I Just Wanna Dance

A few days ago I attended an ecstatic dance session.   What is ecstatic dance you may ask?  Here's a great description:  

Ecstatic dance is about letting go of these now self-imposed restrictions. It is a setting aside of the intellect and all it's concepts of how not to move. It is an opening to new ways to express oneself in movement, to explore the world again, to have that passion once more, that love of life that you once had as a child. This dance is not a structured dance that follows a certain form. It is not taught really, but rather invited. It is an invitation to explore different rhythms, patterns and movements. It is an invitation to listen to your own body, which now becomes the teacher. It is an invitation to tap into that internal wisdom of how to express yourself through the body. It is about finding your own dance from within.  http://www.movingartsnetwork.com/article/what-is-ecstatic-dance.html


I was greeted by the facilitator, a sweet older woman in a flowing dress.   About eight other women were there.  I was definitely the youngest in attendance.  The local park's exercise room had been transformed by turning the lights off and lighting up the room with Orange Christmas lights.  

The facilitator played amazing music and we all started to dance around.  It was fun and freeing!   All of a sudden, out of the corner of my eye, I saw a boy I know walk into the room.  He was wearing sports clothes and I know him to be an excellent athlete, so I assumed that he must be coming in from a basketball game to get a drink of water or something of that nature.

Instead, much to my amazement, he signed into the class, was greeted warmly by the other participants and started to dance.   I danced up next to him and said,  "what are you doing here?"  That was a pretty dumb thing to say, especially because I am so into authenticity and full expression of the teenage self.  I guess I must have stereotyped him, without even thinking about it, as a popular athletic kid who wouldn't be caught dead at an ecstatic dance class with a bunch of older women.   How wrong I was.

He said,  "I Just Wanna Dance!"

The boy danced hard and with gusto!   It was delightful, but soon I was lost in my own dancing and didn't even notice.

At the end of the session, we made a circle, held hands and thanked everyone.   We had a special round of applause for the boy and appreciation for the great energy he added to the dance.  

Afterwards he and I chatted and I told him about my surprise and how glad I was to see him there.   We talked about how so many kids his age feel uncomfortable dancing and he told me how much he loves it.   

As the moving arts network says:

Now, socially acceptable behavior has its place in getting along with others. But if it happens at the cost of losing out on the joys of expressing oneself, then this is something worth addressing. The wisdom of the body is still there waiting to be tapped. But that wisdom is overshadowed by the concepts and ideas we accept as adults. Ideas such as "I can't dance", "I am too uncoordinated", "I will look silly", "I have to look cool", "I am too (fat, skinny, old, young, whatever, etc)". These are just the internalized adult versions of earlier scoldings to "be still".
If you have yet to try it, ecstatic dancing is something to be checked out--young, old, male, female.  It's pretty special!