Under the Banyan Trees

by Tamara Vorster (South Africa)

A leap into the unknown India

We stood in a circle, barefoot with our sun kissed skin sticky from the humidity of the beautiful evening in Goa. I remember looking around the circle into the faces of so many welcoming strangers, wondering where they had come from and what had brought them to this part of the world. I noticed the serenity on most of the faces, many of them clearly returning visitors to this beautiful venue with two towering, majestic banyan trees with hanging paper lanterns creating a dim hue over the dance floor. I listened intently to the calming voice of the DJ leading the session as he gave us a rundown of the rules: this was a place of safety and no judgement - no alcohol, no smoking and no drugs. In addition to that, no talking on the dance floor was allowed, along with the rule of no phones, no shoes and most importantly, respect for one another. I closed my eyes and inhaled the warm December air into my lungs, I released the breath and felt ready for whatever this new experience was about to bring. We all joined hands on instruction - right hand giving while left hand receiving – a full energy link all around the venue as we opened up the ceremony chanting three Oms. The DJ instructed us to start to move around the floor, allowing our body to do whatever it needed to do as a warm up, and to smile and make connections with those as we passed. This felt weird for me as I started to walk, smiling at those in my group as I passed them, but not quite sure how to respond to the strangers. I looked around at those who were clearly repeat visitors, how they seemed to open up, moving so freely and making connections with all those that they passed, I started to ease up as I reminded myself to remain open to this rare and wonderful experience. The music started to play and I tried to allow my body to move to the rhythm, but I was still far too self-conscious, caught up in my head worrying that I would look like an idiot – the truth is, I typically need a good few drinks to get into dancing, to allow myself to let go and not to care about what others think. But the entire concept of Ecstatic Dance was to allow yourself to release that, it is about being free and allowing your body to move however it feels it needs to as the rhythmic beat of the music takes over. Ecstatic Dance is meant to be about freeing your body from your ego mind, and allowing yourself to just be. It is meant to be free of judgement – judgement of the self and others. So with this in mind, I looked around the floor to see just how present people were, there was a mixture of so much happening - there was a lady standing still in meditative state, there was another on the floor in balasana (child’s pose), some people were just allowing their bodies to move them all around the floor, gracefully weaving through the moving bodies of those around them. There were people so in touch with their bodies, moving in ways I have never seen, while others who were previously strangers were doing a form of contact dance, so in sync as if they had practiced for hours beforehand. There were even people who had climbed the banyan trees feeling as if they needed to get closer to nature. The music was taking us on a journey - slow to start but building up to an epic high, and as I started to be enveloped by the energy of the scene around me, I felt myself release all the self-judgement, worry and resistance that I was holding in. I took a deep breath, looked toward the night sky, closed my eyes and surrendered to the vibrations – it was the most exhilarating and freeing experience I have ever had in my life.