The following guidelines are typical of those followed at hundreds of conscious dances around the world, having been developed through community discussions and agreement over decades. Please let us know If you have questions about any of them.
Before You Arrive
- Be clean. Please arrive fresh with a clean body and clothes, as some of us are sensitive to any scented products (including essential oils) or strong body odors.
- Be clear-minded. We dance free of alcohol and illegal substances.
- Leave your shoes and smartphones off the dance floor. And please leave any valuables at home or safely hidden in your car. (Note: If you need shoes for foot health, we welcome soft-soled shoes that have not been worn outside.)
Holding a Safe and Sacred Space
- Dance and move however you feel it. There's no right or wrong way to be ecstatic!
- Be curious, open, and accepting. Please suspend judgements of self or other.
- Refrain from talking on the dance floor. Take all conversations out to the lobby
- Move with care and awareness through the space. Help us avoid collisions on the dance floor.
- Be mindful of others’ personal boundaries. Ecstatic Dance is very contact-friendly, but we all have different levels of comfort when it comes to being approached and touched. Do not give unwelcome attention to others.
- No taking pictures or video. Photography tends to take people out of their deep experience and is a breach of privacy.
Being with Our Music
Our particular approach to Ecstatic Dance opens with flowing music to warm-up the body, builds steadily in tempo & intensity to reach peaks of ecstasy, and eventually glides into meditative, heart-chakra stillness. During the journey we play a very wide variety of music across different genres. If there's a song you don't prefer or that doesn't seem danceable at first, we invite you to be curious and try to discover it in your body. Or use it as an opportunity to work with the judgements that arise. Or hold witness for how others are feeling the music. Or take a break to visit our altar or get some water. Just know that the music keeps changing, so something different is coming soon.
