Bright Shadow: An Ecstatic Dance Journey

A Fundraiser for Bright Shadow

Date: Friday 04/11/25 | Time: 7-9pm  

Location: Bryson Gym at Warren Wilson

Tickets: Students are free. Others by donation ($10-$20) at the door. No one turned away for lack of funds. 

Music: DJ Bob Swoap in collaboration with master multi-instrumentalist Kevin Spears

Southbath at the close of the dance by Rachel Kelley

Step into the dance where light meets shadow

Join us for an evening of ecstatic dance—an immersive journey through movement and music. This is a space to celebrate the luminous and the hidden, the joyful and the tender. 

No experience necessary. ALL community members are welcome!

All proceeds will support Bright Shadow, a non-profit dedicated to nurturing mental health for adventurers and nature lovers. Through grief retreats and community workshops, Bright Shadow helps us find meaning and connection in the wild places we love.

What is an ecstatic dance?

This is free-form dance and movement expression. There is no choreography, and no experience is needed to participate. The music follows a wave form, starting slowly, moving to a peak, and descending into stillness. Dancers sometimes go through waves of emotion as they move to the music. There is no one way to “do” this type of dance.  This form of ecstatic dance has a long history across many cultures. It is often used to get more into your body and less in your head; to connect with your breath, the music, and others dancing around you; to manage stress and challenging emotions; and, yes, sometimes to achieve an ecstatic state (feeling free, letting go, not feeling judged by self or others, feeling joyous). 

Who will be dancing? Who will be facilitating?

This dance is for community guests and for the WWC community (students, faculty, staff). We have plenty of room to dance, stretch out, and to co-create a space to explore movement together.  Bob Swoap will be facilitating and providing the music as DJ, alongside Kevin Spears, a master multi-instrumentalist who will be playing live. You don’t want to miss the incredible KEVIN SPEARS!

How does it work? When should I show up?

The posted start time marks the beginning of the warm-up period. Music will be playing. This is a good time to arrive, relax, connect with others (speaking quietly), warm-up your body, dance, meditate… whatever you need to do to enter the space. We have a warm-up time of 30 minutes. As that time winds down, the warm-up music will also begin to close and we will move into an opening circle. Please arrive in the dance space well before the opening circle. 

Opening Circle:   Again, please arrive in plenty of time to be in this circle. This is a time for us to connect. The facilitator will welcome people, go over guidelines, and help set an invitation / intention for the dance.

The Dance: The dance typically follows an arc, starting with slow, flowy music; building tempo into percussive, staccato moments; moving into a period where the music is fast and throws us headfirst into the beat; gradually slowing and becoming more lyrical; and ending with songs that are slower and intended to create a stillness within us. Often, participants end up lying on the dance floor as the music begins to come to a close.  The sets are usually between 65-75 minutes.

Closing Sound Healing: Sound bath by the wonderful Rachel Kelley!

Agreements / guidelines for the dances:

• Every dancer is welcome to their space and to their way of dancing; if you want to dance with, hug, or otherwise share contact with someone, please get permission first.

• The dance floor is a non-conversational space, unless you need help. If you need to have a conversation, please speak in quiet voices well away from the dance floor; allow the music and movement to guide your dance. That said, feel free to vocalize with the music (laugh, cry, sigh, grunt, whoop with joy, etc).  Please be aware to not vocalize more loudly than whatever music segment is playing.

• No phone use on the dance floor (no videos or photos). No filming/recording of the event. Be sure your phones are off or on silent. 

• This is a participatory, not a spectator event. You don’t have to dance the entire time and are completely welcome to rest, lie down, etc.  But while doing so, please be respectful of not overly watching the other participants. 

We dance our joy and our sorrows. We find our healing in wordless movement, on the exhale, on the yell that escapes from our throat, in the moments of stillness on the floor, feeling the pound of others’ feet.

So often, we don’t find our healing, our empowerment, our joy through words. Words often don’t touch the things that live deep in our bodies — but dance can. Music can. Breath can. This is not choreography — there are no steps to learn, and there is no way to do it wrong. This dance is a free expression of everything swirling within you, and our community holds space on the dance floor to set it all free. We dance our joy, our freedom, our longing, our wildness. We dance our sadness, our frustration, our anger, our pain. There is opportunity for community to be built; for rituals and creativity to be discovered; for self-judgments to be released. The body can move and breathe and jump and sweat and stomp and twirl and pulse.   And it is all welcome.