.
Today, Dork Dancers took it easy, showing up for our mental health initiatives. The day was kicked off with some Dork Art, hosted by Kyana, starting at 3:30PM. Kyana hosted a couple Dork Art events online, but today marked her first in person event and it was a big success. About 15 or so people showed up for her event to create art and meet others as a kind of therapy.
After Dork Art, we transitioned to our classic #dorkdancing for mental health at 5:00PM. Regular dork dancers joined us, along with new dancers too. Ladies with disabilities from CORMIS made an appearance and joined us for some dancing. Although the majority couldn’t move as readily as abled-bodied people, they still moved what they could, mostly swaying their arms back and forth in all kinds of directions. It was beautiful to share the hour on the dance floor with these women. They really loved dancing with us, captured (or revealed) as always, by the smiles. Today dancing was something special. New faces brought a refreshing sense of new joy.
After dancing, we took a much needed break. We shifted attention to something with a different kind of power. For the first time ever, Olga held her first photo exhibition, displaying her photography for the Call Us MENTAL project, capturing some of our stories.
It was really cool to see our photos & stories on the wall, it made our project so much more real. There’s something different about seeing photos and stories on a screen compared to seeing it in real life. People looked at the photos and read our stories.
The photo exhibition seemed to meet our goals. This was a good first attempt as something casual. This means we can continue with this idea, spreading the project in public spaces.
Other cool things went on at night after dancing. Limor, for example, an active dork dancer, set up a hugging station. Others too were present, sharing alternative wellness resources.
This was something relaxed for the community. We made art, danced, shared stories & hugs, and got to spend time learning about one another, within the context of mental health. It was something casual, but good, fun, and special too. Happy world mental health day and see some of you gals & guys dancing in the rain!