WHAT IS ECSTATIC DANCE?

Let’s dive right in: what exactly is Blissful Movement?

Ecstatic Dance is an unrestrained dance form aimed at attaining euphoria. It’s a natural state where your consciousness shifts, offering a meditative and joyful experience through bodily motion. Beyond the sheer enjoyment of grooving to music, Ecstatic Dance has been scientifically verified to enhance both your mental and physical well-being.

The beauty of Ecstatic Dance lies in its lack of strict regulations. Just three key guidelines to keep in mind when partaking in a Ecstatic Dance session:

1. No substances (alcohol/drugs)
2. No talking
3. No judgment
4. No filming

Apart from these, there are no constraints during a Ecstatic Dance session! No set dance routines, no specific music genre – and, most crucially, an atmosphere filled only with love and acceptance. It provides a secure haven for you to genuinely express yourself however you please.

Want to lift your Ecstatic Dance experience to a whole new level? Drink a good brew of cocoa beforehand! Cacao is not just a delicious drink, but the cacao beans contain a psychoactive ingredient called theobromine, which translates to “food of the Gods“. Theobromine is a bitter alkaloid that has been shown to be mildly stimulating, giving you a burst of energy and improving focus as well as memory storage.

Cacao also increases the flow of blood and oxygen to the brain as well as induces the release of endorphins and dopamine, our feel-good hormones. As a result, we are happier and our creativity is reaching peak states.

Since ancient times cacao has been used as a medicine to heal physical, mental and spiritual illnesses. Cacao has been shown to boost the immune system and lower cholesterol and blood pressure as well as leading to euphoria and deeper spiritual connection. Perfect in combination with Ecstatic Dance!

And there you have it! Now the only thing left to be done is for you to set the date. Perhaps you can already start your first session tonight?

The dances I’ve attended in Santa Cruz, Los Angeles, Oceanside and Toronto all share the Ecstatic Dance guidelines. Guidelines may vary by location, so try to make it to the beginning of the event for the opening circle.

Move freely without judgment

Ecstatic Dance encourages self expression through movement. And people are most self expressed when they don’t judge themselves, nor feel judged by others.

The following rules all work to support this guiding principle.

No talking on the dance floor

This was harder than I expected. Until ecstatic dance, I didn’t realize that I talked as a means to distract myself from moving freely. Silence places the focus on being in the body. Get out of your head and into your body.

Note: You can talk off the dance floor and in rest areas. On occasions I’ve forgotten this rule said something to a friend. It was no big deal.

No shoes on the dance floor

Have you ever been stepped on…with heels? (It hurts.) Dancing without shoes initially seems like a hippie thing to do, but it’s so damn practical – it’s cleaner and prevents getting impaled by sharp heels.

Barefoot dancing also allows for more movement, especially for contact improv or literally getting down on the floor.

Drug free, substance free environment

Ecstatic Dance is a safe space, so it naturally follows that it’s a sober event. The only sanctioned high is the natural high from movement.

I’ve yet to see anyone drunk or tripping out, so it seems like everybody respects the honor code on this one. It helps that there is no alcohol sold. Sometimes, Ecstatic Dances have attached kitchen spaces that sell health conscious food & drinks.

Respect others’ space

Have you ever had someone grab you or just come up from behind and start grinding? That wouldn’t happen at Ecstatic Dance. People can’t feel truly free to move if they’re worried about someone violating their space.

So what if you want to dance with someone? Most facilitators, at the beginning of class, encourage dancers to make a clear signal – steady eye contact or extending a hand – and wait for a response. If there’s no clear, affirmative response, move away peacefully.

If someone wants to say no, they can put their palms together and namaste-away from the interaction.

Unlike other new age things I’ve explored, Ecstatic Dance made immediate sense to me. This was a safe space for self expression (say that 3x fast).

Another way to understand the benefits of ecstatic dance is to think of it as the polar opposite of a night club.

