The Unconditional Dance Festival

For the past eight years, the Friends of Unconditional Dance (FUD) have been hosting the Unconditional Dance Festival during that magical window of time between Christmas and New Years Day.  Among Harbin workshops, it is a unique product of Harbin residents and guests’ cooperation and love – a sacred arena for dance, performance, healing, music, intimacy, community-building, and fun.

The festival is both a workshop and a celebration, with dance classes during the day and live musical performances and DJed dances in the evenings.  But the true richness of this gathering lies in its dynamic, healing spirit.  And much of this unique, loving spirit arises from the community created by the Thursday Night Unconditional Dance.

Though it only lasts two and a half hours and occurs just once a week, the Thursday Night Unconditional Dance has a history of opening hearts and changing lives.  Its popularity is not only evident in the crowds of happy bodies gyrating on the dance floor, but by the line of guests waiting to check-in at the gate-house and the consistently booked-up Thursday night room reservations.  It would be interesting to know how many other retreat centers in Northern California or anywhere rent all of their rooms on rainy Thursday nights in January or February.

Rivaling the guests' love of the dance is the enthusiasm that many Harbin residents feel toward the weekly gathering.  Week after week, the Harbin residents are blessed with a myriad of creative and inspiring cultural activities to choose from.  Yet no single event, class, or performance commands the consistent attendance and interest of so many residents.  For many, going to the dance is like "going to church."

"And it all started," says Harbin DJ and a founding member of FUD, Omer Nizri, "with a boom box in a room."  Around that same time, free-form dance environments were flourishing all over the Bay Area, with groups like Dance Spirit and the Northern California Dance Collective forming and holding events of their own.  After hearing about a successful summer dance festival, some Harbin residents decided to create one of their own.

"The very first dance festival bombed ... and it was an amazing success," says Omer.  "We didn't know how to prepare anything.  We didn't know what we would need.  We didn't have a sound system.  It was very raw for us."  Yet that event culminated with the band, Gypsy Moon, playing for well over a hundred participants, who all ended up dancing wildly.  "It was an amazing, magical night.  And here we are at festival number nine."

But what is it about Harbin dances that can touch people so profoundly?  Why is it that sometimes just being in the room can affect someone for weeks or months?  Harbin's Unconditional Dance, in fact all of its dances, nurtures an environment that honors and cherishes self-expression and encourages the fierce braveness of vulnerability.  Dancing together, week after week, year after year, with family and friends, old and new, generates a field of love and trust.  And, in this field, it is easy to connect, share, investigate, challenge, and explore through the beautiful, wordless language of movement.

The New Years Unconditional Dance Festival provides an extended period, both concentrated and amplified, of this loving dancing time-space.  These are some sentiments this years' festival participants shared about their experiences:

"I didn't know what to expect.  I took the word of a friend. (With tears) I've searched my whole life for happiness.  I thought I had all the answers.  I discovered the last couple of dancing days that happiness is sharing.  Happiness is cracking open my heart.  I've allowed myself to show more of my heart and I'm grateful for that.  I'm a very happy person."

"When I got here, you scared the shit out of me.  I felt very separate.  I think I judged you all.  You know, green hair, people who touch each other and don't mean anything, but love by it.  I didn't know that existed.  Today my hips moved and I wasn't afraid anymore.  I knew you didn't want anything from me, except for me to be me.  I don't think I've ever had that before..."

"The past few months for me have been about fear.  Alcohol, bars - I'm a party animal.  Then came new food allergies.  No alcohol.  I finished the year scared to death.  How will I dance?  How can I party?  How do I have fun?  I'm excited to know that there are communities like this one across the Bay Area where I can dance."

The festival consists of six days of active morning meditations, daytime dance classes, and evening dances with DJs and live music.  The classes cover topics like Contact Improv, the Five Rhythms, Tango, Aquatic Contact Improv, Quantum Light Breath, and others.  All of the meals are catered with organic food.  Indoor and outdoor camping is included and participants have full access to Harbin facilities, including the pools and yoga.

This July (July 26 - 31), the Friends of Unconditional Dance will host its second summer festival with new teachers and past favorites.  There will be live music and DJ Zack Darling, DJ Dragonfly, and DJ Omer.  We hope to see you this summer when the Harbin dance community will gather together in love yet again!

Eric Richardson is a Harbin resident, an active Friends of Unconditional Dance administrator, a dancer, and a full-time silly person.