Dhamma Dance Club

Dhamma Dance Club is a 12-week practice container split between the cushion and the club.

On Tuesdays, we sit together and learn how to contact experience directly.

On Thursdays, we bring that contact into movement, music, nightlife, and the social field.

The invitation is not to become a better meditator or a better dancer, but to become more intimate with experience wherever it appears.

You may have some meditation experience already and are interested in bringing more presence into your moment to moment experience off the cushion. Or you may be a dancer who is looking to develop stillness, silence, spaciousness. Or maybe you’re some third thing.

You might be someone who has been interested in clubbing but struggles to find a way in. You might be someone who has enjoyed clubbing but wants to see it as a spiritual practice. You might be someone who sees clubbing as church but wants a community to go with. Whatever background you are coming from, we want to include, integrate, celebrate, and learn from it.

This is not a beginner nor advanced meditation dancing class. Nor is this a class in the strict sense of the word. We will be learning from ourselves and each other. We will have structure and flow whenever they are necessary.

We are not here to hook up, get shit faced, nor meet god. Though all these things can happen. We explore boundaries as they come up in the moment.

We are here to practice for the benefit of all beings, and to take that practice into whatever container we find ourselves in.

From Dhamma Dance Club, your practice will further develop easeful concentration, sensory clarity, and equanimity on and off the cushion. You will also build confidence to move authentically in and out of the club. And, you will learn more through experience about nightlife in NYC.

We are taking our practice from the cushion to the club. We deepen our practice on Tuesdays and integrate it on Thursdays for the benefit of all beings. Dhamma Tuesdays can look like meditation, authentic relating, authentic movement and sharing circles. Dance Thursdays are intentionally open ended.

You can bring friends to Dance, but because of the space limitations please do not bring them to Dhamma.

Dance Thursdays start at 10p, but can end anytime for each person.

Dhamma Dance Club is inspired by the tantric and seva paths and The Holy Teaching of Vimalakirti. The way of facilitating is inspired by Ken Mcleod and Surrendered Leadership. Everything we do at Dhamma Dance Club are invitations.

The club venue will vary, and this is intentional to deepen our landscape of Bushwick clubs while opening up to more uncertainties. So we are allowing whatever arises to be there, not making it into a problem to be dealt with. This includes not liking the music, feeling exalted, wanting to go home, dancing together in a circle, dancing apart, not dancing at all, experiencing hell, experiencing heaven, crushing hard, feeling aggressive, feeling sad, setting boundaries, getting lost in thoughts, experiencing sexual tension, and so on. We aim to be developing equanimity with all of these things for the benefit of all beings.

We will begin with clubs that are more accessible to those newer to the scene, and progress into ones that might give rise to more intensity. We will also have progressions of practice to help foster safety as we explore what happens in us when we go to the club.

Although Thursday is our set day for clubbing, we can go at other times in the week as well.

If you choose to take part in sacrament, bring your own supply and take responsibly. Sacrament is not expected of you, nor promoted.

Michael Tong has been meditating primarily with Michael Taft for 4 years and clubbing for 6 years. He is a Doctor of Acupuncture and Chinese Herbal Medicine, and has experience facilitating a variety of experiences, including Acucircles at Merlin’s place and authentic relating around NYC, Berlin, and Barcelona.