December 2016 | Champs and Change Agents

Backstage at the 2016 World of Dance competition in Orlando, Florida, Davina Pasiewicz gathered Chicago-based hip-hop crew The Puzzle League in a pre-performance huddle. “This is not about winning a trophy,” Pasiewicz, the crew’s executive director, told the 35 dancers. “This is about communicating a message bigger than ourselves. If we accomplish that, we will have already won.”The message the piece delivered was this: millennials need to turn out at the polls. Con