A political movement

​

A crucial UN meeting is about to start. All the world leaders are present, waiting for the doors to open that will give them access to a large empty space. A space they can only enter barefoot and where no talking is allowed. Soon the music starts and for the next three hours the world leaders dance. They shake until their heads are empty and their shoulders freed of their burdens. They are no longer leaders of their respective nations, but dancers, free to mingle and follow the flow. Sometimes the dancers share a delicate moment; at other times they are swept up in a collective ecstasy. As the music fades away, tired bodies sink to the floor. The stillness is palpable. After a while, there is a deep collective breath, and the world leaders re-emerge in their soft and open bodies.

​

If your are like me, you probably have two simultaneous reactions to this scene. For one: how amazing would it be! Repeated moments of conscious dancing will surely impact the talks. With every dance, world leaders 'dip' into their sensing bodies, release tensions, and connect human to human. Perhaps the talks will more take the shape of an open dialogue rather than the usual debates. Perhaps also, the politicians will feel a little more grounded, less defensive, and more willing to listen - to their own deeper needs, those of the other, and the world at large. Little differences that can go a long way. 

​

As for the other reaction to the scene above: that is never going to happen!  Conscious Dance and politics seem worlds apart. The mere suggestion would result in disbelief and ridicule. Everybody knows our political arena is marked by power struggles, hidden agenda's, and endless debates, resulting in a few winners and many losers. In such a climate you better keep your guards up at all times. This defensive stance translates to how nations interact, resulting global defense expenses of $1917 billion in 2019. Enough money to end world hunger and to take a serious step towards a sustainable future. This is common knowledge, yet collectively we are unable to act on it. Trapped, as we are, in a system that pushes us to grow at an unsustainable rate. A system that thrives on artificial scarcity and competition, and where in the end everybody will lose. In this light, how strange is it to suggest Conscious Dance as a way to transcend (national) ego's?

​

 

pathways to self-transcendence 

Cultural historian Barbara Ehrenreich argues that tribes around the world, of past and present, use(d) dance as a 'biotechnology of group formation.' Collective and ecstatic dance is one of the main mechanisms by which we humans can overcome our differences and attune to one another. This view is supported by the social psychologist Jonathan Haidt who writes about a 'hive switch', an evolutionary mechanism that switches selfish behavior to group behavior. According to Haidt, this switch can be activated through synchronized group movements like dance, marching, chanting, and ritual. In doing so, people move from the profane to the sacred, that is, they move from their every day concerns to the bigger whole that they are part of. It is in these moments, says Haidt, that we can experience the ecstasy of self-transcendence.

 

Talking, meetings, debates often fail, because people are not able to transcend their particular position. We need to a shift from me to we; from the self to the Self. Moving together seems to be the key and scientists are beginning to understand the mechanisms behind group formation, like mimicry and entrainment. In practice, however, we long knew. The repeated marching of army recruits, the Haka of New Zealand's rugby team, singing the national anthem: all in place to create a unity. Are all methods for group synchronization therefore mutually exchangeable? I argue they are not. Physical improvisation, including Conscious Dance and improvised voice work, is fundamentally different from marching, team sport, or chanting, and will lead to a different kind of unity. 

​

​

entrainment

Synchronized movements open the door to an elevated state of consciousness. The Sufi Dhikr (or Zikr) dance is a powerful illustration of how repeated synchronized movements and chanting brings the worshipers in a higher state. Coincidentally, soldiers also report how hours of marching can lead to a state of trance. In both these cases the group movements are directed and prescribed, creating the perfect unison, but also limiting individual choice and variation. People can loose themselves in such a unison, acting as a single body-mind. The deep surrender following a concerted motion makes it a tool for both religious devotion and for military discipline.

 

Conscious Dance, in contrast, is not choreographed, but improvised. The dancers create and co-create on the spot and in the moment, giving rise to a diverse and dynamic interplay of moving bodies. Here, synchronizations are harder to spot than with directed movement. They do happen, however. As humans, we can perceive a rhythm (as do some other animals). Our feet involuntarily tap when we hear a beat. Similarly, dancers coordinate their movements on the musical pulse. This ability to synchronize with a rhythm is called entrainment. Interestingly, dancers seem to entrain more effectively than non-dancers, and are quicker and more fully able to pick up the rhythm of the other. As we shall see, this is an important skill. 

