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About Our Annual Youth Dance and Safety Event

In 2026, as Toronto celebrates the FIFA World Cup soccer games downtown, our series will make sure youth living in surrounding communities are not left out using the arts and street safety. By integrating arts (soccer ball art crafts), global dances (to represent those participating in FIFA), and street safety (situational awareness and self-defense skills), we will get 150 youth across 4 NIAs. This year’s curriculum will be split into a 2-part series, a Summer world cup series (June to August) and a Halloween kids (September to October).

This program is strictly non-sparring and focused on the beginner level - we teach self-defense and safety skills through one-on-one drills, interactive games, situational awareness discussions, and confidence-building exercises.

The goal of our series is to get more youth who live in NIAS and areas with high gun violence rates to move more and feel safe as they walk around their neighborhoods. To achieve this, sessions include fun dance energizers to help the youth warm up to each other and beginner street safety lessons. Our sessions are always beginner-friendly and adapted to meet the group’s needs. Since 2019, the series has impacted the everyday lives of over 500 youth between 6 to 18 years old.

How It Started

The first free Youth Dance and Safety event was in 2019, after Sumera and her sister, Sarah, discussed safety being a factor in why attendance remained low in so many of the free after-school and weekend youth dance and fitness classes that her peers were running in a few communities. Without a parent or older sibling available to drop them off and pick them up, many would not attend. Sumera decided to ask three community partners if they wanted to host a session where they could combine both a dance component and a self-defense component. Three one-off sessions were held across 3 communities and all of the sessions FULL.

To find out more about the 2023 Dance & Safety Event highlights, click here.

Safety Facilitators (2019 to 2025)

• Niv Goffman (3-time national champion in Israeli Combat) - Krav Maga Maleh Canada (Gil Katz)

• Jesse Solloum (physical therapist, black belt, and owner of Iron 97 Strength Vaughan) - Krav Maga Maleh Canada (Gil Katz)

• Gemma - Former Ontario MMA fighter and owner of Girls Who Fight Inc.

• Nikki - Security Specialist and owner of Six Krav Maga

• Kris R. - Kinesiologist, men’s nurse and martial arts coach

• Sumera - NCCP and children’s fitness coach (situational awareness games)

Dance Artists/Facilitators (2019 to Now)

• Sumera - Latin Dance and Grooves

• Alejandra - Jazz and Hip-hop

• Michita - Latin Dance and Brazilian Samba

• Ceejay - Socacize and Trinidadian folklore

• Nelcy - Latin dances and Colombian folklore

• Jess L - Urban and Hip-hop dances

A List of Host Organizations

2025

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