Everything you wanted to know about Tantric Dance, but you didn’t even know it existed

So back to the dance. I was naïve to hope that the training would be a total relaxation, enjoying in the dance as flowing. But alas, I was quite surprised when we got homework and marks from day one!! That’s my biggest nightmare, even today I still dream that I’m taking an exam, that I have no idea what it’s called, let alone what it’s about. So why the hell am I taking exams again when I finished school a long time ago?? Nooo…the fright of passing the exam looms over me and swallows me like a black cloud…

In a nutshell, TD is a dance of polarity. There are two dancers, one leads and the other surrenders to be led blindfolded. In order to avoid expressions ‘’the one who leads’’ and ‘’the one who is led’’, in the following text, I will use just – leader and follower.

Therefore, the leader gives impulse to the dance, he/she leads the movement and provides support. The follower gives in passively, he/she doesn’t initiate the movement, but shouldn’t ‘’hang’’ on the leader so he/she ‘’carries’’ him/her around the dance floor. The leader can lead even with one finger, it’s the impulse that is important for the movement. The point is polarity and leading/surrendering. There are two genders, to put it politically correct – persons born in male and female bodies, thus a large number of leading and surrendering combinations is possible (male – female, male – male, female – female and everything in between).

Let the cobbler stick to his last – how much are we able to lead and to give in?

First homework: Leading the dance from the third chakra – solar plexus. It’s neither time nor place to go into the theory of chakras here. So, let’s take it for granted. How to motivate people to dance from their fire, their power and life passion? Phew…you need to motivate yourself first. I decided to go with Highlight Tribe – Free Tibet, a superb trance, and bingo…I was happily bouncing the whole night doing my homework! I got into the homework so enthusiastically that I was completely carried away with motivating people, my throat was gone (still not knowing that there is a microphone for that purpose!?!), and I fell into a trance. Homework well done and just like that I was really satisfied. We sat in a circle panting, waiting for comments by Rakesh & Elfriede! I was calm, 100% sure that I’d get all A’s! There’s no chance I’d fail. Man, when it was my turn, I was damned…everything I thought that was awesome – wasn’t actually good. F*ck, in my mind I was already packing to go back home, didn’t want to embarrass myself with my Balkan over-exaggerated enthusiasm. And then I thought ‘’phew, the Dutch have no idea what the life fire is, when it takes you and burns you, not to mention dancing on the table and breaking glasses with your head!’’. That thought calmed me down a bit, although I was mad as a hornet for the rest of the day.

Somehow, I survived the second day. Day 3 got me another homework. Leading TD – dance from the heart. Just to explain a little bit, dance can be from any energy centre (once again I want to avoid the word ‘’chakra’’), we can dance from the stomach, from the heart, from the base or from the perineum area. Also from the knee, but that’s not part of this curriculum. However, this time leading a dance with a microphone. I held that mike like it was going to eat me. Or I would eat him, whoever was faster. And I got carried away again, I started sobbing, at the mention of the word “heart” I choked…I pulled myself together a little, to push it to the end, but I was overcome by emotions. Evaluation comes again, I didn’t expect to get good marks this time. That terrible anxiety crept in, I froze, what if they rip me apart once more, and I’ve spent a fortune for this? First comment – ‘’you met the deadline’’. Well at least it’s positive. I couldn’t listen to the rest, just in case not to be dispirited again. Who is going to change the flight now, because it would be even worse to hang out around Amsterdam, which I’m not up to. Perhaps it’s for the best not to take things so personally and to try to concentrate in order to learn something useful.

When I think about it, it’s often the same storyline. On the second and third day, I’d pack myself and want to go home filled with the nonsense of my new venture. And then optimism silently sneaks in through the small door, overwhelms me, makes me shiver and straights me up. Fourth, fifth and sixth day of the training I was leading and I was led. It wasn’t easy, especially when I was leading. Actually, I like to lead a person born in a female body, who willingly and joyfully surrenders to my dance guidance. It feels good to step into my leadership and masculine energy. Hmm…it seems to say a lot about everyday life too. That gives food for thought. I don’t like leading people born in male bodies, whose centuries-old beliefs seem to collapse at the mere thought of being led. Not to mention unconditional trust. Even the Dutch born in male bodies are no exception. As if you need to move a tree with all its roots – leaving hell. There are some exceptions, although they are very rare. I like to surrender to leaders born in both male and female bodies, who clearly and undoubtedly send the movement impulse.

Trust is the crucial part of an exceptional dance. If we panic all the time that the leader will get carried away and we will be stuck to the wall, with hammered heads, it’s better to give up in time. Generally, you don’t need any special technique, but rather the practice. It’s also necessary to let Eros flow freely, not to hold it back, no one has to get married after the dance. We mainly don’t even know who we were dancing with. It can be the hottest dance in our life and whoop, by the time you take off the blindfold, the person is already gone (it has happened to me once, I was at the wit’s end because I had no idea who that was, among 300 participants!!)

In a perfect match, the polarity between leader and follower can melt at some point, where dancers become one body with two heads. A phenomenon known as the Two Head TD Monster (THTDM). I just made this up, but I could suggest it to get listed into the official TD Terminology (TDT)

Okay, after six days of ups and downs, the grand finale, and we had no clue. It all started with a harmless invitation from Rakesh to attend a TD evening in Utrecht. Nice weather, good ride, just in time to see a master in action – the whole course of the TD evening with real people… Oops….in the next moment, all of us, six future teachers, were introduced to the audience and casually invited to lead the first part of the evening, one by one, without warning! Oooh well…OK, my task was to lead a dance from the throat chakra! I grabbed a mike as if I was born with it and dear lord did I sing , when the voices ‘’aaaaa…eeeee….oooo…’’ just started to come out, the mike was just where it should, the voices came out, just where they should, spread around the hall. Wooow, was I taken aback. I made a new best friend. The mike. If something doesn’t go right with TD, there’s a new career for me.

I’m going to be a singer for sure!

That’s all. If you have any other questions about TD, please feel free to contact me, it will be my pleasure to help you.