Another way I like to describe Ecstatic Dance is that it’s like going to a dance church.

The event is inclusive of all types of people, ages and backgrounds. You might see parents bring their kids to ecstatic dance or seniors bustin’ a move. Everybody is welcome.

Ecstatic comes from the Latin word ekstasis – “standing outside oneself.” At ecstatic dance, you’ll see people lose themselves in movement.

I was surprised to find that forms of ecstatic dance can be found from ancient to modern history.

In Greek mythology, “the maenads were intoxicated female worshippers of the Greek god of wine, Dionysus, known for their “ecstatic revelations and frenzied dancing” (source).

Heck, even the Christian sect of Shakers were once shamed for their individualistic movements.

Shakers “sang, danced, and sometimes turned, twitched, jerked, or shouted… worship services were unstructured, loud, chaotic and emotional. Many outsiders disapproved of or mocked Shakers’ mode of worship without understanding the symbolism of their movements or the content of their songs.” (Wikipedia)

In the 1970s, Gabrielle Roth revived ecstatic dance and formalized it in her 5Rhythms practice.

Around 2001, Max Fathom used learnings from 5Rhythms and fused it with the increasingly popular genre of electronic dance music. This was big hit and Ecstatic Dance found its first roots on the Big Island in Hawaii. (Source: New Haven Ecstatic Dance).

In 2008, Donna Carroll founded Ecstatic Dance Oakland. Once the community moved stateside – especially into hippie Bay Area – Ecstatic Dance began to grow.

In 2015, Carroll founded Ecstatic Dance International which includes training on how to create an ecstatic dance community. This organizational structure powers much of the popularity of Ecstatic Dance today.

How to find Ecstatic Dance events
If you’re in a sizable city, chances are that you’ll find an Ecstatic dance in your area. Google search “Ecstatic Dance” in your area, check out Meetup.com or search”ecstatic dance” on Facebook / social media. There’s also the list of locations on EcstaticDance.org, I’m just not sure how often it’s updated.

Side note: it's not uncommon for ecstatic dance events to be held at yoga studios, dance halls or even school gyms. Still none in your area? Make it out to a transformational festival like Lightning in a Bottle and experience it there.

Know it’s okay to roll solo
Ecstatic dance events have an inclusive atmosphere. It helps that the value of the event is to focus on self expression, so there’s no societal expectation to show up with friends or a dance partner.

If you’re anxious, bring one of your more open minded or hippie friends to join you.

Go for the full experience
Definitely don’t miss the beginning open circle. This is where you’ll learn the format and guidelines of that particular community.

Try a new dance move…or twenty
Think about any ways you might restrict your body, and all of that is game for exploration at ecstatic dance. Move around different parts of the dance floor, or consider why you tend to be planted in one spot.

If you were to try moving in a way that’s more feminine or masculine, what might that look like? If there’s resistance to moving a different way – why? This, to me, is the whole point ecstatic dance.

I wholeheartedly recommended Ecstatic Dance.

It’s safe. It’s fun. It’s challenging.

As a cerebral type of guy, I realize that maybe what hinders my growth is my mind, prone to hacking away on one problem to the next.

Ecstatic dance is the exact thing I needed to help me get out of my brain and into my body.

It’s far the lowest-risk, highest-reward movement practice I can think of.

It’s cheap or free if you want to try on your own first. But I strongly encourage attending a live event – going just once or twice can help you feel more free, self expressed and connected to yourself. These are intangible values that are getting more and more rare in distracted, high-speed society of our times.

So try it out.

It might just be the most fun you’ll ever have dancing.

Here’s a miscellaneous list of brain food to whet your curiosity about Ecstatic Dance…

Check out this Youtube video of Ecstatic Dance at the OG location in Oakland:

Written by cofounder of the international dance organization InterPlay, Cynthia Winton-Henry. Chockful of nuggets on overcoming anxiety and using dance as a vehicle for therapy and maybe even spiritual growth.