Dancing the Spiritual Self in Ecstatic Dance

Abstract

Ecstatic Dance is a so-called conscious dance prevalent in Europe, the United States, Australia, and other scattered locations like Goa (India), Bali (Indonesia), Koh Phangan (Thailand), and the Atitlan Lake (Guatemala). It consists of a DJ improvising a live music session and a group of dancers, in turn, improvising a dance. Ecstatic Dancers say that this type of free dancing allows them to connect with themselves, something they interpret as spiritual. Ecstatic Dance is an example of how people in Spain, Europe, and beyond choose to re-enchant their lives by introducing spiritual elements into their everyday habits. The entry point to this study is the premise that participating in these types of dances affords people who self-identify as spiritual to momentarily alter or transform their sensation of the self. This thesis explores a possible explanation of this sense of self and how it is constructed via listening to music and dancing with others. As part of my methodology, I became a certified Ecstatic Dance facilitator by taking an 8-month in-person training in Barcelona, Spain, and I produced an audio-visual piece that explores these experiences. My analysis is informed by the anthropology of the senses, the new phenomenology of dancing and music, and how these, in turn, help co-produce a so-called spiritual self. Improvised dancing and listening to music afford dancers situations of collective sensation through which specific understandings of an embodied, intersubjective, and sensorial interconnected and relational selfhood come to be.

Date of Award	1 Aug 2024
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	The University of Manchester
Supervisor	Rupert Cox (Supervisor) & Caroline Bithell (Supervisor)