Dork Dancers Are Ecstatic
I started Dork Dancing in my room. It was fun. Friends joined me. Eventually I tried this out in public to dance with fear. Later, I went to the streets inviting strangers to join me, on a quest to advocate openly for mental health. Soon after going public, I learned about something called ecstatic dancing.
Apparently ecstatic dancing is something big, and yet something I had never heard of; I feel as though I have been under a rock. It’s recognized globally and has been with us throughout human history. Ecstatic dancing, like dork dancing, is free dancing. And yet…it seemed different too.
So, I did some research to try and better understand, what is ecstatic dancing and how is dork dancing similar or different?
A quick Wikipedia search will reveal the historical & cultural significance of ecstatic dance & a quick YouTube search will display a video with a bit more entertainment value. This is ecstatic dance.
Funny enough the narrator captures something ironic: “it looks like those people escaped the mental hospital and this is their celebration or something.”
For me, Ethan, that’s exactly right. I escaped the mental hospital, but rather dork dancing is the celebration. I didn’t quite literally escape the hospital and start dancing out of insanity.
Instead, it took 5-7 years of personal reflection to learn how to become comfortable again with myself within sanity. That homegrown comfort, built over time, was experimented with & challenged through dance.
Dancing, I discovered, is a way to heal, connect, play, and grow. It’s both a way to express myself & connect with others. It can be used as an incredibly powerful tool.
Diving deeper into ecstatic dancing, a subtle difference began to emerge. The roots of ecstatic dancing are found in spiritual purpose & context while the core of dork dancing is founded in a mental health mission.
Of course, the mind, body, and spirit all relate and build on, or bleed into, one another, but where you start matters most. This subtle difference carries consequences in the design & execution of creating intentional dancing space.
After hosting over 30 dork dancing events, I was invited to join an ecstatic dancing event. I was extremely curious what the experience would look like, and how the space & practice would compare. The differences were apparent.
Dork Dancing is hosted in the middle of the day out in the open public by the beach (in Da Nang). Dork Dancing looks like this…
We start with a quick explanation: we are here to dance for mental health, challenging things like anxiety, depression, and loneliness, it’s a shared process of growth. Now follow our moves in this quick warm up. Here, we learn how to dance like a dork. We say our names, make a move, and follow, adding one move on top of the next. By the end, we are dork dancing and then let free to enjoy the music, do what you want, have fun, and make song requests. High fives and an invitation for smoothies and conversation at the end. It’s like a goofy, social party.
This ecstatic dance event I went to was hosted at night, in the middle of the woods, hidden from public view (although some ecstatic dance events I have seen online are hosted during the day in public view!).
It started in silence with candles in the center. The event included some yoga & breathing practice. We were here to connect with energy. First follow your breath. Later, dance as you wish. But please, no phones, distractions, or talking. We spread apart, in silence in the dark, dancing as our bodies wanted meters apart. Sometimes people walked distantly, or laid on the ground. The music started slowly, then faster, then slow again. A reflection in a circle at the end. It’s like a spiritual practice.
The vibe of these events were different because of the intentions behind them. Dork dancing lets free, in the name of mental health advocacy, by embracing your inner dork. Ecstatic dancing lets free, in the name of connecting with spirit, by leaving behind words.
Both types of dancing are free dancing (without substances) carrying the same goal of letting go, but comparing these events, they get there differently.
Don’t get me wrong, ecstatic dance & dork dancing are more similar than different. In fact, I would say Dork Dancing could be understood as a TYPE of ecstatic dance, so long as we are given space to loosen up. The ideas, at the core, really are the same, with similar results too. Only varying event designs.
It’s all about connecting to the music, moving your body, and really doing whatever you want in response to it. It’s a judgement free zone to break free. It’s fun, and yes it can feel like you are on a high, because you are.
Although dork dancing doesn’t have quite the same spiritual intentions, or vibrations, that ecstatic dancing seems to have, we do often achieve a similar sense of freedom and spiritual liberation. There’s a drug named for it, and a substance-free dance classified by it. Yes, it’s ecstasy, and we dork dancers are ecstatic.