Dance leading to a trance and a feeling of ecstasy
Ecstatically dancing maenad. Detail from a Paestan red-figure skyphos, c. 330-320 BC
Ecstatic dance is a form of dance in which the dancers, sometimes without the need to follow specific steps, release themselves to the rhythm and move freely as the music takes them, leading to trance and a feeling of ecstasy. The effects of ecstatic dance begin with ecstasy itself, which may be experienced in differing degrees. Dancers are described as feeling connected to others, and to their own emotions. The dance serves as a form of meditation, helping people to cope with stress and to attain serenity.
In the ancient and widespread practice of shamanism, ecstatic dance and rhythmic drumming are used to alter consciousness in spiritual practices. Ecstatic sacred dances are known also from religious traditions around the world. Modern ecstatic dance was revived by Gabrielle Roth in the 1970s and formalised in her 5Rhythms practice; it is now found in variants across the western world.
Attitudes to ecstatic dance have varied widely. In the 1920s, musicologists such as Paul Nettl and Fritz Böhme considered it primitive and unrefined. More recently, it has been compared to dancing in raves and in club culture, the anthropologist Michael J. Winkelman and the musicologist Rupert Till finding in these forms elements of ritual, spirituality, and healing. The philosopher Gediminas Karoblis relates early ecstatic dance to religious ritual, and notes that all well-executed dance borders on ecstasy.
Ecstaticdance is a form of dance in which the dancers, sometimes without the need to follow specific steps, release themselves to the rhythm and move...
sacred dance and ecstaticdance. Festival danceDance in ancient cultures Dance in ancient Egypt Ancient Greece Ancient Rome Indian classical dance Ritual...
Non Stop EcstaticDancing is a 'mini' or 'remix' album by English synth-pop duo Soft Cell, released in the United Kingdom in June 1982, by Some Bizzare...
deity, by dancingecstatically to unconsciousness; making crops grow, or helping or encouraging the deity to make them grow, as with Ariadne's Dance as described...
The Ecstatic is the fourth studio album by American rapper Mos Def, released on June 9, 2009, by the independent record label Downtown Records. After venturing...
Dionysian Mysteries of ancient Greece, initiates used intoxicants, ecstaticdance and music to remove inhibitions and social constraints. Modern meditator...
choreographers to generate or develop choreography. Choreography (dance) Ecstaticdance List of dance style categories Flynn, Jane (February 2005). "Review: Medieval...
baccheia. As Dionysus Eleutherius ("the liberator"), his wine, music, and ecstaticdance free his followers from self-conscious fear and care, and subvert the...
romanized: Nestinarstvo), is a traditional barefoot fire-walking ritual with ecstaticdance performed in some villages in Northern Greece and Southern Bulgaria...
other dancers." The dance was "a kind of moving meditation" for her. Christine Ottery, writing in The Guardian in 2011, states that "ecstaticdancing has...
A lap dance (or contact dance) is a type of erotic dance performance offered in many strip clubs in which the dancer typically has body contact with a...
early period, the Muslim instrument was linked to the tradition of Sufi ecstaticdance, "sufiānā rang". It was also theorized in Muslim tradition that the...
passing stories down from one generation to the next. The use of dance in ecstatic trance states and healing rituals (as observed today in many contemporary...
worldwide. She taught experimental theatre in New York based on her ecstaticdance approach, 5Rhythms. Roth was music director of the theatre company The...
chanting, imitation of sounds, hymns like peyote songs, drumming, and ecstaticdance. The psychedelic experience is often compared to non-ordinary forms...
often ecstatic movements, going beyond traditional dance movements. Reynolds links 'jacking' to both the 'jerk' movement and a collective, intense dance style...
period the Pythia would be like a runner after a race or a dancer after an ecstaticdance, which may have had a physical effect on the health of the Pythia...
an initiatory moqadma (Arabic: مقدمة), the priestess that leads the ecstaticdance called the jedba (Arabic: جذبة), and with the maâlem, who is accompanied...
through the sense of feeling and movement through the kinesphere by ecstaticdance, story telling by movement, mudra, embodying rituals, yoga, breathwork...
Clinton My Dinner With Jimi – Paul McCartney The Christopher Walken EcstaticDance Academy – Christopher Walken The Mystery of Natalie Wood – James Dean...
seasoned practitioners, and is often found overlapping with ecstaticdance communities. American dancer and choreographer Steve Paxton originated contact improvisation...
Competitive dance is a popular, widespread sport in which competitors perform dances in any of several permitted dance styles—such as acro, ballet, contemporary...
devotees, through dreams, waking trance, or ecstaticdance and song. They include the armed Curetes, who danced around Zeus and clashed their shields to...
Austrian dancer, actor, choreographer, and dance teacher. She transformed the Viennese Waltz from a staple of the ballroom into a wildly ecstaticdance. She...
movement and the first style that blended synthesized sounds with an ecstatic style of dancing (e.g. pogo). EBM gained a stable following in the second half...
gender. They worked as sacred prostitutes or Hierodules, performed ecstaticdance, music and plays, wore masks and had gender characteristics of both...
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