Vietnam’s national dance competition celebrates movement for health and connection

In early July 2025, the highland city of Da Lat hosted one of Vietnam’s most vibrant national community sport events: the 2025 National Shuffle Dance, Sport Dance, and Folk Dance Competition.

Organized by the Sports Authority of Viet Nam (Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism), Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism of Lam Dong Province, with the technical support of PATH through the Community Sport and Health Initiative (funded by the International Olympic Committee – IOC), the event brought together 1,000 athletes from 70 clubs across 21 provinces, cities, and sectors, competing in five distinctive categories of sport folk dance, divided into three age groups ranging from 6 to 70 years old.

The power of movement, not just as performance, but as a national strategy for health promotion and community well-being, was well celebrated by this competition through dance, sport, and daily activity.

PATH played a key role in facilitating the competition’s implementation and aligning it with national-level efforts to promote physical activity. The collaboration marked a significant step in advancing inclusive, evidence-informed, and community-centered approaches to improving health through movement.

The competition served as a powerful national platform aligned with Vietnam’s broader physical activity goals and directly supported the Community Sport and Health Initiative’s four strategic objectives:

• Raise awareness among young people and their communities about the importance of sport and physical activity in achieving optimal health and well-being, and in reducing the risk of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs).
• Promote and facilitate the concept of sport as a daily enabler of well-being, embedding it into school routines and everyday life to help young people build healthy, sustainable habits.
• Support policy advocacy and resource mobilization to drive long-term investment in physical activity across community and school systems, particularly in underserved areas.
• Share scalable models and lessons learned to enable sustainable expansion of community-based physical activity programs nationwide.

This competition also served as a live demonstration of community-based sport programming, offering a platform for local governments and partners to exchange practical lessons. PATH leveraged the event to document replicable models of youth and elder engagement, cultural integration, and safe movement practices—all of which will inform future programming in other provinces.

This year’s national competition responded to the growing demand for standardized, inclusive models of community sport that combine creativity, safety, and physical literacy, reaffirming sport’s role not only in individual well-being but in national development.

To further amplify the campaign’s impact among young audiences, the Community Sport and Health Initiative integrated materials from the IOC’s Let’s Move global campaign into its social media and outreach activities. The vibrant set of visuals turns sport promotion into shareable, relatable online content, for use across digital platforms and community-designed merchandise, including canvas tote bags, handheld fans, and posters.

PATH’s role as a co-organizer of this year’s national dance competition reaffirms its long-standing commitment to supporting Vietnam’s public health goals through community-centered approaches. The Community Sport and Health Initiative continues to serve as a catalyst for cross-sector collaboration, empowering government partners, local stakeholders, and youth to co-create sustainable, equitable models of health-promoting physical activity.

As Vietnam accelerates implementation of its National Strategy for Physical Activity and Sports Development to 2030, with a vision to 2045, events like the national dance competition, and the stories that emerge from them, demonstrate the powerful synergy between health, culture, and movement.