Newly-founded So We Are Silent Disco invites the community to abandon themselves to the music and tune into their bodies on the shore of Junipero Beach in Long Beach this Sunday, April 3.
“There’s always so much trauma stored in the body so when you start to shake it up and you get really grounded it can be a very emotional experience and an unexpected one too because it’s super, super fun,” said Katie Neary, founder of So We Are Silent Disco.
So We Are Silent Disco provides headphones to all participants and then encourages them to try “ecstatic dance,” while listening to a playlist curated by Neary.
In ecstatic dance, dancers freely and intuitively move their bodies to music without the need to think about their steps.
Neary describes ecstatic dance as “Just freely moving your body […] It’s not thinking about it. It’s almost letting your body move for you.”
After suffering from chronic illness and eating disorders, Neary felt disconnected from her body before finding ecstatic dance, she said.
“My body was something that has failed me so then I had a lot of resentment towards it,” Neary said.
Neary told the Signal Tribune that she had suffered from chronic regional pain syndrome, which left her in a wheelchair and with paralysis of the stomach and gallbladder.
“It was really like my body was shutting down on me,” Neary said. “I was just falling apart. And through a healing journey, prior to finding ecstatic dance, I had started to really get into spirituality, self-development and kind of learning things about myself. But it was when I found ecstatic dance that I was able to really reconnect the ‘body’ aspect of ‘mind body spirit.’”
When the pandemic arrived in 2020, Neary was working a corporate job as an insurance broker.
“I was doing the most boring job ever,” Neary said. “It was lucrative but it was so unaligned with my soul.”
Then Neary discovered Ecstatic Dance LA, which was holding group ecstatic dance meet-ups over Zoom during the pandemic.
“I actually was in the backyard with my family, just dancing in front of this camera, like fully expressing myself,” Neary said. “And they all were like ‘What are you doing? This is so weird.’ And I was like, ‘No, I’m gonna do this one day.’ And I was even shocked that that came out of my mouth.”
After that, Neary began looking into different ecstatic dance groups, eventually completing a mentorship in Santa Monica before starting So We Are Silent Disco.
According to Neary, around 45 people attended So We Are Silent Disco’s first event on March 27.
“I really feel like I’m pursuing exactly what I’m meant to do,” Neary said. “Which is to just help hold space and facilitate healing for the collective.”
So We Are Silent Disco’s next event at Junipero Beach will be held on Sunday, April 3. Tickets can be purchased on Eventbrite for $30.
