Meet the TikToker bringing people together through dance

Brut America

He asks strangers in the street to teach him their favorite dance ... What happens next is more than just dance.  Brut spent a day with Ed People.

Transcript

00:00Can you teach me your favorite dance move?

00:05No matter what age you are or where you're from, you can share a dance with a stranger

00:16and create a rapid connection with them.

00:22Can you teach me your favorite dance move?

00:23Of course, I'm an Indian and dance runs in my blood.

00:26I ask them, can you teach me your favorite dance move?

00:29And I don't even ask them what's the dance of the country you're from or of your country

00:34of origin.

00:35But a lot of them will show me something that comes from their country of origin or from

00:39their backgrounds.

00:40I'll teach you some steps of Bhangra.

00:45You realize that they're proud of that heritage they have.

00:48And that's beautiful to see.

01:07Most people I approach, they are not even aware of how amazing they are.

01:11They have this amazing energy, this crazy smile, this amazing style, and they're not

01:16even aware of it.

01:23There is nothing more interesting than someone who doesn't even know they're interesting.

01:27So I will see someone and they're like, oh, I'm kind of shy.

01:30I don't know how to dance.

01:31And I'm like, yeah, but you're so amazing.

01:33Like you're shining with your energy.

01:35Can you teach me your favorite dance move?

01:42I've been dancing my whole life.

01:48That's the first hobby that I can remember I had.

01:51I always loved learning new dances.

01:53So if I would see someone at a party dancing like an Indian dance, I would always ask them,

01:58hey, can you teach me how to dance that?

02:09My biggest hobby in life was salsa.

02:11I was dancing four, five times per week.

02:15That was my hobby, but it was also my community.

02:17COVID kind of took that away from me.

02:19I was like, what am I going to do?

02:20And I was pretty pessimistic.

02:21On the first day, the Belgian government said you can go out and you can socialize with

02:26people in parks.

02:27I saw this girl dancing with two boys.

02:31There was one guy playing the double bass, a guy playing the banjo, and the girl was

02:35dancing the Charleston.

02:37And I just asked her, can you teach me how to dance that dance?

02:41She taught it to me.

02:42We danced together.

02:43And then I thought that would be cool to record it and to do a small intro.

02:47I did that dance with her.

02:49I felt more alive than I felt during the whole COVID.

02:54And I saw another group dancing, so I asked them.

02:58I asked a third group.

02:59I came back home.

03:00I downloaded TikTok.

03:01I edited the video.

03:02I posted it.

03:04And I thought that was like the best day since COVID started.

03:08And I was like, I want to have another day like that.

03:11So I did it another day, and then another day, and then another day, and I just never

03:15stopped.

03:16And I think you might have a dance, yeah?

03:17I don't have a dancing part.

03:18As I say to everyone, it's not a project about dance.

03:19It's more a project about people.

03:20I have a lot of private messages from people from all around the world who tell me, thank

03:31you for showing my culture, thank you for the smile you put on my face, or a lot of

03:36people tell me I had a bad day and I watched some of your videos and it put a smile on

03:41my face.

03:42I have a lot of people telling me it gives me faith in humanity.

03:46And I think as humans, we really love watching other humans happy, and that's kind of the

03:51whole purpose of the video is to show that you don't need that much to be happy with

03:55another person.

03:56Just sharing a dance and a moment of like a shared passion that you can have together.

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