#6: An Ecstatic Dance dj goes to a wedding..
Dear Dancer,
Welcome to my news letter! If you are new, thank you for joining me in my personal revolution to find ways around big tech to connect with dancers.
Not so much of Nachtpapegaai-ing these days. I have cancelled almost all of my dances from October til the end of 2025. There is only one left, in Culemborg on December 11. It's a beautiful and growing community and the organizers have love for Ecstatic Dance, so be sure to come and join us in De Gelderlandfabriek (right next to the train station!).
I played at the wedding of my brother and his beloved. The attendees sent in their favorite dance tracks and together with some dj friends we managed to knit it all together: Justin Timberlake, Elvis, Abba, Marco Borsato and all the happy hardcore boinkieboink that you may expect from a group of people born in the 80's.
I don't do these things often (you can't book me for this unless you are family or pay me lots of money ;), but it is always special do get out of the 'conscious' meditative vibe once or twice a year. I turn into a total party master, pick up the microphone and start mc'ing, and I get to be really creative in mixing Paul Elstak with Snollebolleke.
For gigs like weddings, it is very important to get your dj ego and personal taste out of the way. No time to be cool or above the crowd, just play the things people know, the stuff that works in the moment.
Congratulations dear brother and sister-in-law, may your marriage be a reflection of your attendees' intense joy at the party (and maybe not of their music taste...).
On to the content!
As it is in Heaven - or uprooting repressive culture with music
Recently I watched the 2004 Swedish film As It Is In Heaven, about a famous classical orchestra conductor who burns out, quits his famous lifestyle and goes back to live in the small country town that he grew up in. There he is asked to lead the local church choir. He teaches the members of the choir to open up their voices and sing from the heart, and the sense of liberation that the choir gets from the conductor's freeform way of working creates a ripple of change in the small community.
The choir members start waking up to the repressive patterns within their community -a violent husband, Christian dogmatism and bullying someone with a mental disability, to name a few. Together they find the strength to stand up to these forces together, call out the perpetrators and eventually make even them shift and change for the good.
I was inspired by the way the film captures the power of music, movement and singing so well, and the way it can work on the narrow-minded habits within ourselves and others around us. It can break through structures of power from the roots down up. In my last news letter I wrote about pleasure activism - using pleasure as a fundamental force for bringing about positive change. The conductor in the film is not deliberately an activist. He just loves music and sees how he can turn any ordinary human being into a vessel for beauty. But this is only makes his actions stronger and more powerful.
I had to probably cry a number of times during the film (although I cry pretty easily at almost every film since I became a father), and would highly recommend you watch it if you need to feel through some things.
Upcoming events
december
11 - Ecstatic Dance Culemborg
january
2 - Ecstatic Dance Utrecht
31 - Ecstatic Dance Zutphen
Download this set!
Yes here it is. Last month's set from Ecstatic Dance Utrecht. I got a lot of praise for the first twenty minutes or so, especially the wild opening track with the children's voices and what seems to be a lion's roar (it's called African Dream by Shaman's Dream).
Download it here
