Since times immemorial, our ancestors knew and valued the importance of movement. People's survival depended on being agile, quick, and moving a lot, be it while chasing prey or escaping from a dangerous predator. Human's constant desire for motion allowed us to evolve, explore, and populate distant continents, becoming the planet's master race. Considering all this, it's of no surprise that nowadays we rely on moving almost as much as our forebears did, taking joy even from a simple walk in the park or a lively social dance. And that's precisely why the recent pandemic has struck our society so hard, depriving people of their innate ability to move freely and restricting us from sitting at home.
Fortunately, we live in the XXI century, and new technological advances have provided us with a wonderful solution. If it's impossible to do something live, let's do it online! That's precisely what Kirill Korshikov thought. Kirill, a social media influencer and entrepreneur, has always been fascinated by dance, the magic of its movements, its lively and joyous atmosphere. When the pandemic prohibitions were imposed, he didn't despair and quickly came to the realization of a simple fact: social distancing does not necessarily involve social isolation. Although it's impossible to re-create the same feeling of physical contact, sharing an experience virtually has value. While being unable to dance and party together in festivals or clubs, we can still do it virtually, connected by the Web. He created an Instagram channel, Social Dance TV, dedicated exclusively to social dancing content, and soon understood that he was doing the right thing. The channel quickly grew, attracting followers from all over the world, to soon become a large media platform, uniting dancers from Sweden to South Africa and from Mexico to Japan.
However, the creation of Social Dance TV did well not only to dance lovers. Being fully conscious of the critical situation caused by the coronavirus worldwide, Kirill became determined to make his contribution to the anti-virus fight. In March 2020 he organized a social dance fundraising festival, the profits from which were donated to COVID-19 relief efforts. The charity event enjoyed the participation of famous dancers from all around the globe and became a huge success. Among his other notable charity participations in the anti-COVID struggle is the arrangement of online classes held by top dance teachers from around the world, and, of course, the "Social Dancing on Quarantine" challenge that took place in May 2020. The challenge, involving the best bachata, salsa, and kizomba social dancers from all kinds of countries, ensured its popularity and acclaim.
Although it's still unknown when society will return to its former self and all restrictions will be lifted, Kirill Korshikov sees the online dance events by Social Dance TV as a way to keep fostering the dance community and creativity in quarantine. Movement is life, and Kirill offers it to us: the amazing life of online social dance.