​

 

The conversational dance

Partnering in duo's or trio's is a core activity in Conscious Dance. When this partnering happens spontaneously, it is often because dancers share the same groove. There is a immediate click, and dancers quickly mimic each others moves, creating a unique language on the spot. The unfolding dance between such rhythmically attuned dancers can be so well coordinated, that for an onlooker it appears choreographed. At other times, as part of an exercise for example, dancers partner with somebody who moves with quite a different quality. It is as if two musicians from different traditions meet to improvise. Out of sync dancers, likewise, have to actively attune, a searching process that asks awareness of their own movements, those of the other, and the ability to adapt their dance to meet each other. Attuning dancers face a complex task:

​

• They have to sense - move - adapt at the same time.

• Attending to their and the other's movements, and to how those movements are phrased together. Is it, for example, in a smooth flow, or do the moves come in sharp bursts? 

• All the while dialoguing through their moving bodies with their myriad possibilities for expression: body parts, tempo, weight, flow, timing, etc. 

• Balancing the overall composition - how they move through space and in relation to the other - with an eye for the detail of micro-expressions.

• Monitoring their inner state, that of the other, and what story is emerging between them.

​

All this and much more is happening as dancers attempt to sync. Is the emphasize of the movement on the up or the down? How 

​

So as two dancers attune, they perhaps start playing with the speed with which they move, whether they emphasize the up or the down, which body parts they move, how they use their eyes, whether they circle each other or stay fixed on their spots. As a matter of fact, the list of all the things that dancers do to sync is mind boggling long. So how can this complex task sometimes happen in mere seconds? The answer is entrainment. We do not sync by going down the list one by one, we do it by finding a common rhythm and by mimicking each others moves. In this way all moving parts get coordinated.

​

​

relational movements

As dancers sync two me's become a we. They establish a relational field. The dancers' moves are personal expressions and relational movements at the same time. These relational movements can communicate an opening, approach or expansion towards the other, or at the other extreme, a closing, distancing, or contraction. The relational moves can be themed as a playful interaction, a game of seduction, a dance battle, or a healing encounter. There can be a 'strong we' with a lot of similar movements, or a 'loose we' with a lot of individual variation. The relation can be symmetrical, with dancers both leading and following, or asymmetrical. And as dancers sync and move in this relational field, a story unfolds. A story with a beginning, a middle and an end. Gabrielle Roth once remarked that the dance floor is the place where we can be safely polygamous. Each dance encounter, a full relationship, including the ending of it.

 

Rhythmical attuning does not only happen between two dancers. It is also happens during a verbal conversation. People sync their talking speed, pitch, intonation patterns, body posture, and gestures among others. Entrainment is a crucial part of non-verbal communication. If there is low entrainment, the conversation feels awkward and disjointed. It is difficult to convey information and misunderstandings can easily happen. When people do get in sync, there is a feeling of connection and the conversation flows easily. People feel energetically engaged and want to continue talking with the other person. Again, our ability to entrain helps to orchestrate the flow of information. 

​

Despite our culture's love for words, we know that the majority of our communication is non-verbal. We do not usually say to a colleague 'I feel unsafe in your company' or 'I want you to find me attractive'. We do, however, say that with our body. It is our relational movements that communicate the gist of what we have to say, and of what we hear from the other. When we want to improve our communication we stubbornly look for better words to say. Most people ignore body language all-together, or only consider cliches, like 'stand up straight', or 'don't cross your arms'. We got our priorities wrong. Instead of focusing on the right words to say, we should learn to entrain better, especially in challenging situations. If only there were a practice where people learn to free form dialogue through their bodies :) Conscious Dance helps to unfreeze our body's language. We can bring movement to places that are stuck by bad habits, or psychological blocks. We can learn to use the space and explore our boundaries. We can learn to move when we feel the need to contract. We also practice reading the other, holding ground when they go through a storm and finding ways towards a common rhythm.

