Artist Anouk Kruithof is fascinated by dance as a form of self-expression and empowerment. And for Universal Tongue she researched how dance has developed throughout history as part of our global media culture, and how dance manifests itself on social media platforms. Together with a team of 52 researchers from around the world, Anouk collected more than 8,800 dance videos that could be found on YouTube, Facebook and Instagram. Each researcher entered the same search terms, and because of their different geographic locations, they ended up with different search results – varying from the abakúa from Cuba and the Argentine tango to the Zimbabwean sungura and the zwiefacher from Germany.

Anouk Kruithof: ‘When you look past all the cultural differences, you see that really everyone gets so much energy from dancing with their bodies. That is something that connects people and I think that is beautiful.’