Inspired By Florida School Shooting, Dancers Create Video To Encourage Young Voters

2024 Author: Steven Freeman | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 08:15

A group of young dancers are channeling the trauma from last February's mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida to encourage people to vote in the midterm elections.

Ballet Dancers Robbie Fairchild and Ezra Hurwitz have released an inspirational video entitled Enough! The video, in partnership with Everytown for Gun Safety - a non-profit group dedicated to gun violence prevention - and National Dance Institute (NDI) is a dance-driven anthem about gun safety and arts education.

Fairchild, formerly with the New York City Ballet and Hurwitz, with the Miami City Ballet, developed the video as a tribute to the 17 fatal victims of the Feb. 14 shooting at the Florida school.

Choreographed by James Alsop, the video is set to I'm Still Here, a new track from Sia.

The video, which was released on Monday, is below.

More than 130 children ages 7 to 17 participated in this piece, which the creators say has an uplifting message. “In a world too often divided by words, the goal of this piece is to offer an inspiring bipartisan message through dance that could uplift, inspire and motivate more effectively than any rhetoric,” the creators tell PEOPLE in a statement.

Students and parents after the Stoneman Douglas shooting

National Dance Institute is a non-profit founded on the belief that the arts have a unique power to engage all children - regardless of background, ability, or socioeconomic status - and motivate them towards excellence.

NDI has a free in-school arts education program that teaches children important life skills like confidence, passion and inclusion through music and dance. This year, NDI's in-school curricular theme is focused on “Voices of Change,” empowering young people to speak up and make a difference.

According to mortality data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 26,000 children and teens under 18 were killed by gunfire in the United States between 1999 and 2016. A 2017 study by the American Academy of Pediatrics found that firearm injuries are the third -leading cause of death among United States children age 1 through 17.