​

​

If words are limited in a one-on-one context, they only get more restricted in a group situation. In a group often only one person can speak at a time for obvious reasons. A group can be broken down in smaller groups, but you can only focus on the talking in your group. Changing groups is hard as you need to be updated, before you can join the conversation. Verbally it is therefore hard to establish entrainment in a group. Dance is called the biotechnology of group formation for a good reason. Everybody is able to talk and listen at the same time. People move from group to group with ease. Dancers are constantly vibing with the whole group. Especially, when the beat gets faster and more regular you can see a whole crowd jumping up and down in the same rhythm. Tribal people knew this. Dance builds a kind of communitas, a spirit of community. And just like in a one-on-one conversation, entrainment builds a community where the energy and information flows easily, a community where people feel they belong to, and that they want to continue to be part of. Now again, imagine the dancing world leaders. Perhaps the idea feels little less strange by now. 

​

​

Nonverbal communication big, with dancing bigger. 

two is good, in group dance is gooder. 

 

Overall communicate how they feel, how they feel in relation to the other, how they feel about the reaction of the other etc. .

 

 

 

 

 which in dance has much more degrees of freedom than in a normal conversation, with dancers playing with levels and distance. ways of relating different freedom. 

 

 

: is it in a smooth, flowing way or in bursts. And what is the rhythm their position in space,  This means be.. plus ways of relating.   of hit and miss, and of careful listening.

 

​

multiplicity paradox

Unlike directed movements, conscious dancers have a world of possibilities available to shape their dance. They can choose how, where, and with whom they move. They can attend to the whole group, or put their attention to their inner landscape, attuning the different parts within. All these possibilities give the dance floor a rich, complex texture. Yet, it is not random chaos. Paradoxically, out of all the endless possibilities, just one particular move feels exactly right. Experienced dancers feel when the weight, speed, or force of their move is slightly off or not. Conscious Dance is about learning to articulate this one move ever more precisely, nuanced and effortlessly. Although I mention one move, it is in actuality, not a noun, but a verb: moving. 1. embedded. 2. hive minded. no linger my exclusive dance.   and not a noun, is not a pure personal matter.  dancers learn to listen to the whole. learn to express the whole. self-directed. organic batik. call and respond. iterate, not blindly repeat, order is not imposed, but it emerges similar and fresh unique at the same time. it is unpredictable what shape it might take. 

unpredictable is less desirable and an expression of what lives now; what wants to emerge now. The group gets a mind of its own, and, like our personalities, it is multiple things at the same time. no fixed leadership, no top down regulations. 

 

 

They can move to the center of the space or to the quiet edge,  On the conscious dance floor we see people dancing solo, dancing in duets or trio's, and dancing in larger groups. It is a constantly shifting constellation of emerging and dissolving encounters. 

There is a reason people travel great distances to dance in a group instead of dancing alone in their living room. Humans are interactive beings, in constant exchange with our environment. When we enter a room with people dancing authentically doors open inside of us that would remain otherwise shut. Witnessing authentic movement is like hearing music in that it touches us directly. The difference is that the dancers respond to each other: they can amplify the vibe by mimicking movements and rhythms, or contrast it through counterpoint. Here dancers exercise their choice. They can also move around the room to places where 'the energy feels right', resulting in constantly shifting constellations. In doing so, they build a meshwork of connections. The sense communitas arising from such a living mesh is different from the order created by moving in a directed unison. There is no strong pressure to conform and comply. The dancers co-create of the whole experience, and can choose whether to follow or lead. In that sense, they form a multitude, a group that is at the same time many as one.

 

 Dancers might end up in a synchronized patterns that resembles the Sufi Dhikr dance, like dancing in a circle. The difference is that the circle emerges and dissolves spontaneously. Even if dancers lose themselves in collective ecstasy, a seed of agency remains. Too much collective or individual behavior on the dance floor will give rise to its opposite, much like the dynamic balance of the yin yang symbol. What and when things are 'too much' depend on the given context (place, time, etc) and is an active conversation between the dancers. Some days people spend a long time in their own bubbles, while at other times the dance floor becomes a big cuddle puddle. 

