Experience
Ecstatic Dance
Facilitated by Rev. Darren Polito, Lyena Strelkoff, and Rev. Dawn Welburn
Currently On Haitus Until January 2025
No dance experience or partner necessary. Perfect for those who think they "can't dance" and for experienced dancers alike. This is not a social dance, but a free-form, non-structured experience in a safe environment without observers or conversation.
Mission Statement
To create a brave, safe environment, where we can surrender ourselves to explore dance and movement as a conscious connection to the Divine.
We have come to be danced…
"We have come to be danced
Not the pretty dance
Not the pretty pretty, pick me, pick me dance
But the claw our way back into the belly
Of the sacred, sensual animal dance
The unhinged, unplugged, cat is out of its box dance
The holding the precious moment in the palms
Of our hands and feet dance."
- Poem excerpt by Jewel Mathieson
Ecstatic Dance in its most basic definition is free-form movement /dance inspired by music. Allowing our bodies to move freely and without judgment or concern for the “grace” or "beauty" of the dance. We listen to our bodies and express what comes to the surface through movement inspired by the rhythms.
Life isn’t about being static. Life is movement, flowing with different rhythms. It is always moving and moving us. Even when sitting still in traditional meditation, our bodies are still moving within. And we each have our own internal natural rhythm(s).
This dance is an inner/outer journey of moving meditation. It is a letting go of self-imposed ideas that restrict movement and is an opening to new ways of expression with the body through motion. It develops a direct body-spirit connection in dance. Let your body and inner guide be your teachers. This is about being present with your own energy and discovering your own dance within. Use this movement and energetic experience to release stuck patterns in body, emotions, mind, and spirit.
Across time and culture dance has been revered for its power to heal and transform body, mind, and spirit. Ecstatic Dance follows in this tradition by providing an environment in which music and dance are used as ways to transcend ordinary states of consciousness. By allowing the body to move in self-directed ways, we travel deep within ourselves remembering and reactivating our inherent wisdom, and a conscious awareness of our interconnectedness to all things. The dance becomes a source of revelation and renewal, where the movement both invokes and becomes the medicine.
It is lightly facilitated with an invitation to apply patterns of movement or to focus on select areas of the body. But the majority of the time is open for you to explore what speaks to your body through different rhythms, patterns of movement, and allowing for the release of trapped emotions.
Our agreement with ourselves for our dance:
We agree to leave our judgments of ourselves and others outside.
We call on our ancestors and come together as they have for millennia before us, to create a collective effervescence through ritual and dance.
We allow ourselves, our bodies, to express freely as moved by the music.
In this brave and safe space, we honor our vitality and dare to dance full out.
Ecstatic Dance Dates
Is currently on Haitus until January 2025.
Rev. Darren Polito - facilitator and DJ
Rev. Darren Polito, One Spirit's Director of Admissions, is also an artist, dancer, and performer who seeks to stir people's awe and enthusiasm through playful perspectives. He was the Creative Director of SpiritualityandPractice.com where he also maintained a blog, The Ritual Space, documenting his passion for creating and sharing rituals. He finds great excitement in finding ways to create sacred, personal connections through technology. He has been using ecstatic dance as a practice for over 20 years but really, he has all his life and just didn't know it.
Rev. Dawn Welburn - resident guest DJ
Rev. Dawn Welburn has led spiritual dance practices for Community in Spirit and shared "my most favorite activity is...dancing. I believe I was born dancing. My mom tells stories of me as a toddler, hearing my favorite song on the radio and climbing onto the coffee table to dance. I grew up in a place where...well, let’s just say that my exuberance for freeform dancing however the music moved my body was not the norm. Nevertheless, dancing continues to be my number one choice of physical activity and truly where and how Spirit moves me most powerfully. Through music and dancing, I am most connected to me and there I am free."
What People Are Saying
“All last year I was mostly housebound and starving for movement and connection. Darren’s Ecstatic Dance sessions got me moving and connecting again- to the group, to my spirit, to my body. It also got me out of my head, where the fear and worries were and back into a place where I was alive, awake and present to my soul. Thank you Darren!”
— Barbara Nahmias
“Darren creates a sense of safety, warmth and community as we dance together, even though we're all in our own homes. His guidance is invitational and open, and his music selections always pull me into my dance with the divine. I haven't been able to make it monthly, but each time I have, I come away nourished in body and spirit. What a gift!”
— Brigid Beckman
“Ecstatic Dance was such a welcome gift in the early days of the Pandemic. A reconnection to myself and my love for dance as well as a welcoming community in my solitude. Darren creates this safe container that allows me to move with freedom to his divinely curated playlist, cracking me open in ways that are always both unexpected and so very needed. I am grateful for this gift of Darren's monthly ecstatic dance practice. I cannot recommend it enough.”
— Dawn Welburn
