Leadings in Ecstatic Dance

When one thinks of the word 'meditation' it is easy to conjure up a peaceful, reflective state of being similar to our own Quaker Worship. Indeed, it could be said that our silent worship owes a lot to traditional forms of meditation stretching back thousands of years. But not all forms of meditation are rooted in silence, and not all forms of meditation are still. From Tai Chi to Sufi Dance to Native American dance lodges to Buddhist walking meditation, people have sought ways to achieve a meditative state of mind through physical movement. In this workshop we will follow in the footsteps of many of these traditions, but through the more modern medium of Ecstatic Dance. Ecstatic Dance is a modern spiritual practice that invites the frenetic energy of dance music into a safe, spiritual setting, where everyone is allowed to move and act freely. Using Ecstatic Dance as our medium, we will work our way through a series of queries that expand out from the personal to the communal as the week progresses in an attempt to forge new understandings that we might never have reached through silent worship.

On the first day, after a short period of grounding worship, followed by discussion of the ground rules of the workshop, we will begin with some discussion on music and movement and how they can be used as spiritual tools. We will ask questions about what makes these things more or less spiritual for each of us to help us set the foundation for the rest of the workshop. Each workshop participant will be invited to share a piece of music they consider to be spiritual with the group. When we've finished this initial discussion, we'll settle into silent worship and then build that directly into a short period of undirected dance to help set the tone for the coming days.

On the second day, there will be soft music playing as the participants enter the workshop, and we will settle into a not-quite-silent grounding worship. From there we will start by introducing a query of self, which will be the focus of the dance that day. Once the query has been introduced the music will begin to build, growing in volume and intensity, and everyone will be encouraged in whatever ways feel most natural to them. On this day, everyone's dance will be very personal, and solitary, in keeping to the theme of the query. After a long period of freeform dance and movement the music will begin to reduce in intensity and volume, bringing us back to a ground point. As everyone begins to ground back down, participants will be encouraged to engage in journaling or other activities that will help them to record and make sense of the thoughts and feelings that arose during the dance. After this we will move into a period of relaxed worship sharing so that everyone may finally vocalize and share the experiences of the dance.

The third day will start similarly to the second day, but instead of being alone participants will be paired up with a partner as soon as the grounding worship ends. Without speaking, each pair will pursue the next day's query which will be about the relationships we form with others. Again, the music will build in intensity as we begin to dance and fade in intensity as the dance ends. Again, participants will be encouraged to journal or participate in other activities to help them to process the experience, but they will remain paired up with that partner, and will be allowed to speak with them at this time if they chose to. Finally we will come together again as a group for worship sharing.
The fourth day will again follow the same format as the days that came before it, but this time participants will be broken into small groups, and asked to focus on a query of group dynamics. Much like the second day, we will retain these groups through the dance and the activities that follow, but come together as a whole for the day's worship sharing at the end.

The fifth and final day will begin the same as the others, but on this day there will be no boundaries separating workshop participants, instead, everyone will be encouraged to interact with everyone. On this day, our period of dance will be shorter, and will incorporate some meditation exercises specifically designed to foster participation of everyone as a whole. When we break from this final dance, we will go into our usual journaling activity, but instead of the normal worship sharing we will go into more of a discussion format. We will discuss our feelings during the week, how they changed as the week went by, and what we learned from using dance as a tool of worship. After this we will break for the final time.

I encourage all who feel lead to attend this workshop to do so. I will be making every attempt to make this workshop accessible to all participants with all abilities and levels of experience of dance and whatever needs they may have. Earplugs will be provided for those who would like them, however, I still ask that all potential participants who feel overwhelmed by the idea of large amounts of loud dance music to consider carefully whether or not this is the right workshop to them.