​

Improvised, freeform dance takes a less standard approach to unity and self-transcendence. People hardly make the exact same movements as in a choreographed sequence. People do, however, sync. 

​

learly shows on the ecstatic dance floor where imposing rules, like 'keep your shirt on', often leads to rebellion. Instead, conscious dancers want to be involved in the why of a guideline, so they can make their own choice. 

​

Improvisation is often misunderstood. A lot of people think that anything goes. However, just like Jazz is not a random collection of notes, improvised dance is not a random collection of moves. It is an art form, in which you learn to listen more and more to what is happening inside, the micro-phenomenology, and what is happening in the wider field, including the relations and environment. You learn to sense and act in the same moment, feeling what wants to be expressed and when that is a bit too much or too little. 

 

 

develop your sensitivity and more refined. What  and master your instrument of exp

​

​

Another consequence of the improvisation is that it allows for much more variety in the depth and breadth of feelings, both between and within people. 

When people move or sing in a fixed pattern all the complexity and intricacy of their personal and collective feelings are channeled into a single state.

Conscious Dance, in contrast, allows for a

​

​

The Conscious Dance floor, however, is not a fragmented collection of individuals. There is a reason people travel great distances to dance in a group instead of dancing alone in their living room. Dancers improvise together; there is a constant, resonant exchange between bodies. When we see and feel another person dancing authentically, it has a direct visceral impact on us, much alike hearing music. The difference with hearing music is that dancers respond to each other: they can amplify the vibe by mimicking movements and rhythms, or contrast it through counterpoint. This means there is a constant emerging and dissolving of patterns in the room. This is complexity in action, a dance between order and chaos, between the individual and the collective. 

​

​

they improvise together. Conscious Dance is largely self-directed and self-organized. Even when the dance is facilitated, instructions are temporary and often framed as invitations to explore and research.

 

​

many and one

There is a reason people travel great distances to dance in a group instead of dancing alone in their living room. Humans are interactive beings, in constant exchange with our environment. When we enter a room with people dancing authentically doors open inside of us that would remain otherwise shut. Witnessing authentic movement is like hearing music in that it touches us directly. The difference is that the dancers respond to each other: they can amplify the vibe by mimicking movements and rhythms, or contrast it through counterpoint. Here dancers exercise their choice. They can also move around the room to places where 'the energy feels right', resulting in constantly shifting constellations. In doing so, they build a meshwork of connections. The sense communitas arising from such a living mesh is different from the order created by moving in a directed unison. There is no strong pressure to conform and comply. The dancers co-create of the whole experience, and can choose whether to follow or lead. In that sense, they form a multitude, a group that is at the same time many as one.

 

Perhaps the idea of dancing world leaders is less outrageous and actually makes sense now. I hope it is also clear that 

If politicians would move towards self-transcendence than the unique pathway of conscious dance would certainly be preferred in my book. 

​

​

The language of free dance is both universal and deeply personal. When someone dances their struggle, you can witness the motions and shapes underneath their story. This is the unspoken heart of the matter, which is bound to resonate in our bodies: we feel the other, whether that feeling is new or familiar. This resonance is our biological imperative. However, as soon as we talk, we risk getting stuck in the story. I am here because you did this thing to me, and I will only move if you... When we drop underneath the story, we can find a life force that wants to move forward, like a plant growing through the cracks in the pavement. Aligning with the life force moves us towards healing. Dancing together not only allows for personal healing, but also for collective healing. Dancers can move through shared fears or even conflicts. These healing processes require guidance. Among others, you need containment to bring out the shadow. Traditionally, this was done by the shaman. Nowadays, skillful Conscious Dance facilitators perform the same role. 

Another way of looking at the role of shamans and facilitators is that they help to establish a shift in our way of experiencing the world. A shift from me into we. We have the ability to make this shift. The

​

dance cannot replace.. need exchange of information. 

