DANCEGASM
A dancegasm, what is that!?
A dancegasm is what most people would describe
as a dance where you loose track of time and space and after three or six
dances (you loose count) you suddenly wake up and you think: ‘Wow what just happened??’
It’s a dance where you can let go of everything and where you feel totally in
the moment. You feel completely connected to the person you are dancing with,
you feel connected to the music, your whole being is participating in the thing
you love to do most.
And how do you get a dancegasm?
Well, you can wait for it to happen. Or you can seek it out actively. Some
people have become pretty addicted to dancegasms and go to festivals almost
every week. It has become a lifestyle, much more than just a hobby. What
festivals do, is they bring a huge crowd of people from all over the world.
With so many people there, it raises the chances to find a person where you
have a connection with and to get that dancegasm with. But what a lot people
forget is that you can prepare yourself, your body your mind your whole being
to be able to make a connection. There is a lot more you can actively do to
increase the chances to getting these dancegasm.
What are the things you can do yourself to
prepare?
What a lot of people underestimate is the vigorous training you can do in dance
classes. It’s not about learning the steps, but really about learning how to
use your body and develop the senses you use while dancing. For instance your
tactile senses, your peripheral vision and listening to the music instead of
just hearing it. Because becoming more aware of these senses can already
increase the chances of a dancegasm. By surrendering to what you feel in your
body and what your senses perceive or
receive.
So it’s not only about the connection with your partner?
I think a lot of people think it’s about the partner, or about the event. And these are important factors. With some people you have that special click and with some people you don’t. In some parties you feel that the music is awesome and in some parties you don’t. But all those things are still external. You can’t force other people to come to a party. You can’t force a dj to play just your favorite songs. What you can do is make sure that both mentally and physically you are the best prepared for that party, so that the chances of you enjoying it to the fullest and having a dancegasm are greatest.
So you are saying to focuse on what you can control..
Exactly, and what you can control is yourself.
What we try to achieve in our classes is that you find selfcontrol and self
awareness. First bring yourself into balance. And from that point, go to
parties and make a connection with others. So instead of focusing on certain
figures, we focus on body awareness. Maybe you get some insights from one
workshop, but where you really learn is in class. The learning is physically
and even mentally; like how to handle emotions, how to handle stress and how to
prepare yourself. And this you learn by going through a lot of repetition and
by sometimes feeling frustration in class about the feeling you still don’t get
it. Like when you understand it but your body doesn”t want to follow it. And a
bit further down the road, going through the process of mastering it or
becoming comfortable with being uncomfortable. And that is an essential part of
it; to train yourself to accept your surroundings. Because if you accept your
surroundings, it is much easier to have that connection at any party with any
person you are dancing with.
To get a dancegasm, to get that connection with yourself and then with your
partner, it takes training?
It takes training. A lot of people think that if the mood is right and the
circumstances are right, it will just happen. And it could happen and a lot of
people are experiencing it already. But if you keep looking for this outside of
yourself, you are not really getting to the full potential of what a dancegasm
could be. And you could have dancegasms all the time, everywhere you go.
What kind of training could you take?
For instance the new course we start in january
about connection. There we do a lot of exercises to train body control and
exercises that are close to mindfulness. It is about connecting with yourself
first and more than about connecting with your partner. That is an example of
how you can train to be better with yourself and then it’s much easier to
connect with others.
Next to this class, in almost all of our lessons we try to focus on a multipath
approach. Our system is based out of six pillars, being: body control,
connection, patterns, dynamics, musicality and creativity. In every lesson we
try to touch on all of these six subjects. Because if you get to a certain
level and awareness on these six subjects, you control your dance much better.
And the funny thing with control is that when you trust that you control it,
you can let go of that control. That is essential to get to that state of now
and full connection where you can have that dancegasm.
What happens when you dont train it, is that you will sub-consiously block
yourself. We are all in a certain way traumatised and blocked and dancing sets
us free. But unfortunately, for most of us we also bring our unconscious
negative emotions or blockades into the dance. And it’s very hard to let
something go if you even know that you are keeping is with you. These are the
things that with dance training you can become more aware of. Then in a later
stage, you can even let it go or seek the circumstances in yourself to let it
go. If you just go for the satisfaction or pleasure, you will not get to that
same level of enjoying the dance and you will not get there as often as when
you train for it to master your body and use your full potential.
Is it something you can practice in class or do you prepare for it in class?
The dancegasm per se you don’t practice in
class. You get the tools to how to prepare yourself and train yourself to be
able to make that connection. Of course the class is the class room, and a
different setting than a party. You need that different setting to raise that
awareness. If you only practice at a party, you won’t come to that point. At
the party you surrender, you let go and trust yourself that you learned enough
at the lesson. It’s also beautiful if you can surrender at the party without
taking classes, but most of the time you will get the same experience because
you didn’t progress. Your body didnt learn many new things. Maybe for some
people that enjoyment is enough. But even those people I would like to challenge:
why not invest for half a year and do intensive classes. After half a year of
classes you will find significant changes in your dancing. Invest half a year
and enjoy more the rest of your life. If you look at it like that, even strong
critics cant argue with the beneficial investment in what it gains.
Even when you have already followed a lot of lessons before, you can still
advantage. You are at a level now where you are able to enjoy dance. Imagine
that in half a year you can progress significantly. Maybe through that half
year, you will feel some dips because maybe you start counting the music and
therefore enjoy listening to it less. But after half a year you will have
raised your skill set enormously. The way you can enjoy the dance and the music
is of another level and that stays with you for the rest of your life.
Even the dancers that have been dancing for 10 years and are now only doing
workshops would advantage. Because those workshops will not give you what
lessons will give you and that is personal development. I am saying to those
people in particular, if you give yourself that half year of maybe feeling out
of your comfort zone, being back in the class room, maybe even finding out that
you thought you were better than you are, or finding out that you digressed.
But you did it! And maybe you can raise your enjoyment of your dances from 50%
to maybe 70%. The beauty of progress is that it never stops. And you can keep
on investing and keep increasing your dancegasms in intensity and amount. There
is no plateau, it is limitless.
It is almost like a cosmic life lesson: if you are looking for a change,
change yourself and you find change.
Exactly and that’s a thing where I want to invite people to also experience it.
I can’t let you experience what I have experienced. I can only offer it to you
and make my case that it makes me very happy and I think it would do the same
for you.
I think everybody gets very happy from a dancegasm. I want a dancegasm right
now.
Drop your pants.
Ehh thanks Willem, let’s dance.