On Friday, I'm leaving for a week-long visit to Kripalu, a yoga retreat center in the Berkshires, to take two training modules with Shiva Rea, an amazing yogini, my teacher's teacher, and my teacher.

The first training takes place over the weekend and is labeled Yoga Trance Dance. Even doing the preparatory readings, my heart is on fire! As many who take my classes know, I incorporate dance into class as often as possible. I deeply believe that dance just isn't for the "in-shape," or the rhythmically inclined, or those who feel "comfortable" in their bodies. I feel that dance is vital to living fully embodied and joyful lives.

Why is it that we're so afraid of dancing, of letting loose with our bodies and allowing that deeper mystery of spiritual experience to take over us? Perhaps, some of it is that we feel we'll look "stupid" or "awkward" in front of others; or, we might remember that only the popular kids (read: pretty, rich, well-liked, etc.) were the ones who danced during our formative years and even at clubs and bars.

I suspect, though, that what terrifies us more is what happens when we begin to move to the rhythm, swaying hips, allowing arms to fly, torso writhing like a serpent, feet pounding the earth and connecting to the heartbeat of the Mother - Gaia. All of a sudden we're taken out of our 9-5, locked-down mindset and forced to acknowledge the fire that is burning inside of us - We are Sensual Beings! Our bodies are expressions of the God/dess, and when we dance, we're moving in our power. Very often this power feels sexual, it feels juicy, it feels like joy and delight with no excuses.

Why is this dangerous? Well, a patriarchal culture based on shaming the body devalues and attempts to squash connections with the body, because it often leads us away from the so-called values of that culture: hierarchy, power-over others as opposed to power-with others, devaluing the feminine energy, devaluing queer people, rugged individualism, non-sustainable modes of living, etc.

Dancing hooks us up to deeper mysteries of the Multiverse, ones of deep joy, love and peace, where we can no longer define where our individual bodies end and those of the people around us start, where we can no longer sense our feet - where our arms become branches, our feet become the paws of wolves, and our bodies  those of snakes. We are one.

Join the dance. No fear. Only pleasure awaits.