Dear dancer,

After a month of travelling with my family I am back on the dance train. Parenting is tough compared to being de Nachtpapegaai. In that sense, this is more of a holiday..

By the way, I’ve turned on comments, so you should be able to leave a message under this news letter which others can see too! I would love it if you post something.

To the content!

• 'Tribal Shamanic Ecstatic?' - about longing for the indigenous

• Track of the month (top 5 actually…)

• Upcoming events

• Dj Set - Zutphen was lit

‘Tribal Shamanic Ecstatic?’ about longing for the indigenous

Recently someone organised an Ecstatic Dance, not far from where I live. It was called ‘Tribal Shamanic Cacao Ecstatic Dance’. It featured a hot Peruvian DJ, who was coming to ’share his wisdom from the Andes’ with us. The event triggered some feelings in me, feelings that hopefully point me to more understanding of what I am doing with ecstatic dance.

At first I am jealous that the Peruvian DJ has dark hair and skin (and toned muscles), things that I as a nerdy white boy do not have access to (I could go to the gym more but well.. you know). Where in the rest of my life, being a white cis male gets me ahead, here I am confronted with a situation where this is actually nót a privilege. The Ecstatic Dance/spiritual scene loves the ‘exotic’, and I am more or less the opposite of that. Instead, I have to make do with the nerdy wizard stereotype, wearing colorful shirts that express my wide taste in music and my ability to conjure up tunes from all genres of the world.

Sad little me.

I am -partly- joking here. I get many opportunities and I am very grateful. And I seem to get consistently booked because organizers like my sets. And as long as you are a generally friendly authentic human being, it does not matter that much how you look.

But this is for the Netherlands. For festivals, especially abroad, having an exotic image seems to make you more bookable. Organisers from abroad cannot judge you on who you actually are, they have to go on your marketing and reputation. It is here that being not white and not male might give you some advantage, which explains my jealousy of the unattainable Peruvian dj’s image. Luckily I don’t have much time for travelling anyway.

But there is more to this tribal shamanic event that fascinates me. In the world of Western spirituality, we are all seemingly craving for something that exists outside the dominant culture. Christianity fell from grace long ago (although on the socials you see some spiritual folks embracing Christ once again), and the nihilistic consumer culture that came in its place is a total disappointment. This leads us to explore different traditions and cultures. We want something more ancient, and more in tune with nature.

I have the same urges (check out my other blog, Inheems, on Substack), and I think it is a good thing that we try to find alternatives to the dominant cultural values. The wisdom of certain indigenous cultures can have an important role to play in healing humanity. These traditions are often older than those of the dominant culture. They favor cooperation instead of domination, harmony over exploitative growth, and communal living over individualism.

In Ecstatic Dance, the longing for the exotic is also very visible. Dancers often wear clothes, jewelry and tattoos that are explicit expressions of different cultural world. The dominant music in Ecstatic Dance consists of African djembés, Native American flutes and South American and Asian voices chanting or singing things that we don’t understand. The dance floor is filled with adventurers and spiritual seekers who are seeking something outside of their known worlds.

This is very much part of the beauty of Ecstatic Dance. It is a big mix of humans coming together, exploring new cultural territories, trying to bring into practice a way of living that is more embodied than their cultural heritage allows. And Everyone is welcome! In theory at least…

In practice, Ecstatic Dance remains mostly a Western European/American phenomenon, practiced by those who are culturally embedded in this cultural context. It was invented in the US, grew especially big in Europe and in places like Bali, Goa and Thailand, where Western travellers can live like rich people on a few coins per month. Ecstatic Dance is from the West! This is not a bad thing. But we shouldn’t fool ourselves into thinking that we are not doing some western thing

Because if you look deeper, then it is so clear: instruments and voices get sampled from all over the world, but the main ingredient of Ecstatic Dance is still electronic music produced by mostly European and American producers. In fact, it is modern technology that makes Ecstatic Dance possible in the first place: We need sound systems, dj software and a system of easy music sharing and distribution. These things all exist in our modern capitalist culture, we can’t get outside of it no matter how bad we want it.

What makes this all the more weird is that the thing we do with Ecstatic Dance belongs to no one. Through dance we playfully connect with our inner nature (the shamanism part) and we make connections with others (the tribal part). This is a thing that humans naturally do, anywhere and everywhere. But it is often made so much more complicated when we start making it into some kind of religion or cultural thing.

Anyway, The Tribal Shamanic Cacao Ecstatic Dance in my town sold out pretty quickly. I would love to have come myself but I couldn’t. I understand the urge to combine Ecstatic Dance with other spiritual practices. And if you meet someone who does things in a unique way (like the dj from the Andes hopefully), you want to share this inspiration with others. And this is a good thing! I just hope, as a community, we can stay aware of the fact that we shouldn’t attribute to the ‘exotic’ what is actually just inside of ourselves - the ability to experience life more deeply, and to form meaningful connections with ourselves and others through dance.

This also brings me to my track of the month, which might be the most Western European track that you can imagine -  a 90s house hit revamped into a drum ’n bass banger, produced by a white and nerdy British producer, with vocals that sing of the individualist longing for the perfect lover (with a savior complex). But the vibrancy of this track is so perfect for Ecstatic Dance.

I ask you… why do we need African drums, Amazonian shamans or Indian chants when we have… Sub Focus!

Track of the month (actually a top 5…)

They say white people have no culture. But: nerdy boys who produce electronic music that makes you shiver with ecstacy…that is also culture. I am indebted to these boys, and I am part of this culture. And right now I am enjoying it to the fullest thanks to Nicolas Douwma aka Sub Focus.

This British producer (who I first thought was Dutch) makes funky, heart-opening, accessible peaktime tracks with many 90s samples. If you have done ecstatic dance alot, you must have heard some of his tracks, as his 2023 album Evolve became quite popular in the Dutch scene. My friend and colleague Sefrijn pointed me to the album (“Hey, I need a banger for tonight”, “Sure check this out”, “Thank you!”), and since then I’ve been following Sub Focus closely.

As with all love relationships, they get deeper over time. Since a few months I have fallen in love. At first, I didn’t dare to play some of his tracks, because the lyrics are sometimes more suited for teenage heart breaks than for spiritual seekers. But the music sends such vibrant waves through the dancefloor… I have embraced it all. On Friday I played three of his tracks (two in Zutphen last Saturday). There has been nothing quite like starting a third wave with Solar System and ending it with Miracle .

So just for your enjoyment, here is my current top 5 of Sub Focus tracks:

1. Miracle (VIP Mix)
2. Solar System
3. Push the Tempo
4. Off the Ground
5. It’s Time

Upcoming Events

Due to some challenging private matters I have had to say no to some organisers. I’m sorry, I love you and hope to be back soon.

August
28 Ecstatic North, Groningen
September
12 Ecstatic Dance Utrecht, Bar Beton
18 Ecstatic Dance Den Haag, Zeeheldentheater
20 Ecstatic Dance Wageningen
23 Ecstatic Dance Amersfoort
25 Ecstatic Dance PLAY! Zwolle

My set from last Saturday in Zutphen

Everything fell in its right place perfectly last Saturday: it was the start of the season in Zutphen. Longtime organiser and ceremony leader Merijn started with some connecting exercises. The dancers were already having so much fun and were dancing together so easily. I just needed to do my thing and we all vibrated together. Download the set here.

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