Live This City: Pour your all into the dancing.
03/28/2009 - By By Anna Ritner for sacbee.com
BodyJoy founder Bella Dreizler gets a nice write-up in the Sacramento Bee for her 5Rhythms classes and freestyle dance jams.
There is infinite variety among human beings in life, but when it comes to the great dance-floor Petri dish, we all tend to fall into one of two categories.
There are those ascetics who cling to the periphery and to their own restrained, foot-tapping gravitas, delivering the automated response "I need a lot more to drink" when summoned to boogie. And then there are those of us who explode with an abandoned bravado, whose limbs are but extensions of a passionate heart, succumbing to the rhythm of life and the ecstasy of the moment with a spasmodic grace.
Bella (a.k.a. Stacey) Dreizler falls into the latter category, but the 58-year-old body-work coach, yoga instructor and dance teacher fervently believes there's a dancer inside everyone – all it needs to survive is a beat and a little space to jam.
Dreizler, a longtime Sacramento resident, spent more than three decades practicing physical therapy. In 2002, she began funneling her passion for movement and healing into her lifelong love of dance. While driving along the Pacific Coast Highway one afternoon, Dreizler serendipitously stumbled upon Esalen, a retreat center in Big Sur made famous by its alternative and experimental education offerings. Interest piqued, she enrolled in a dance class, and, recalls Dreizler, "Within five minutes I realized this is my path."
That transformative dance class turned out to be a session of 5Rhythms, a free-form dancing-meditation discipline developed by Gabrielle Roth. The 5Rhythms practice draws upon numerous belief systems, using movement, energy and freedom of expression as channels for achieving physical and spiritual awareness.
"It is the intersection of body, mind and heart," says Dreizler, who, after several years of rigorous study and preparation, received her official teacher certification in 5Rhythms in 2008. Roth's meditative practice has long been popular in Europe and is gaining momentum in the United States, especially in holistic hot spots like the Bay Area.
Dreizler's fervor for yoga and dance, along with her desire to spread the 5Rhythms word locally, has culminated in Body Joy, an umbrella term for the various classes and body-work sessions she offers. In addition to instructing several weekly guided dance and moving meditation classes, Dreizler has recently begun facilitating Dance Jam, a freeform community dance that occurs every last Friday of the month. The event is a casual affair – not like a 5Rhythms class, which requires silence on behalf of its participants.
Rather, Dance Jam is as laid-back and liberated as its name implies. Attendees are free to express themselves through their own chosen form of movement in a safe, nonjudgmental environment, reconnecting with their minds and bodies while simultaneously feeding off the collective energy of the community. Dreizler does not offer any form of instruction, but she does DJ the event herself, weaving through an enormously fun and eclectic repertoire of music – from world beats and funk to rhythm and blues – creating a soundtrack that sustains positive momentum for the duration of the three-hour event.
That's right – three hours of free-for-all, uninhibited movement, with no one lurking at the edges of the dance floor to check you out or inform you that your hip-rolling technique is wack. In addition to decompressing, soul-searching and reconnecting with their bodies, those interested in attending can get a substantial cardio workout, and for $15, that's far more bang for your spiritual buck than a kickboxing class.
Dancers are encouraged to socialize and bring potluck-style snacks to the event (no alcoholic drinks are allowed). Many take breaks to chat, snack, hydrate and switch out their footwear.
During the evening, Dreizler moves through two waves of music. Each segment begins slowly, builds to a crescendo and smoothly glides back down to a resting state. There's a break in between the two waves so people can get better acquainted with fellow jammers, soul-seekers and free birds (and, occasionally, dance-phobes).
"Intimacy is a big word on the dance floor. That's one of the things we're learning out there - how to be with ourselves, how to be with one other person and how to be a part of a community."
After all, says Dreizler, "Out in the real world, that's all there is."
