Collective ecstasy

THE NATURE OF US

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The capacity for collective joy is encoded into us almost as deeply as the erotic love of one human for another, writes Barbara Ehrenreich in her wonderful book Dancing in the Streets.

Our sense of community has declined in the last few centuries, and social scientists have attempted to analyze why this has occurred. Ehrenreich says of her purpose in writing this book: The loss of ecstatic pleasure, of the kind once routinely generated by rituals involving dancing, music, and so on, deserve the same attention accorded to community, and to be equally mourned.

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Our ancestors danced together around fires and in village squares. Dancing was a part of daily life. In the late 80s and 90s, I was fortunate to be part of reviving an essential element of tribal/community life through a bi weekly evening event, Dance Spirit. I partnered with David Miles, the originator of this dance in Fairfax, California in late ‘87. It soon became clear to me that I wanted to dj. I taught myself over the weeks in those pre-computer days, mixing in the moment, and David was happy to be free to dance. When we suddenly had to move in ‘94, David dropped out and I went on to produce and dj until 2001.

Dancers from all over the Bay area came; it was wild and ecstatic with a minimum of rules. This type of dance had grown out of the east coast modern dance scene in New England in the sixties, when modern dancers would get together to jam. It was usually barefoot, free form and improvisational, creative and athletic, and highly expressive of the music — generally rhythmic, a wide variety, soul and reggae, rock, funk and African, sometimes house and techno.

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I wrote a piece entitled Dancing Community in the ‘90s:

Many of us in the community first met one another on the dance floor. What an interesting way to get to know one another, through energy and movement. I get to feel who this being is, sensitive or dynamic, present or playful, without a clue to their background or personal life.

I’ve thought a lot about the role of dance in creating and building community. On the dance floor, individuals from widely disparate socio-economic levels, cultures, and age groups all meet in the rhythm of the music. Just by getting on the beat together, there is a feeling of harmony and connection.

The entrainment that occurs in dance is mysterious yet enormously compelling. At times the entire dance floor is in a state of rhythmic harmony and we are dancing as one unified field. I believe our hearts naturally open to one another; the unity we experience is the ‘one heart.’ This connection we feel then carries over to our lives together in community.

As importance as this feeling of connection is, the flip side, our unique individual nature, can also be cultivated on the dance floor — especially in improvisational dance, in which we are making it up in the moment, experimenting and expressing our feelings to the music. As we do this, we embody our inherent creativity and allow our beauty to shine through. When everyone on the dance floor is immersed in their own dance, there is a wonderful sense of permission to be ourselves fully. The heightened individuality, together with feeling interconnected, results in new forms emerging: a circle will spontaneously form, or an unusual geometric shape, as the dancers merge in new ways.

I often noticed the dance floor seemed to mimic the way atoms must congregate together, attracted to one another or repulsed, dancers moving this way and that, following their impulses.

I went on to write:

I notice that the more individuated I become in my own dance, the more freely I co-create with other dancers. I take the risk to play off their movements, to initiate a non-verbal conversation if they respond; we play back and forth, building on each other’s energy. Sometimes we create a soft and deep nourishing field of awareness together. At other times the energy may be fiery, full out and wild. We form a third body between us, and the energy takes my body to levels of movement I can’t reach alone.

The richness I experience dancing reverberates in my everyday life. In dance we risk being seen, defining ourselves, making bold moves, letting go of the critic inside, opening our hearts to ourselves and one another. Hopefully these skills build a person who feels secure inside, able to be part of community without losing themselves. In dance we learn to follow our own truth, to be cooperative instead of competitive, and to trust and enjoy the support of the group. Individuality, connection and co-creativity are vital components of true community.

One thing that separates the barefoot dance scene from a rock concert, or even a celebrity dj event, is that the dancers are not facing a stage, there is no spectacle to witness, instead they are interacting with one another and being creative together. They are dressed casually in clothes that allow one to move freely - and generally barefoot or in dance slippers.

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In the mid ‘90s more and more dance events developed in the Bay area and world wide, from raves with techno music to other dances in the Bay area. From 2001 on, once Dance Spirit ended, I danced in San Francisco and Berkeley and went to graduate school. I grew and flourished dancing, eventually feeling I could jump out first on any dance floor and get the crowd going. A long journey from the days I had no rhythm.

For me it was about embodying the music, and so a variety of music, different tempos and moods made it the most fun. I am not a fan of all house or techno dance events, I don’t feel they foster creativity and improvisation.

The skill of embodying a piece of music is something that can be explored even on your own. It’s about hearing the music and receptivity to the instruments — letting your body be moved. I once taught a mathematics professor to dance, a man who lived mostly in his head, and it was a joy to see him access his bodily felt response to the music and begin to land on the beat.

When I first began dancing as a youngster I was told by my father I didn’t have rhythm. My body froze and for years I was too self conscious to dance, and was unable to learn from classes or step routines. In my 30s and 40s, I worked through my self consciousness to feel free in my body, to let myself open to the music and just explore.

Good speakers cannot be underestimated in making all this possible. When we can truly hear the music, we embody the grace of the musicians playing together through our own body.

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Dance, when you're broken up.
Dance, if you've torn the bandage off.
Dance in the middle of the fighting.
Dance in your blood.
Dance, when you're perfectly free.
-- Rumi --

In the book This is Your Brain on Music, Daniel J. Levitin writes that in every society of which we are aware, music and dance are inseparable. . . it is only in the last 500 years that music has become a spectator sport.

Later he emphasizes: The embodied nature of music, the indivisibility of music and sound, the anthropologist John Blacking writes, characterizes music across cultures and across times.

In African cultures the ability to make music and dance is widespread across cultures. The European tendency to split body and mind, which developed 500 years or more ago, resulted in polite audiences sitting and listening to music. It is time to reclaim our inherent ability to move our bodies joyfully to music, and to do so in public settings. Dances that encourage free movement such as Dance Spirit are a start, but ultimately as a culture we need to embody music again and collectively dance.

When we only move in straight lines, our brains only develop certain neural pathways. Dance opens the body to a world of movement — circular, spiral and improvisational. To dance freely is to glimpse the workings of the dancing universe and the possibilities of being human. In the Gnostic gospel Acts of John, even Jesus danced and said to his disciples:

To the Universe belongs the dancer. He who does not dance does not know what happens.

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Thank you for reading today! I would be delighted to help you in embodying music and finding joy in dancing.

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If you would like to relax and be in touch with your own body, to discover more of yourself, to feel your interconnection with the earth and nature, please reach out.

You can reach me at sabrinapage@earthlink.net. I help you focus on the deep knowing of your body, aligned with the earth and all life - embodiment - to support you in living life fully, freely, and fluidly, intertwined with nature. My background also includes having studied movement, dance, and astrology - with some of the leading individuals in their fields. Sessions are individually tailored to your current needs. My private sessions are offered on zoom, phone, or in person.

More information is available on my website, sabrinapage.com

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