East LA Ecstatic Dance

Bi-weekly Ecstatic Dance at Pacific Opera Project in Highland Park. Join us every other Sunday at 1pm for a journey through a slow warm up to shake out the stress of the week and complete with a guided sound bath.

The Core Agreements of Ecstatic Dance

1. Move however your body wants — This is the center. There is no choreography, no correct way, no performance. The floor is yours to express as you feel called, in whatever shape that takes.

2. Self-expression over performance — You are not dancing for anyone. The movement is internal, felt, and personal — the point is your own experience, not how it looks.

3. No talking on the dance floor — The floor is a wordless space so that sound and movement stay the primary language. Verbal conversation breaks the embodied trance for yourself and others (this supports the journey aspect of the music).

4. Silence in the space — Extended quiet permits you to arrive, settle, and drop into your body.

5. Sober presence — No alcohol or drugs, so you journey with an unclouded, safely supported nervous system. This is one agreement among the others — it keeps the container clear and protects everyone's embodied process, but it is not the purpose of the gathering.

6. Consent and boundaries around touch — No touching without clear, explicit permission. No sexual advances on the floor. This makes the space safe for deep vulnerability, especially for those doing healing work. It also typically includes no new partners "in the room" — the floor is not a pickup space.

7. Eye contact with permission — A soft, permission-based eye contact that can deepen connection without being an invitation or a demand. You honor someone's gaze or decline it freely.

8. Barefoot / move freely — Dancing barefoot (or with clean indoor-only shoes) connects you to the floor and to the body's grounding, while protecting the practice space.

9. No photos or recordings — What happens on the floor stays on the floor. This protects privacy and vulnerability (which matters doubly for anyone doing trauma or matrilineal healing work).

10. Respect the space and others — Clean up after yourself, notice how your movement and energy affect the room, and take responsibility for your own experience: you arrive, you dance, you own what arises.