Three Pools Camping field, 2022

INTROduction

Rooted in the idea that dance should be everybody’s skill and practice, Dancing Body invites all humans to step out of their everyday armours and learn how to drop into the groove of the rhythm, the music and the space.

Dance is the most universal language of them all. The world has seen hundreds of dance styles. Some are kept in their original form some keep on evolving. There’s dances as old as belly dancing from 6000 BC, folk dances of Middle Ages to court ballets in Renaissance era. Recent ages saw the birth of Waltz (Ballroom) as the biggest dance craze of the 19th century. Tango, rumba, salsa, cha cha, breakdancing, hip hop and street dance, jazz and acro dominated the 20th century. Today we have hundreds of dances that in one way or another take inspiration in one of the aforementioned genres of dance. Each with its own rhythm, groove, sentiment and emotion. As human beings, in one way or another, we’ve been gathering to dance for more than 9000 years. With that in mind, dance could be seen as the oldest living language amongst us. When words fail us, what can’t be spoken, can be expressed at great volumes through movement. Our emotions, passions, compassions, understandings and misunderstandings. It’s a global language. A language of inner and outer sensation. Putting the dance at the centre of why we gather, or why we unite allows for our consciousness to raise to the same spiritual or energetic level, similar to when we are on the same communicational or social level if we speak the same language.

CONNECTION

How truly connected are we? To ourselves, to others, to the nature, to the immediate surrounding and the world? In an increasingly divided and over saturated world of ‘things’ , it’s hard not to notice that ‘being connected’ is becoming more and more vague of a concept. We see dance as an inescapable route of connecting and connectivity. Dance provides physical connection giving us deep feelings of calm, enlivenment and togetherness. To dance is to connect with our bodies, our energy, our edges, our selves, beings, music, space. To dance is to connect to the rhythm of the music, the rhythm of your body pulse, and the rhythm of the collective energy. But, to connect to the body we sometimes need to disconnect from the mind. Can we train our mind to step aside and/or serve our body?

The body is a vessel, a language and a voice. It’s a medium. At the heart of it all. A frequency. Vibration. The body with which we dance and have been dancing for thousands of years. The body that craves attention but is outshined by the mind ever so often. The body that’s our horse and mind our rider. The body that sometimes cannot resist to move to the rhythm and the beat. The body that guides. What is the connection of the music with the body and the dance with the body?

the flow of the weekend

Taking inspiration from the culture of British festivals and the continuously evolving ideas of retreats, Dancing body places itself at the cross of the two concepts. Our desire is to offer participants the buzz and the freedom of festivals and the pace and involvement one experiences in an intimate retreat setting. Let the Club Scene make love with the Conscious Scene and let Dancing Body be born!
Imagine 3 days with 9 sessions of dance each very different from the other. Some of Europe’s best dance teachers and guides coaching you with knowledge and technique. Then on Friday and Saturday we throw two club nights, where we get into our bodies’ rhythm, our new collective freedom, with new moves, new friends and some incredible DJs we can let down our hair, step into our playfulness and resonate with the party soundsystem.

Extra offerings that weave well with dancing sessions, the land and the energy behind the event will be: 1) morning yoga offerings, 2) one talk/discussion of ‘how dance affects mental health’ and 3) one session on musicality and rhythm.

The farm will be serving good food daily to nourish our moving and breathing bodies, there will be kombucha and cacao stand to refill us when we need a boost. In the evenings, the natural wine bar station will serve local and international natural wine.

Sauna will be open for some hours of the day and massage tent will run throughout the days.

THE WISH

We wish that we all leave this gathering more connected to our own body, with love and respect for its intricacies and uniqueness. That we have been so present and stimulated by music and physical expression that a joy is within our skin - an ecstacy. That we have found new ways to move, found new people to move with. Learnt how to connect to our own energetic body and to mix and mingle with other energetic bodies. And may there be many a dance floor epiphanies!