FAQ

Metro station Aurel Vlaicu or Pipera & Buses 112, 231 to Drumul Potcoavei Station; Public transport Voluntari – busses: 449, 450, 459, 488 – see the routes on https://www.stvsa.ro/

Yes, there normally are parking spaces in front of the building. You have better chances to find one if you come early. Otherwise you can find parking on the secondary streets nearby, at a few minutes walking distance.

You can book your place at our events by registering on our website and sending money for the energy exchange. In the registration form you will find the details for the bank transfer and also the field where you need to upload the receipt of the transfer. 

Yes. In case it’s not working for you to transfer money, you can pay cash when you arrive. Even so, we kindly ask you to use the form on our website to register (and upload any document), so that you receive our confirmation email, with useful info for your participation. Note: the Early Bird amount is only for transfers completed before the specified date. At the gate you will pay the regular contribution.

While there’s plenty of fun to be experienced at Ecstatic Dance, it is a journey of movement meditation—an intentional practice to quiet the mind and to discover what’s beyond everyday chatter, judgements, worries and fixations. At Ecstatic Dance, we use the music to move out of our heads and into our bodies, hearts, and spirits.

We all have different ideas and preferences for what is “ecstatic” or inspiring when it comes to dance music, sometimes very different preferences. It’s highly unlikely that everybody is going to like every song in the  movement journey, and it’s not actually the DJ’s role to endeavor for that.

The music at Ecstatic Dance is intended to cover a wide range of feelings, emotions, and rhythmic sensations across the inner landscape. Joyfulness is ecstatic, but so is Love, Rapture, Devotion, Soulfulness, Sensuality, Playfulness, Wistfulness, and Peacefulness. Nostalgia is welcome too–a beloved classic song may help release an emotional memory stored in the body. And even elements of the shadow realm are a part of the landscape of this movement practice–Wildness, Chaos, Intensity, and Grief can be ecstatic, and therefore the journey will not always be beautiful to everyone. You may find some of the songs are provocative or triggering to you personally, which we hope you will take as an opportunity to discover new sources of catharsis and liberation. For more on this whole topic, we highly recommend Gabrielle Roth’s book, Maps to Ecstasy.

Ecstatic Dance is not a therapy in itself but many of those who made it their regular practice find it therapeutic, especially through relaxing, releasing emotions and tensions in movement, activating presence in the body, creativity and spontaneity. Feeling free to be ourselves, dance as we like and celebrate life helps the processes of knowing ourselves, personal development and emotional growth as well as overcoming blockages and traumas.  Read more about the benefits of ecstatic dance in an academical view in Jacques Rooke dissertation

Most of the music played at Ecstatic Dance can be loosely categorized as “Bass Music”. This is music produced on a computer, with distinctive rhythmic and sub-bass elements to be felt deeply in the body during dance. Some Bass Music has a definitively electronic feel (such as house, techno, trap, dubstep or glitch hop), while other genres can feel a lot more like studio-recorded music with added digital production spice (such as tribal, electro-swing, future-cumbia, ghetto-funk, psybient, or future-soul).  Bass Music from any genre may often include recorded vocals or samples of live instruments. 

Our DJs at Ecstatic Dance play a wide variety of music in their sound journeys, drawing from the dozens of genres and sub-genres that are coming out of the Bass Music scene, including as well tracks from more “old school” music genres (such as afrobeat, tango, dub, reggae, R&B, jazz, blues, or even classical). Ultimately, each DJ has their own style and areas of specialty, so we suggest you try them all out to learn which of our DJs resonate best with your dance practice and perhaps notice how your own preferences evolve over time as you experience more Bass Music.

Refraining from conversation helps to create a sacred space for movement meditation. By letting go of words and associated mental activity, we learn to connect with ourselves and each other in wonderful new ways.

Feel free to wear whatever allows you to move comfortably. Some people prefer yoga clothes, some prefer festival wear, and some prefer a simple t-shirt and shorts. We suggest you to bring a water bottle that you can refill there with the spring water that we offer.
Our dance space offers changing rooms with lockers but it’s advisable that you leave your valuables at home.

We support family-togetherness and welcome children of any age. A few important things you should know before bringing children:
⦁ All participants are expected to abide by the same guidelines in the dance space: no talking, move with care and awareness, no street shoes, etc. Parents must take full and active responsibility for their child’s behaviour (and volume) so as not to disrupt the experience of the other participants. Therefore, we suggest only bringing children who you are confident will weave well into the fabric of a movement meditation practice.
⦁ The music volume can get a bit loud. We suggest parents to bring sound muffs for younger children (do a Google search).

Thanks Peter & Ecstatic Dance Covallis for the inspiration