If my client’s knew what I knew, we would dance the entire session. What’s is all for if not to move with ultimate joy and freedom? When you’re dancing, you’re celebrating…you’re beyond the world of measurements and goals. Dance has no prerequisites, needs no occasion, has no purpose, no future progressions to reach for, no proper form. By allowing the dance to happen you’re now enjoying the fitness that you currently have, its’s perfect, there’s nothing left to gain or lose. You dance not to prove anything or be better than anyone, you’re accepting everything and letting that loosen and enliven everyone around you.

In every culture around the world dance can be found. That prehistoric celebration that seems to be a uniquely human quality. Everyone wants to dance. You want to… I know it already. Watch national geographic; everyone in the tribe gets down. Whoever told you that you can’t dance I’m sorry, but there’s no such thing as good or bad dancing; it’s about the enjoyment so get over it.  Real dancing isn’t always intricate or cool or rehearsed, our dance is one that when you do it it inspires everyone to dance. We all admire the one on the dance floor who is clearly free of any attention on how they look dancing, their attention is on the shared enjoyment, it gives permission to everyone around them to do the same. Think of a dance move someone learned from a YouTube video, it’s good but it doesn’t loosen me up or set me free or light up others. 

I was at my cousin’s wedding when I was 6 years old. Our family was not a very dancy or sensual one so the dance floor was not particularly lively. Then, a cousin my age was doing the weirdest move I had ever seen. I thought ‘how did he come up with something so ridiculous? Is he allowed to do this? Why wasn’t anyone else doing things like this?’ A million questions flooded my brain as my feet instinctively led me out next to him to mirror every move. I walked away with big eyes, but let’s say the adults didn’t celebrate my peak experience. Here I was having found ecstasy, and everyone had better things to do. My environment created such obstacles to my body freedom so I could be writing about them for you now. You may have something like this too, a silly way of moving that you used to do before it became uncool or inappropriate or pointless. 

To dance is to stand naked facing the rawest form of expression, wearing only the sheer scarf of honesty. A wispy cloth woven from the threads of vulnerability and joy. Each roll and sway of the body is our silent confession, echoing the most intimate thoughts and emotions that often remain hidden beneath the masks we wear daily.

Here are some places where your body can do no wrong:

– Ecstatic Dance - This is a worldwide phenomenon that gathers people who know how to enjoy moving their body. The first time I stumbled across one of these beautiful communities was on the Big Island of Hawaii. I walked up into a giant pavilion. It was as if the rainforest gifted Tarzan a treehouse dancefloor. For how wild and rural the entire island is, I was surprised to find such a place. 100 people were prepared to become the most rambunctious group of people I’d ever seen who were not drunk. These creatures writhed to many ‘moods’ of dancing (sweet, dark, whimsical, epic) all induced by a skillfully curated playlist. This was 2016, see photo. My reverse aging process began. In 2023 I attended Ecstatic Dance Kapi-Olani Park in Honolulu. As always, we started on the ground as each song naturally builds you up to standing. Then, as I looked toward the silhouette of Diamond Head, I got so intensely giddy that I started jumping rhythmically and throwing my arms in all directions. This excited energy was throughout my entire torso I lost sense of my body positions and actions and was squealing and ululating. I had a full-blown body-orgasm. 

Dance has a dual purpose for us humans - celebratory and healing. Dance as a therapeutic catharsis is ingrained in our DNA. Many tribal traditions found use in interpretive dance when warriors would return from a battle or a hunt. The community would together go through the trials and triumphs that the unspeakably affected the warrior. Gabrielle Roth popularly revived this for us in the 1970s in her 5 Rhythms communities which can still be found around the country.

NIA Technique is another form with a bit more structure. You follow-the-leader but you still have much control over style and intensity. - Combines martial arts, dance arts, and healing arts.