That initial venture into ecstatic dance felt awkward, to say the least. Trying to hold eye contact with a stranger for a full 90 seconds sparked more internal questions than connection. Was I doing it wrong? Is staring at two eyeballs simultaneously even possible? Just as these thoughts swirled, our time was up. A mumbled “thank you” and an overly enthusiastic “Uh huh!” later, I was retreating, a bit stiff and unsure.
But as the music shifted, something changed. The dance segment began, and with it, a loosening of my self-consciousness. The facilitator’s voice, chanting “Yummy yummy yummy yummy” over the mic, was surprisingly freeing. Then the beat dropped – heavy, resonant – and the room erupted in cheers. A DJ’s voice boomed, “I love you, and have a wonderful journey,” and suddenly, movement felt less like a task and more like… release.
This sense of release through dance isn’t novel. Ecstatic dance parties, and similar substance-free, “conscious” dance gatherings like Barefoot Boogie, Morning Gloryville, and Daybreaker, are clearly tapping into a growing desire for physical expression, especially in our increasingly digital and isolated world. And in a city like Dance Nyc, this need feels particularly acute.
Sarah Monette, a 41-year-old ecstatic dance facilitator and DJ, and co-founder of I-Opener, an all-ages ecstatic dance event held in dance nyc and Boston on Sunday mornings, explains the core appeal: “The idea is free-form movement to music in a judgment-free space. Ecstatic dance isn’t about labels; it’s about experiencing something amazing, uniquely your own.”
Many devotees see ecstatic dance as a more liberated cousin to 5Rhythms, a meditative movement practice guiding dancers through five distinct sequences. Legend credits Max Fathom, 50, now based in Austin, Texas, with sparking the ecstatic dance movement. Inspired by Burning Man in the early 2000s, Fathom combined 5Rhythms with electronic dance music at Sunday morning events in Hawaii. From there, this liberating practice spread, reaching communities from Kansas City, Mo., to Christchurch, New Zealand, and finding a vibrant home in dance nyc.
