BraveSpace Ecstatic Dance Temple
Moving together in the freedom of our bodies is a vulnerable thing to do. It is freeing exactly because in the movement toward freedom we encounter all the beliefs, patterns, and social barriers that so easily keep us small. The form of Ecstatic Dance is quite simple—a place with music, people, and a lack of distractions. It’s a place we can feel in to ourselves, and if called to it, find connection with others. The space is held with an attitude of casual reverence, and you are always at choice for how you participate.
The music leads the experience. My DJ style is eclectic, with a bit of everything, yet tends to revolve around a downtempo bass vibe. I like how this music gets hips in motion, encouraging us to find the pleasure of flow in our spines.
This event will include a facilitated class from 7:30-8pm to invite you into your body, into connection with others, and to provide you with tidbits to bring new possibilities to your dancing. Physical contact with others is never required, and those who wish to practice Contact Improvisation are welcome.
There will be an additional supporting space holder in the space—this is a new addition to help us further create the conditions that help us to take the risk of being vulnerable. For further information about the principles of BraveSpace scroll down below.
Located at SomaWorks Studio, 750 E Warm Springs. Parking and Entrance on Bannock. 2nd Floor.
Intended Flow:
Doors 7:15pm
Guided Somatic Movement and Connection 7:30-8
Opening Circle 8pm
Music till closing circle around 9:20
Financial Exchange $20 at the door.
Holding BraveSpace® together has fundamental principles:
We notice the sensations, emotions, images, and movements that we can perceive in our bodies. We collect this data without jumping to conclusions about its meaning or significance prematurely. Simultaneously, we recognize that the truth of our bodies cannot be manipulated away by our minds.
We recognize our bodies as nature, both wild and civilized. We recognize and hold our judgements lightly in order to openly witness ourselves and each other. While we mindfully choose our actions, we release the need to control our experience, asking of our bodies and each other’s bodies what is being revealed through our perceptions.
We recognize that our movements and personalities are comprised of patterns that take form in our bodies and behaviors, and that these patterns may include traumatic responses. We are willing to change our form, face trauma, and invite discomfort in order to grow in alignment with purpose, truth, and community. We simultaneously seek to avoid injury to self, other, and world.
We invite awe and wonder as we inhabit the mysterious gap between knowing and not knowing. We allow truth to emerge through us and recognize power as the ability to be with what is.
We reposition ourselves in relation to others and the world in each moment seeking our consensual and coherent place of belonging. If we become overwhelmed, frozen, or otherwise unable to respond we do our best to speak to it openly and honestly. We do not attempt to control others’ actions in order to avoid shifting our own relationship to the external world, although we may share our perspectives and invite change.
We recognize our hearts as portals to spirit and communal consciousness, with the potential to guide us through the limitations of our minds and individual identities. We embody qualities of unconditional love, healing presence, innate harmony, and compassion by calling our attention and energy back to our hearts and to the communal heart.
We recognize tensional integrity as a systemic wholeness of our physical bodies in space and also of the interpersonal and spiritual realms we inhabit together. We value and hold the tension of opposites as a necessary and healthy aspect of consciousness, and as a key to improvisational emergence.
We recognize life as a place of inherent mortality and choose in BraveSpace the risk of intimacy with ourselves, each other, and the divine, knowing that none of us will complete our journey on this planet alive. Every phrase has a beginning, a middle, and an end. We embrace fear without being led by it.
We recognize our bodies are charged with a force of life that is inherently erotic and which manifests differently for each of us. We celebrate our pleasure, vitality, and longing by meeting masculine and feminine dynamics within ourselves. In BraveSpace we direct sexual energy that may wish to fixate on others into making love with spirit in its many forms, including attuning with others.