ECSTASY

No, it's NOT "exotic dance", nor is it "erotic dance"....it's "Ecstatic Dance"!  It's gotta be pretty tame, cuz we do it at our church -- in the Sanctuary!  (But then, again, we are Unitarian Universalists, so we do some pretty not-your-typical-church activities fairly regularly.)

I first went to Ecstatic Dance with a friend in Oregon over 15 years ago.  Men and women moving and grooving and flying across the room in a dance studio, lights turned low, music turn up, a playlist of mostly instrumental "world beat" stuff that started out on the slow side, built over the hour to a crescendo about mid-way through and then eased back down to super slow.  I was transported.  I wanted more.

But I was busy with life -- kids, work, family -- and never pursued it, but fantasized about it frequently. About 6 years ago I finally sought out Ecstatic Dance closer to home.  I went all by myself and again, found tremendous joy and release in the experience.  But the sessions were still a commute for me and not at a good time.

So, I did what I do.  I decided to start my own, in my living room.  I called it "WomanDance" and invited some women friends.  We met monthly for almost 2 years in my house.  I moved the furniture, turned up the stereo and we moved to the beat -- finding favorite spots in the kitchen, living room, den -- the built in sound system providing the soundtrack to our fledgling efforts to touch that inner place of authenticity that emerges when body and breath quiet the mind.

Eventually we decided to "go public" and invite our men friends and others at our UU Fellowship, holding dances in the Sanctuary with a much larger dance space and a better sound system!  That was over 3 years ago.  We've had as few as 7 and as many as 18 at our monthly dances, usually averaging around 12-13.  Not a huge crowd, but a core group of sweet souls, gathering to feel the pure joy of movement together.  We create a communal "altar" of candles, greens, flowers, and offerings on the chancel, turn the lights down, the sound system up, and dance, dance, dance for an hour.

We base our dance on dance innovator Gabrielle Roth's 5 Rhythms creation -- dancing "the wave" from Flowing to Staccato to Chaos to Lyrical to Stillness, using a variety of music playlists.  That was the "wave" I experienced at that first dance -- going from slow to fast to super slow.  Gabrielle says each rhythm speaks to an archetype within and the dance can be a healing practice.

I believe it.  The rhythms remain the same, but in our "check out" sharing circle it is apparent that at each dance a different rhythm resonates with each person on any given night.  There is sometimes laughter and whoops of joyful abandon; sometimes tears and supine meditation.  Everyone dances to their own inner calling -- no talking, no partnering, no choreography.  Our dance is our own.

I am  grateful for this spiritual communal practice.  I am grateful for my community of dancers.  I feel sad that some who I know would love it still possess the inhibitions that keep them from coming -- thinking themselves uncoordinated, or without rhythm, or too heavy, or too stiff, or too afraid of the word "ecstatic". (We remain fully conscious!)  We are proud that we've created a "no judgement zone" -- a safe space for everyone.  I know letting go of self-judgement is hard and  I know a place for healing that...it's called Ecstatic Dance.

At least, that's the view from here....©