​

One of the paradoxes of our times, I believe, is that, in the so-called developed world, we have managed to organize ourselves on such a large scale that we can afford to be individuals. We can rely on the police and judicial system to provide safety, instead of depending on our community. And we invest in a pension plan instead of building caring relationships with friends and family.

​

.

​

​

the separate self

​

​

As we face global crises, like climate change, mass extinction, and pandemics, we are in dire need for methods that transcend our (national) self-interests. We need ways to feel part of a community of life again, without negating our uniqueness. Conscious Dance seem to be tailor-made for just that. We live in a world, however, where dance is marginalized and generally seen as an inessential form of entertainment, exercise, or art. Anthropologists recognize its past value in connecting tribes, healing and in spirituality, but also note that dance lost its role as societies matured, found other ways to connect, and people outgrew their superstitions. But is this really what happened? Did the wild, ecstatic dances in moonlit forests simply fade out over time?

​

​

 The space to dance freely

We may feel that dance is important in our personal lives, but on a societal level it is basically deemed inessential. What changed? Did dance loose its function? Does it no longer serve a real purpose in our contemporary societies, other than entertainment, exercise, or art? This seems to be the general idea. Dance once played an important role in connecting tribes, healing and in practicing religion, but dance lost its role as societies matured, found other ways to connect, and people outgrew their superstitions. 

​

But is this really what happened? Did the wild, ecstatic dances in moonlit forests simply fade out over time? Or, were they clamped down, much alike the intense policing of illegal raves? It is worth reflecting why it is illegal, or at least heavily regulated, in our societies to gather in a forest or abandoned warehouse to dance. News articles tell us that illegal raves are dangerous: drugs, damage to the environment, anti-social behavior, and so on. In other words, it is for our own good that these illicit gatherings are stopped. What then draws people to these hazardous events? Surely some thrill seeking, but if you listen, most dancers will mention things along the lines of  'Peace, Love, Unity, and Respect' (PLUR), the rave credo since the 1990's. In these marginal free zones people find a rare mix of wild self-expression and deep communion with others, the larger world, and beyond. Burning man was/is such a temporary free zone, and its 10 principles powerfully capture the values that can develop in such a free space. 

​

Western civilization is increasingly catered to the individual, and it is surprisingly hard to gather as a large group. Think of the countless apartment blocks with thousands of households, each with the privacy of their homes, but with almost no shared communal spaces, like a shared BBQ place. You can still find such spaces in old buildings or in the Nordic countries, where buildings might have a shared washing facility or even a communal sauna. This individualistic architecture is more deliberate than you might expect, as Adam Curtis shows in his eye-opening documentary 'The Century of the Self'. Separated individuals buy their own BBQ's, instead of sharing, which keeps the economy growing. Individuals also focus on their small scale concerns, like paying the rent, instead of uniting collectively to change an unfair system. Dance can offer an experience that differs from our dominant story of separation, as writer Charles Eisenstein calls it. We can experience how we are all part of what we sometimes call 'the big body' in conscious dance, or what anthropologists might call communitas. From the 16th till the 17th century carnivals were increasingly forbidden in Europe, precisely because of because of the spirit of community and connection. dancing festivities could spill over in a revolt, 

 

In a similar vein, we have lost the commons. The commons is land not owned by anyone, and accessible to everyone. These commons have all but disappeared, and practically all land is either privately or publicly owned. One really has to find a loophole, like driving far into the desert, to create a temporary communal free zone. The places where we do meet en masse, like a stadium or concert hall, often reduce us to a spectator, not a participant of the whole. The freedom to move, in other words, is closely tied to freedom we have to play with the rules of interaction. Only then can we have a collective dance between chaos and order, that gives rise to a rich, organic and ever shifting complexity. 

