The History of Ecstatic and Enstatic Dance Pt.2

By: Dr. Denise Renye

In part 1 of the blog “Ways to Access the Unconscious Through the Body,” I discussed my research on Spontaneous Embodied Spiritual Experiences (SESE), which are ways of accessing the unconscious through free form body movement held in a larger container (a therapy session, the dance floor, the triad, etc.). Examples I spoke about in part one were Authentic Movement and 5Rhythms. In this piece, I am introducing another example of SESE, which again are embodied ways to access hidden parts of the self, the unconscious.

I’d like to talk about ecstatic dance, which should perhaps be called enstatic dance instead. Continue reading to find out why. First off, what does ecstasy mean? From a research standpoint, not much exists on the philosophical state of ecstasy. Hundreds of articles discuss the synthetic empathogen ecstasy, or MDMA, but the “state of being beyond reason and self-control” as well as “a state of overwhelming emotion” (Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, 2005)? Not so much. 

The way I define ecstasy is more anthropological, philosophical, and psychological—in particular, I align with philosopher Mircea Eliade (1969) who describes ecstasy as a state of “going outside of oneself” (p. 179) and removing oneself from the current location to elsewhere, or being moved elsewhere by something outside of oneself. Eliade (1969) also speaks about enstasis or enstasy, meaning “going within oneself” (p. 171) to experience a deep sense of connection within the self. He adds that it’s a full comprehension of being. As you know, more fully comprehending the whole self is what my practice is all about!

Secondly, why focus on dance? For centuries, dance and movement have healed divisions in tribes and families, prepared the tribe for a battle, and been a mechanism for engaging in something meaningful and pleasurable. In native societies, this has been seen as ecstatic dance ritual (Stewart, 2000; Fraleigh, 1987). Dancing, movement and shaking the body have been ways many tribes members have moved collective trauma for the group. These ritual dances carved out space for tribe members to enter a realm of communal coping, especially under challenging circumstances through contained experiences of temporary altered states of consciousness (Hanna, 1979; Rouget, 1985; Gregory, 1997; Ehrenreich, 2007). 

We see this in communities all over the world. Sufism, a minority Islamic tradition that embraces music and dance, has a Zikr ceremony used to achieve unity with God through the abandonment of the material, corporeal body (Kennedy, 1985). Beats and rhythm create the space for women (because it’s only performed by women) to dance and move spontaneously uninhibited.

A perhaps more well-known subculture within Sufism is the Whirling Dervishes of the Mevleva who express and experience Divine love through movement (Shafi, 1985). The dervishes incorporate planetary and nature reflections into their ecstatic/enstatic whirling dance (Fremantle, 1976). Each movement and gesture are spiritual and there is no formal, instructional preparation for the dance itself. The dance is a surrender of the ego, a letting go, which is again, a way to access the unconscious but furthermore, connect to Divine love.

This theme is evident in other forms of ecstatic dance, such as Zar dance, practiced in Egypt by Muslims, Christians, and Jews alike (El Guindy & Schmais, 1992). It’s marked by moving intuitively along with the sounds of percussion and rhythm. Similar to Zikr, it is only performed by women and is meant to act as a communication mechanism with spirits (jinn) that are said to cause both mental and physical ailments. The dance invites the jinn to reveal itself so that communication can happen and the spirit can be released, thus creating a closer connection with God (Messing, 1957).

Another dance/spontaneous body experience with the express purpose of communication with spirits is Stambali, performed by Jewish-Tunisians (Somer & Saadon, 2000). The leaders of Stambali ceremonies channel the energy of the jinn and use that energy to cure ailments (Dekhil, 1993). In Stambali and other ecstatic/enstatic dances and body movements found in some tribes across North and South Africa, the importance of one’s material body decreases (and some participants believe it temporarily disappears) while spiritual power increases (Amira & Cornelious, 1992). The ability to play with the presence of body and the lack of body can help in understanding the concept of Oneness that many spiritual traditions embrace.

We see this also with the Zulu tribe on the east coast of North Africa. They use dance as a way to communicate with ethereal beings before battle (Walter, 1969); the body movement involves loss of boundary and an integration of the self in a flow state (Hanna, 1979). Tribes also have used ecstatic/enstatic body movement to communally cope with feelings and experiences that are challenging to integrate in some countries of Africa (Hanna, 1979). 

Ecstatic dance is not only an indigenous practice, but can be found in Christian Europe as well. I won’t go into too much detail here but it perhaps won’t surprise you to hear during the Inquisition, women were targeted for spiritual practices that weren’t Christ-centered, which also included dance. That means the Catholic Church did its best to purge and restrict ecstatic dance and even considered it a confessable sin. We see targeting dance and dancers not only in Medieval Europe, but also in the United States. Early American settlers slaughtered Native Americans for numerous reasons, including dance as a way to connect with a Great Spirit.

