A Little More on Ecstatic Dance

I just thought I'd share this bit of writing someone put together on their experience of Ecstatic Dance events (See my previous post on this). It perfectly describes my experience :)

These parts especially resonated with me:

"I begin to move, stretch and expand like a newly born faun feeling her legs and her world for the first time. The music begins to fill me more, and more, as it crescendos through my muscles to the tips of my fingers and toes. My body yawns, stretches, expands, unfolds, begins to become. I close my eyes and I am alone with the music . . .

Slowly my mind begins to quiet; a feeling totally foreign to me. Where is the judge and jury that I have become so accustom to in my life? Where is that inner critic who is my constant chaperone, always reminding me that, "I am doing it wrong." What would people say if they saw me moving and expanding in the room to fill my entitled space? I am no longer obliged to have to cower in the corner, so no one will notice what a fool I am making of myself. There is no judge or judged. I am free."

When I was a kid, I was told by numerous "friends" that I was a bad dancer. So from then on, I labeled myself that way - even when I got an A in Jazz dance in college, I still felt self-conscious. Just like the author I quoted, at Ecstatic Dance I finally found a place to totally be myself :)