TO THEIR OWN TUNE

Duluth Dance Church Melds Movement And Mindfulness

By Melinda Lavine

Dean Talbott felt awkward and self-conscious. That’s what he recalled from his first soiree at Duluth Dance Church.

By the end of a recent Sunday session, Talbott’s arms were outstretched as he moved seamlessly around the room to pulsing instrumental music. It was his third or fourth time there, and he called it a special environment where there are no inhibitions.

“I consider it part yoga, part meditation, part exercise,” Talbott said.

Duluth Dance Church is a sober, nonreligious and communityoriented dance gathering from 1-3 p.m. Sundays at the Mohaupt Block, 2024 W. Superior St. There’s an eclectic mix of music, and the cost is $10, though no one is turned away.

The Hiwes; Baily (2.5), Tayah and Sean, dance at Duluth Dance Church recently.

STEVE

Formerly Ecstatic Dance, organizers changed the name to coincide with a similar event in the Cities. And there’s not much difference between the two; said SeanTayah Hiwe (Sean), who shares a name with his wife. They’re based in the 5Rhythms theory, a dynamic movement that promotes being present in the body to ignite creativity, community and connection.

Many people say they feel a spiritual component to dance, and that we discover things about ourselves moving our bodies in a conscious and intentional way, Sean said.

“It’s about what it feels like inside and not about what it looks like from the outside,” he added.

To promote that, the dance floor is a cellphone-free space. They dance with bare feet or with non-street shoes. (What better way to get connected than through bare feet, he said.) On the dance floor, they also ask for no talking (or to whisper, if needed).

There’s a lot of daily mental chatter, and maybe more so on the dance floor, he said. Limiting talking is an element of ecstatic dance and a way to encourage listening to the body’s intuition.

The Hiwes attended dance events in California, and they wanted to bring it to Duluth when they moved here to raise their son, Baily, now 2½. Their first event was in late 2016. Since, they’ve hosted many others, including an outdoor dance, and are settling into a new location.

Recently, a stick of sage sat on the registration table along with a treasure chest for payment, a tube of ear plugs, a picture that reads “Things that are Real are given and received in silence.”

The DJ’s first song was meditative and instrumental. Talbott stretched on a yoga mat. Lorna Koestner of Carlton laid still and flat on the floor. Jess Cavis of Duluth slowly moved to the beat. The music flowed to faster mixes including drumming, reggae and “Cecilia” by Simon and Garfunkel. No one spoke, only in whispered urges to join in the movement.

Many wonder if Dance Church is a religious event because of the name, but it’s about creating a sacred space, said SeanTayah Hiwe (Tayah). The Hiwes understand negative and positive associations with the word “church.” But they noted a reclaiming of it through jazz churches and a John Coltrane church in California.

Dance Church is embracing an age-old form of spiritual movement or ceremony, like calling the rain, stomping the earth, Sean said. Dancing prompts self-communication as you figure out what feels good and what doesn’t, what pushes people away, what draws them in.

“Because dance is in the body, I think there’s a western spiritual idea that … there’s something non-spiritual about the body and we want to shun the body and we don’t want to live in the physical world because we don’t do things for pleasure.

The body is the greatest teacher, and we are spirits having a physical experience, he said, “so, let the spirit kiss the body as close as it can.”

We don’t normally exist in a nonverbal, nonjudgmental space,

If You Go

What: Dance Church

When: 1-3 p.m. Sundays

Where: Mohaupt Block, 2024 W. Superior St.

More info: facebook.com/DuluthDanceChurch, duluthdancechurch.org

Cavis said. That’s one of the things that intimidated her about an initial visit to ecstatic dance.

She said she questioned how others didn’t care what they looked like, which was hard at first for her. Soon, she found it freeing, and she has been attending now for 10 years — in Hawaii, Washington state, Minneapolis.

She moved to Duluth about a year ago, and was thrilled to see a presence here. Today, she works with the Hiwes in making events happen, and she calls dancing exercise for the soul that fulfills different needs in her life.

“It can become an outlet for expression of emotion, whether they be positive emotions like joy, gratitude or playfulness, or if it’s negative things, anger, sadness, despair. It’s good to have a creative outlet,” Cavis said.

She also noted a common wave in Dance Church playlists. There’s always a flow in the music that’s meant to mimic the natural rhythms in the body, from meditative to a powerful buildup and stillness. Everyone contributes playlist ideas, and there’s also an unspoken agreement that it’s a safe space, Cavis said.

Even if there isn’t a verbal conversation, dancing together is an intimate experience. There’s an exchange of vulnerabilities; you become familiar with others, and that builds trust.

In that, too, at ecstatic dances across the world, people are encouraged to make noise as long as it’s not using words. “You can howl like a wolf, you can turn around and clap, you could hoot and holler,” Cavis continued.

Trying to emulate an animal on the dance floor is one way Tayah helps children get comfortable; that, along with closing her eyes, is a tool she uses. (Her go-to animal: “Usually bird or soaring eagle,” she said.)

Tayah’s background also helped her acclimate to the conscious dance setting. She grew up competing in Scottish Highland dancing. She moved onto drum circles.

Her husband, Sean, said he learned how to dance spontaneously in his living room, and his education grew when he started attending dances. Lessons he said he wouldn’t have learned elsewhere include how to interact and communicate with others, how to know his inner intuition and follow his body’s guidance.

“It was a major support for me as I was growing and getting myself where I was healthy enough and ready enough to meet my wife,” he said.

The first time they met was at an ecstatic dance, where they didn’t speak for the first two hours. In that time, Sean flipped Tayah head over heels on the dance floor. “I just hoped he wouldn’t drop me,” she said.

On Sunday, the Hiwes eased about the upstairs of Mohaupt Block.

Tayah bobbed to the beat while holding their son. Sean moved freely, making yogic motions with his arms. He glided around the room before returning to his family.

In the future, the Hiwes would like to see more children and families attend, more outdoor dances and an addition to ecstatic singing. They hope to grow their cooperative and build ways to forward the existence of conscious dance as a medium for health and spiritual growth.

But you don’t have to be spiritually minded to come, they said. It’s all about connection and movement — or even lack of movement.

If people need to move their bodies, roll on the floor, lie on a yoga mat or bark like a dog, they can do that, Cavis said.

For Tayah, more is being revealed about the importance of movement through motherhood. She’s constantly rocking Baily on and off the dance floor. It’s a motion her body does naturally, and it’s just as calming for her as an adult as it is for him as a child, she said.

Movement is everywhere, in the cosmos, the stars, the moons, the planets, Sean said.

When you remove external distractions and allow the body to dance with lush, beautiful music, it helps return you to the source of what life is, he said. “Creation is a dance, it’s all movement.” v