​

Even as individuals we are less free than most people think. Author Graham Hancock speaks of a war on consciousness in his banned (!) Ted-Talk. To quote him: 'We live in a society that will send us to prison if we make use of time-honored sacred plants to explore our own consciousness. Yet surely the exploration and expansion of the miracle of our consciousness is the essence of what it is to be human? By demonizing and persecuting whole areas of consciousness we may be denying ourselves the next vital step in our own evolution.' Why is it that most of us involuntary shiver at the word 'drugs', while we drink our coffee, eat our sugary products, and sip our wine without a second thought? Why are synthesized, trademarked drugs advertised everywhere, when we get in trouble for collecting psycho-active mushrooms growing nearby. Why is one of the most damaging and addictive drugs, alcohol, legal, while other drugs that bring about feelings of connection and deep insight are illegal? Is this all really for our own good? Truth is, our system stresses an alert, problem-solving consciousness, as Hancock calls it, so we keep doing our jobs and answer that email. In addition, we have to be a bit anxious and needy, so we keep on consuming and keep on delegating our power to people who maintain the status quo. Conscious Dance is part of an ecstatic culture that disrupts this narrow bandwidth of consciousness. 

​

In the absence of rules and regulations people won't go feral. That is the myth, which keeps on getting reinforced by our media that neglect the solidarity and altruism and highlight the incidents. In reality, we often create more conscious communities that bring out the best in ourselves (see Rutger Bregman's Humankind). Dance is often an essential part of that. From Rainbow gatherings to the Occupy movement; people dance a lot. This is no coincidence. Dance is the enactment and embodiment of values like PLUR. Through free-from-dances, like conscious dance, we can radically express ourselves, and are simultaneously moved by the same rhythms vibrating our bodies; the same rise and fall of the dancing journey; and the shared emotions sweeping through the group. Importantly, it also works the other way around: put a group of strangers, willing to dance, in a room and after a few hours people will feel free, vitalized and connected. Of course, some guidance helps, just like a sensitive, dynamic musical journey. This is what our ancestors knew. This is, I believe, why they painted dancers so frequently. Dance brings out a better version of ourselves. 

​

​

dangerous dances

There is now scientific consensus that those first cave paintings likely were the first trip reports of shamans going into trance, using dance and/or psycho-active plants. From the onset, dance has been a way to explore consciousness. 

​

If dance brings out the best in humans then why is it so marginal our societies? How can something so vital, be so neglected? This is no accident, but the result of a smear campaign, lasting centuries, if not millennia. And although this campaign against dance was never completely successful, we all have internalized the anti-dance messages to some extent. Young children love to move, and dance comes natural as a form of expression. Somewhere down the line, however, we learn to inhibit this joy of movement. We are trained to sit still and distrust our bodily impulses. As a result, many adults can only dance once they release their inhibitions with some alcohol. 

 

Dance is dangerous, precisely because it liberates and equalizes. These are undesirable outcomes if you want to maintain a social pecking order. ​Author Barbara Ehrenreich details in her book 'Dancing in the Streets' how dance was severely censured and banned by those in power, especially the church. This already started in classical Greece, where the old cult of Dionysus with its prominent role for female priestesses (Maenads) and mixed participation of all social classes was not always welcomed. During Roman times, the worship of Dionysus and many similar cults went underground to prevent the intermittent persecution, giving rise to different mystery schools. Christianity was one of these cults, until it became the state religion with vested interests. Early Christianity was influenced by the Dionysus cult, explaining why Jesus turned water into wine. However, when it rose to power the church systematically removed all Dionysian practices from their services. All forms of participating in the divine were discouraged or banned. Pews were installed to keep worshipers from moving and dancing; speaking in tongues and joyful singing banned; and no more women 'tossing their freely flowing hair' in rapture. It was all about obedience and control. Dance became an official sin in the 13th century, like most things associated with the feminine and with ecstatic practices. Even the image of the devil himself took on the form of the Greek God Pan, the nature god that often overlapped with Dionysus. Dance was only permitted when stripped of its wildness and sacredness. It was permitted as high art (ballet), class specific social dances, or as lowly entertainment. 

