7 Reasons to join ecstatic dance nottingham

1. Party without the hangover

Do you love to boogie to great tunes, but hate the way you feel after a heavy night out? So much of the modern culture of celebrating and dancing is centered around drugs and alochol. Here at Ecstatic Dance Nottingham, we take a different approach, where we do all of the same fun stuff, but sober. This can of course be intimidating, especially if you have years of boozed up partying under your belt, bringing up some tension or anxiety. Often though, after the initial awkward stage, you can drop into the joy of the dance and celebration with others without substances. This leads nicely onto point two.

2. Connect with a supportive community

The community of Ecstatic Dance Nottingham is what makes it such a special place. It has been building steadily over the years, drawing those who are looking to move and expressing in a safe container. Over the years, we have commonly received feedback that people feel safe. The dancers in the room co-create the energy, and although each have unique ways of moving their bodies or perhaps slightly different motivations for walking through the door, there is a common thread that binds them all together - a love of dance in shared space. We don’t talk on the dance floor, creating a sacred space where only movement and sound remain, but there is time to share in community circle after if you so choose.

3. Experience unique sound journeys

The music is not background, it is a guide. The sound journeys are carefully curated to help shape the dynamics in the room and support you in expressing yourself. You will travel through multiple genres and textures of tunes, some of which may be unfamiliar (especially in the context of dance). If you allow yourself to work with these different sounds, you may discover new ways of moving and expressing.

4. Express different energies and emotions

The sound journey and guidance from Claudia will help you to explore different energies and emotions that exist within each of us. Sometimes, we can get caught in the trap of only wanting to express ‘good’ emotions, and bottling up the ones deemed as ‘bad’. Here at Ecstatic Dance Nottingham, all is welcome. Dancing shame, fear, anger or confusion can be useful. The body often expresses in a way that the mind cannot, if we can only allow it. This does not mean you will not experience ecstacy, laughter and joy too. You soon discover that every dance is different anyway, and that’s just the body and psyche expressing what it needs to in that moment. This, is healthy. Rejecting all the hard stuff is not.

5. Explore the body and movement from a place of feeling

The other realm we often see dance in is on the stage, as a performance or artistic expression to be witnessed. And how beautiful this is to witness. But the majority of us just love to dance for the hell of it, without it needing to be witnessed or appreciated by another. At Ecstatic Dance Nottingham, we dance from a place of feeling rather than looking, so that the body can move with its own rhythms and pulses. If this sounds alien, don’t worry, you will have the music and your host to guide you, as well as the support of other dancers around you.

6. Release physical, mental, and emotional tension

Keeping in simple, dancing is a fun form of exercise and way to stay fit. The pressures and tension that build ip in the body and mind throughout our working weeks, filled to the brim with tasks and responsibilities, can melt away for a couple of hours when you have a good old boogie. Shake, stretch, sway, spin, swing, jump and roll it out on the dance floor.

7. Deepen connection to spirit and consciousness

Now to take it deeper, this way of dancing can connect you more deeply to spirit and consciousness. Dance can be a form of prayer or meditation if used intentionally, a way to move beyond thought and into presence, to feel the aliveness of each moment fully. As Osho says, “Life is a balance between rest and movement, between meditation and dance. When you dance, you are meditating in motion.” In ecstatic dance, each gesture becomes an invitation to explore and awaken awareness, and to taste the freedom of being fully alive.