We are the Outta Puff Daddys...an amateur, over 40s, male only dance crew from Brighton, UK. We meet weekly to create fun dance routines that embrace the humour of ‘Dad Dancing’.
A short while ago, I (Paul) suffered from period of depression and my dance crew's strong social bond with whom I could share my vulnerabilities and emotions, was integral to my recovery. As a group of men, our camaraderie and friendship goes far beyond just dancing. We have supported each other through various personal tragedies and challenges - our close bond provides a safe space to share our vulnerabilities, emotions and discuss our mental well-being.
The biggest killer of men in the UK under the age of 45 is suicide. This is not only profoundly traggic, it is also largely preventable. Until society starts to view mental health in the same way as we view our physical health, we’ll continue to face the devastating consequences caused by stigma.
Knowing the positive impact my crew had made to my life, I became deeply passionate about doing all we could to encourage change in society’s approach/acceptance of mental health. Our goals were/are to encourage others to:
As a male only dance crew, all over the age of 40, combined with our approach to mental well-being, we knew we had something unique that we wanted to share. However, we also knew there is a huge stigma against both men dancing and also the promotion of talking opening about our emotions. It is stigmatised that it is not masculine and of-course social media can at times be a cruel place for negative comments. In addition to this, the subject of 'mental health awareness' is so widely promoted we also knew that our message could become lost and dilluted, amongst the huge volume already in circulation. In fact, due to the wide spread distribution of mental health awareness, I also believe that the subject and messaging can wash over people, because they've maybe heard it so many times without actually understanding or recognising the importance.
We had to promote our message in an engaging, fun and unique way. We needed to first capture peoples attention and then underpin this with powerful and unique content messaging that truly resonated.
So, we began posting short, fun dance routines across all social channels - with Instagram being our primary focus. The routines needed to make people smile, not cringe, we wanted to viewers to wish they were part of the crew - both men and women.
Needless to say, we did face 'haters' and have / do receive some negative and hurtful comments. However, the vast majority loved our content and engagement began to thrive.
With engagement on the rise, alongside our dance content, we also began sharing our deeper message around mental health. We shared the strategies we use and the challenges we face. We wanted followers to recognise some of the personal challenges we were each dealing with, and that our followers were not alone. We highlighted that amongst all the positive joy and fun within our dance content that we do also suffer from bad days. Our messaging showed that through talking and sharing our emotions openly we were stronger together, and the power of embracing like-minded positive people into ours can make.
Each member of the crew has a crew name, such as JUKEBOX, MAESTRO, PAPA-DOM and STRIP-T. These names and characters are also shared across our socials, so our followers develop personal favourites. This again helps boost our engagement and following.
Through my guidance and our shared creativity our social media content amassed thousands of followers and millions of views. Our profile and mental health message was truly being heard and supported around the world.
We now receive daily heartwarming comments detailing the positive impact we have made to peoples lives. Our followers actively use both our dance videos and the strategies we share for their own mental well-being. Many have joined groups or reached out to friends, which they say has been inspired by us. We have empowered them.
Our story has been featured globally on various publications and broadcasts including BBC, ITV, NBC, Heart FM, Capital Radio and more.
In May of this year our Instagram content alone reached over 10 million accounts globally and our followers grew to nearly 400k, highlighting the positive change that we can all make to other people’s lives.
I am still immensely passionate about reaching even more people with our message; to encourage positive change and remove mental health stigma for both men and women. Outside of social media, I now also offer motivational talks at colleges, workplaces and events, providing insights into my own mental health experiences and strategies. As a crew we love to perform live, providing a fantastic opportunity to promote our message in a highly unique and engaging way. This means we are now very busy each summer performing at various festivals, with CarFest being a real highlight. All of this is because of amazing social media community.
