The Dance for Tolerance Initiative began as a collaborative project between youths from Colombia, Brazil, and the United States who were looking to inform and empower themselves and their communities through the medium of dance and physical expression. The project's central focus was to raise awareness about social differences and inequalities around the world in order to create a means of respect, understanding and solidarity amongst youth.

The Dance for Tolerance Initiative aimed to discuss and compare the problems that each dance group faced in their respective countries and to establish a dialogue through both movement and facilitated discussions to examine the role dance plays in offering transformative solutions. Since the groups all spoke different languages, dance proved to be a particularly effective tool through which the youth could non-verbally communicate and relate to each other through this common interest. The forum, story-telling circles and the Collaborative Dance Performance are cooperative solutions which use dance as a means to spread tolerance across borders and cultures.