Ecstasy in dance, hiking, and music: Emily Tucker

 Pages 253-261 of American Camino: Walking as a Spiritual Practice on the Appalachian Trail


"In the ecstatic dance of flow, a more intense koinonia unfolds, a mystical union with the constituents of the ecoplaces." (253)

Redick describes how dance is inherently ecstatic. Ecstasy can be defined as the following: to be beside oneself; to not be in control anymore; emptied of yourself and filled with an "other".  When the dance is genuine and spontaneous, not occurring of one's own will, it is as if the person is intoxicated into an eruption. In a way, dance is the physical manifestation of our inner emotions. The spontaneous eruption of dance that Redick describes is an outburst of one's emotions. More classically trained dancers (to which I am more familiar with) are trained to illustrate specific emotions through certain movements. In this sense, it is less of an ecstasy and instead is a performance. 

Redick compares the undivided participation and communion of koinonia to an orchestra. The conductor directs the musicians to collaborate and create something beautiful that is transcendent of themselves. Redick draws a comparison of the orchestra to the rhythmic walking of hikers on the Appalachian trail. 

"The music reveals eddies in the invisible atmosphere, the visible is saturated by the invisible manifesting a world inaccessible to the eye alone, a world inhabited by those in undivided participation." (254)

Flow is effortless and cannot be obtained while trying to acquire a skill. "Walking in flow is a 'saying' that has not yet been congealed into a 'said'." (256) Flow and kenotic walking precede experience and thematization. Once the memory has been recalled it becomes a 'said'. While flow is a happening, the hiker has not yet discovered knowledge of it. 

"Unfolding in the event prior to being recalled is another kind of knowing, a communion, a mystical participation" (256). 

This 'knowing' is a participation with an 'other'. A deeper understanding and intimacy. This is where empathy stems from. It is deeper than surface emotions, because you are feeling it in your physical body by empathizing with someone else. You suffer with them. This allows you to find meaning that hasn't become knowledge yet through empathy with another. 


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