Many people move towards partner dance, partner acrobatics, in search of connection, community, and a sense of belonging outside of their professional or family identities. I’ve heard from many dancers and acrobats that “when I am dancing, I’m just another dancer on the dance floor, I’m not Eyu the Engineer, I’m not Eyu the founder” That is a liberating feeling, to be seen just as you are while being in community.
Though I’m still working on learning and unlearning to be able to see myself as just “Eyu the acrobat” or “Eyu the dancer” - That is what I love about the ecstatic dance and acroyoga communities and friendships that are built in those spaces.
When someone feels lonely, or disconnected from others/themselves - I see a few patterns that are most common (especially for men, and I have experienced all of these):
- getting deeper into their work and creating more transactional work relationship that are built around mentorship or exchange of knowledge, that dissapear as soon as the job changes
- putting more effort into dating, and looking for a romantic partner that can meet all their emotional needs
- finding a religious community that encourage/requires being the same as everyone else to belong in the group - making people mold and mask themselves to be accepted
What Ecstatic Dance/CI and AcroYoga have provided me is a place that one can build comradery around a shared love of movement and creative expression. The community we create in these spaces feels like a place to shed all the other social identities we carry to meet and be humans together. Out of that shared experience life long friendships and partnership may be formed, but I believe the prerequisite should be building and being a part of the community first.