Gurdeep Pandher has been travelling all over Vancouver Island spreading happiness, hope and togetherness through Bhaṅgṛā. His stops included Kennedy River Love Locks, the Ucluelet lighthouse, beaches in Tofino and the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia.

Before returning to Yukon, Gurdeep delivered one final, important message: wear a mask on transit, which is mandatory onboard bus, SkyTrain, SeaBus, West Coast Express and HandyDART.

“For those who are not wearing face-masks on transit, I would like say that please do it,” says Gurdeep, who is from Yukon Territory. “Wearing masks, it’s very important. It’s important for your health, it’s also important for people who are sitting besides you.

“And if we keep everybody, including ourselves safe, then we can create a healthy society which will benefit all of us.”

Gurdeep admits that the COVID-19 pandemic has been stressful for him, but he prefers to take the glass half-full approach.

“Before the pandemic, I was teaching in-person classes, then I had to shift all my dance classes online. That was a big adjustment for me, but in some ways, it was great. I was able to connect with everyone across the country.”

In his Twitter profile, Gurdeep describes himself as a someone who works on building cross-cultural bridges. That’s exactly what he’s been doing creating dance videos and sharing it on his social media channels.

“The good thing is although pandemic was really stressful for me like everybody, but through my dance videos, I was able to spread this message of happiness, togetherness, joy — and also important message like wear your face mask. Be safe. Keep our communities safe. Keep our world safe.

“In this pandemic, we are all together. We need to work together like a big team with each and everyone [of us]. Everyone is your team member.”

The reaction to his dance videos has been tremendous, racking up tens of thousands of views on social media.

“Every single day I get a lot of messages, reactions from people. A lot of comments on my social media, telling me that they love my videos. They love this dancing. It creates that moment of joy that they were looking for it cause everyone’s looking for happiness. It doesn’t matter how stressful their day is, so they always tell me that they feel mentally great after watching my videos.

“I’m on a happiness mission.”