Dancing in the Library: Making Art, Building Community and Empowering Girlsli

The Celebrating Girls Celebrating Community program, offered in partnership with Island Health and Hannah Beach of Dandelion Dance, was a long-term program designed to increase the confidence and self-efficacy of teen girls in the Nanaimo community. Between October 2017 and May 2018, a total of 11 girls participated in the project; 6 followed all the way through with the planning, choreographing, and performing of a full length dance performance inspired by their social justice passions and the ways they see themselves in the world. This program gave a group of teens who had never danced - or spent much time in the library! - a safe space to learn how to express themselves, a deep and continuing connection with their library, and a platform from which to create real and meaningful change in their community