Daybreaker Brings Peace to the Sands of Miami Beach at Sunrise

Imagine 1,000 sober people dancing on the sand outside Faena Miami Beach at sunrise. Everyone is dressed in white as white doves fly around their moving bodies in honor of peace.

That's Daybreaker, the dawn dance party that has been making its way across the globe for the past decade. The first half of the year is themed the "Peace Tour," explains founder and CEO Radha Agrawal, talking to New Times from Costa Rica.

"I wanted to give an alternative to dancing and going out at night," she explains of the inception of this cherished dance party. "I wanted to focus on merging the world of health and wellness and the world of nightlife and the culture of dance, which can be overrun by drugs and alcohol. We wanted to create a much more healthy, substance-free approach." She hosts parties in the morning to reclaim a time of day when we're most primed to connect with other people but which we often do alone. "The morning is when we're most energized, we're the most social, we're the most ready for connection," she says.

Events are alcohol-free but include green juice, coffee, tea, and healthy breakfast treats, which are included with admission. During the first hour, participants do yoga; for the last two, they dance. They close with a ceremony and performance to honor their connection.

During this Peace Tour, they'll promote peace organizations and invite their community to support them. They'll also perform a "heart coherence moment," inviting everyone to connect and "blast the world with good vibrations," Agrawal says. "When we bring 1,000 people together in coherence, which is what happens when you're dancing together when you're moving and swaying to music, you actually create heart clearance, which is scientifically proven to exponentially share positive energy that the field feels. It's an active way to spread peace."

Daybreaker is working with the University of California, Berkeley's Greater Good Science Center, Agrawal says, to show that collective dance and collective evanescence shift brain chemistry and community connections. "The way we connect with one another, the way we think of ourselves, the way we repair, the way we move through trauma. When we are together, our immune systems are stronger. When we're together, we're more creative. We're actually measuring with Greater Good Science Center at UC Berkeley what happens when we dance together." They want the study to result in doctors treating loneliness, depression, and anxiety with directives to engage in collective dance, much like they might suggest yoga or walks in nature.

She recalls her own struggles with loneliness at 30 while living in New York in the opening of her book Belong: Find Your People, Create Community, and Live a More Connected Life. At the time, she realized she prioritized her job and romantic relationships over friendships. She shifted her priorities, and her community brought her to meet her partner, with whom she has a daughter. It also enabled her to start Daybreaker to cure others of loneliness and bring them community.

At the end of the year, Daybreaker shifts to getting out the vote with the "Purple Tour." She says it's about showing what unites us, our shared values, instead of what divides us. Daybreaker is a nonpartisan organization, so the event will be a celebration that takes away the fear of elections, she says, and includes voter registration to encourage civic engagement. Agrawal is the child of immigrants and a naturalized American who was born in Canada. "We want to get out the vote joyfully," she says, "and remind ourselves that America is a great country."

Daybreaker. 10:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sunday, February 11, Faena Miami Beach, 3201 Collins Ave., Miami Beach; daybreaker.com. Tickets cost $29 to $40 via eventbrite.com.