​

Ehrenreich chronicles the early church's systematic attempts to remove the Dionysian elements from their services - dancing, singing, speaking in tongues, the tossing of freely flowing hair. Free expression was discouraged; pews were installed to compel worshippers to control themselves, and their possessed brethren were duly evicted on to the streets. Dance manias erupted at various points in the 13th and 14th centuries and dance itself was deemed the devil's work. The church dissociated itself from its own former joyous demeanour, offering instead ritual, solemnity, high aesthetics. Ehrenreich traces the sudden explosion of carnivals and popular festivals in the 15th century to the suppression in the churches of the more exuberant forms of worship, and makes a very striking point: the separation of the divine connection from carnival made it a merely hedonistic exercise, essentially devoid of meaning.

​

History is written by the victors, or more specifically, by the dominators. Domination refers to a certain kind of social order, an order based on on hierarchy and control, division between men and women, and a high prevalence of violence and war. Almost all societies today are based on domination, according to Riane Eisler, the system scientist who coined the term. Eisler describes how the domination model came to the fore around 7000 years ago when invading nomadic tribes, such as the Yamnaya (Indo-Europeans) started conquering Europe and the Indian subcontinent, giving rise to large scale empires. It was either to dominate or to be dominated. Before this shift, most social systems were based on a partnership model, centered around caring connections. Dance & music played a crucial role as they enabled tribe members to connect and attune emotionally. Furthermore, through dance they could enter the spirit world and find guidance and healing. For the dominators dance was dangerous. Dancing freely and spontaneously disrupts social order, and those at the bottom might get the wrong idea that they are equal to the ones at the top. Ecstatic and trance dance also gave people direct access to the divine, which undercut the whole legitimacy of the institutionalized religions and their hierarchies. 

​

The transition from partnership to domination did not happen everywhere simultaneously and often there was a mix of both models. In Europe specifically there was a strong shift toward domination and a severe crackdown on everything ecstatic. With colonialism, the domination model reached all corners of the world, and Ehrenreich describes how an African expression for a converted Christian was 'he who has given up dancing.' 

​

the loss of the sacred

The domination model not only describes how we relate to other human beings, but also how we relate to other life forms and, ultimately, ourselves. Social order tends to dehumanize the people below, which makes it easier to abuse them and legitimize the superior position. Likewise, our conquest of nature can only happen by reducing nature to merely 'natural resources' and biological machines. for a long time science has been instrumental in furthering the domination rationale. It separated the world into neat, little boxes; separating the material from the immaterial, mind from body, emotion from ratio. Denying your impulses to move, to show that you are moved, to feel 

​

Through the course of our history our bodies language, the voice of nature, and the know-how of getting into ecstasy and traveling through trance have been silenced. It took centuries of repression by those in power-  the church, kings, and later much of mainstream science - to alienate ourselves from the living world and install a view on the world that is mechanical and detached. This tragedy is repeated within our own lifetimes in which we learn to sit still and value a so-called objective view of life, making us outsiders to our own lives.

 

Conscious dance revival

Conscious dance and other ecstatic practices have been banned, but never eradicated. It went underground in the many mystic cults of the Roman empire. In the middle ages, dance broke out in the streets during Europe's dancing plagues, with thousands of people compulsively dancing for days. Later, the church allowed these outbreaks as carnival. Ecstatic dance also managed to survive when tribes around the world infused and disguised their practices as the Christian faith of their conquerors. And in the West, conscious dance experienced a revival around the turn of the 20th century when pioneers as Isadora Duncan, Martha Graham, Mary Starks Whitehouse, Gabrielle Roth, and many others, refined the pathways back into our bodies, and back into the living fabric that we are part of. 

One cause for this rarity is that

 

 

Perhaps, justified in some cases, but how free are we then? Do we have the space to make our own, mature decisions - and mistakes - without an overbearing father state? We once had the commons: land and resources not owned by anyone, and accessible to everyone. These commons have all but disappeared, and practically all land is either privately or publicly owned: we always have to . Moreover, our inner space is also controlled as we cannot alter our state of consciousness, using drugs, as we deem fit. Why is plant medicine, like mushrooms, forbidden, while trademarked drugs are advertised everywhere? Why is one of the most damaging and addictive drugs, alcohol, legal, while other drugs that bring about feelings of connection and deep insight are illegal? Is this all really for our own good?  

 

​