JIMENA BERMEJO
PURGE/DANCEMANIA!
Special Guest Chris Brokaw
From the 7th century through the 17th century outbreaks of Dancing Mania occurred across Europe. People would dance day and night unil collapsing in ecstasy. Multiple theories abound as to the causes, as well as terms including 'St. Vitus dance' and 'epidemic dancing'.
"They hardly stopped, and some danced until they broke their ribs and subsequently died. Throughout, dancers screamed, laughed, or cried, and some sang. Bartholomew also notes that observers of dancing mania were sometimes treated violently if they refused to join in. Participants demonstrated odd reactions to the color red; in A History of Madness in Sixteenth-Century Germany, Midelfort notes they "could not perceive the color red at all" and Bartholomew reports "it was said that dancers could not stand... the color red, often becoming violent on seeing [it]".
Come join me creating "Dancing Mania 2020" to attempt to purge the evils of this year. We will meditate, move, play as a way to rid the stress, ideas and energy stored in our bodies. Have a chair, a table or some other object to use as a partner or to perhaps something you want to destroy! Chris Brokaw will be playing sounds and drums to lead us through a cathartic dancemania.