It is worth noting around this same time period, the 17th century, some ecstatic dancers emigrated from England: The Shakers. The Shakers are a group of Quakers who were dubbed the “Shaking Quakers” because of their spontaneous body movements as a way of worship (Melcher, 1941). They danced, moved, and shook with emotion. Involuntary trembling, dancing, reeling, marching, running, stamping, shouting, and gesturing were commonplace for this American Christian sect (Andrews, 1940). The body as prayer is powerful.

Not much is known about ecstatic dance in the 18th and 19th centuries because it went underground. In the 20th century, we witnessed a resurgence of ecstatic dance during the hippie era of the 1960s (Nencini, 2002) with another resurgence initially in Britain in the 1980s rave dance scene (Hutson, 2000; Lyttle & Montagne, 1992).

Ravers are a major group of modern, Western individuals who engaged in ecstatic dance. Anthropologist Scott Hutson’s (1999, 2000) research focused on the idea that rave parties are venues where attendees can attain a certain kind of spiritual healing through experience at the rave itself. He likened the spiritual healings to those in indigenous cultures led by shamans. In fact, some participants described the rave party experience to be like a church ritual, and some claimed to see God in the process.  The DJ was considered the shaman.

In the 1990s, ecstatic dance communities sprung up in major (and minor) cities across the United States including Philadelphia, Seattle, New York City, Asheville, Austin, and the San Francisco Bay Area. I realize this post is a history of ecstatic dance and the reason I, a clinical psychologist, am discussing it is to make clear that breakthroughs in healing and consciousness  does not only have to occur solely through traditional talk therapy. Accessing the unconscious through the body can be and is possible.

These forms of movement have been in existence for hundreds of years, but my clinical research has given these forms of movement a language, a place to be situated in psychology, and a way to further understand the human experience.

In part 3, I’ll introduce you to Felt Sense, a concept developed by Dr. Eugene Gendlin as a way to describe and understand feelings and senses as embodied experiences.  

For ideas and ways to stay connected to and learn more about the unconscious through the body, feel free to stay connected.

References

Amira, J., & Cornelius, S. (1992). The music of santeria. Crown Point, IN: White Cliffs Media Company.

Andrews, E. (1940). The gift to be simple: Songs, dances and rituals of the American Shakers. New York, NY: Dover Publications.

Dekhil, E. (1993). Le phénomène de transe corps possèdes. Revue de L’Institut des Belles Lettres Arabes à Tunis, 56(2), 261–275.

Ehrenreich, B. (2007). Dancing in the streets. New York, NY: Metropolitan Books.

El Guindy, H., & Schwmais, C. (1994). The zar: An ancient dance of healing. American Journal of Dance Therapy, 16(2), 107–120.

Eliade, M. (1969). Yoga: Immortality and freedom, second edition. Princeton, NJ:  Pantheon/Bolingen.

Fraleigh, S. (1987). Dance and the lived body. Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press.

Fremantle, A. (1976). Whirling dervishes. History Today, 26(5), 329.  

Gregory, A. H. (1997). The roles of music in society: The ethnomusicalogical perspective.  In D. J. Hargreaves & A. C. North (Eds.), The social psychology of music (pp. 123–140). Oxford, England: Oxford University Press.

Hanna, J., (1979). To dance is human. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.

Hutson, S. (1999).  Technoshamanism: Spiritual healing in the rave subculture. Popular Music and Society, 23, 53–72.

Kennedy, M. (1985). Participating in the life of Cairo: A letter on the Sufi dance. Catalyst, 16, 21–23.

Lyttle, T., & Montagne, M. (1992). Drugs, music, and ideology: A social pharmacological interpretation of the acid House movement. International Journal of Addictions, 27, 1159–1177.

Melcher, M. F. (1941). The Shaker adventure. Cleveland, OH: Press of Case Western Reserve University. 

Messing, S. (1958). Group therapy and social status in the Zar cult of Ethiopia. American Anthropologist, 60, 1120–1147.

Rouget, G. (1985). Music and trance: A theory of the relations between music and possession. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.

Shafi, M. (1985). Freedom from the self: Sufism, meditation and psychotherapy. New York, NY: Human Sciences Press.

Somer, E., & Saadon, M. (2000). Stambali: Dissociative possession and trance in Tunisian healing dance. Transcultural Psychiatry, 37, 580–601.

Walter, E. V. (1969). Terror and resistance: A study of political violence, with case studies of some primitive African communities. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.