Ecstatic Dance - Move in Nature

Dance Free are hosting an outdoor ecstatic dance session at Hartsholme Country Park on Saturday 7 November, from 11am to 1pm. It's a free-movement experience led by facilitators Ellie Benton and Hannah Green, and as the name suggests, the whole thing takes place in nature rather than in a studio.

If you've never come across it, ecstatic dance is exactly what it sounds like: you just move. There's no choreography to learn and no set of steps to follow, so you don't need any dance experience to join in. The session lasts around two hours, and it's open to anyone aged 16 and over. The idea is to let go and move however your body wants to, with the natural surroundings of the park as the backdrop.

The session is run by Dance Free, the group Benton and Green lead. Benton is a dance and art facilitator who found dance as a way to reconnect with herself after years of feeling awkward in her own body — a subject she also paints. Green runs free-movement dance groups across Lincolnshire, guiding people to let go and feel free in their bodies through movement in natural settings. Together they'll be facilitating the morning.

On the practical side, the meeting point is Hartsholme Park Car Park at 10:55am, with the session running from 11am to 1pm. A standard ticket is £12, and there are 'pay it forward' and community tickets available too. Parking on site is free. Because it's an outdoor event, it's subject to the weather: in case of extreme conditions, it may be cancelled with 24 hours' notice and a full refund.