So You Think You Can’t Dance?

Dance like no one is watching. That’s easy to say but difficult to do, at least for me. I can’t dance. At all. Think Willard from Footloose or Elaine from Seinfeld.

That said, I love dancing. I enjoy square dancing even though I step on toes. I frequently tap dance even though I can’t quite get the second part of the Shim Sham right. Or the first, for that matter.

So when I heard about Elemental Ecstatic Dance, I was game to give it a try.

Ecstatic dance is a sober, free-form movement practice where people dance however their bodies want; there is no choreography, no steps to learn, no judgment. Think: part dance, part meditation, part emotional release. You can even flail hopelessly about like I did.

“It is science-based that free-form dance is better for the brain than choreographed or practiced dance,” writes Andjru Werderitsch (below), the founder of Elemental Ecstatic Dance. “It’s also so incredibly fun and full of exercise.” | Doug Coombe

On a recent Sunday morning, I put on my party dress, got off the couch, and drove to A2 Yoga behind the post office on Stadium. The people in the lobby could not have been nicer—after hearing it was my first time, they exclaimed that they were delighted I was there. With welcoming smiles, they led me to a dance floor layered with yoga mats. A pile of scarves rested near a fan, and balloons bounced lightly on the hardwood floor.

The DJ, Andjru Werderitsch, introduced himself right away. He told me what to expect: a warm-up dance, an opening circle, more dance, and a closing circle. The music, he explained, would start off slowly and amp up as we went along.

“What do I do?” asked I.

He gave me a gigantic smile. “You dance.”

At first I just sort of stood there tapping my toes. I’m a shy person and kept my head down, only glancing up a few times to see what everyone else was doing. Here’s the wonderful part: everyone was doing their own thing. No one was looking at me askance or wondering why the heck I was there. (I have all the grace of an elephant in the lightbulb section of Home Depot.)

I started doing spins on my toes. I wanted to be a ballerina at one point, until I grew too tall and also realized that I couldn’t handle a plié, let alone a pirouette. But there on that floor it didn’t matter. I hopped from one side of the yoga mat to the other. I twirled. I leapt. I pranced. I maybe even pliéd.

Doug Coombe

Then I grabbed some scarves, draping one over my head and tying the other around my waist. The music picked up, and so did I. Soon, I found myself twirling and dancing around the room. I even grabbed the barre as a partner and did some twists.

Before I knew it, it was time for the opening circle. Andrew made clear that this is a space for everyone and a place for all to feel comfortable. If you wanted to dance with someone, there was a way to make that known and a way to accept or decline. No one wore strong perfumes or scents. No one would invade your personal space or make you do something you didn’t want to do. Everyone was welcome.

People wore sunglasses, people did yoga, people danced in groups, with partners, alone. People in all seasons of life and of all body shapes. At some point, my brain started pumping out serotonin like a going-out-of-business sale. I felt good.

For the next hour, I got completely lost in the music.

Flashback: Dancing in the Streets

Founded by Werderitsch in 2024, Elemental Ecstatic Dance is inspired by his experience of two decades of Gabrielle Roth’s 5Rhythms classes in California, which combine physical workouts with meditation, along with the West Coast ecstatic dance scene. He combines these two approaches with his own free-form dance history that includes everything from disco roller skating to warehouse parties to grass roots festivals.

Werderitsch is a gentle soul who radiates peace. His movements suggest a deep connection to rhythm, and his passion for dance echoes in everything he does at these accepting, safe, sober events.

When I ask Werderitsch via email if it’s common to feel this good after ecstatic dance, he confirms it—and explains why.

“I play a variety of music genres to assist us in moving in different ways, developing muscle and brain functions,” he writes. “It is science-based that free-form dance is better for the brain than choreographed or practiced dance … It’s also so incredibly fun and full of exercise.”

It’s long been known that dancing is good for you. A 2003 study in the New England Journal of Medicine, which studied the effects of eleven different kinds of physical activities, found that the only one that reduced the risk of dementia was dance. The researchers suspected that the mental effort and social interaction of dance made it unique from the other types of exercise that they studied. Other studies have found that dancers receive a double bonus: the music that stimulates the reward centers of our brain, and the dance that gets the sensory and motor circuits grooving. As for free-form dance, a 2021 UCLA study found it was beneficial for over 95 percent of participants with trauma, depression, and anxiety.

But you don’t need any fancy studies to prove this to yourself. Just go out dancing!

Elemental Ecstatic Dance meets every Sunday from 11 a.m.–1 p.m. at A2 Yoga, 2030 Commerce Blvd.

This article has been changed since it was published in the March 2026 Observer. The name of Elemental Ecstatic Dance was corrected in the last sentence.