5Rhythms®, Copyright, and Letting Go

Influence and Inspiration

In the early years of Ecstatic Dance, we often introduced our work as being influenced by the conscious dance traditions that came before us. One of the most significant of these was 5Rhythms®, the movement practice developed by Gabrielle Roth.

Back then, at the beginning of our opening circle, we would explain that Ecstatic Dance had grown out of a lineage of conscious movement practices. We would mention Gabrielle Roth's wave of Flowing, Staccato, Chaos, Lyrical, and Stillness. My friend Max Fathom, who established Ecstatic Dance at Kalani Honua on the Big Island of Hawaii, had previous experience with conscious dance communities in Austin, Texas, including participation in Sweat Your Prayers, one of the many expressions of Gabrielle's work.

As we began training facilitators and documenting what we were learning, we created a large schematic diagram during the first Ecstatic Dance Facilitator Workshop in 2008. The chart attempted to map emotions, qualities, and energetic characteristics onto the five rhythms. At the time, it seemed like a useful educational tool. I included it on my website alongside a brief history of Ecstatic Dance and references to Gabrielle Roth and 5Rhythms®.

The Email from Berlin

Then one day, while sitting in my flat in Berlin, I received an email from the 5Rhythms® Global legal team.

The message was direct.

They informed me that I was using copyrighted and trademarked material without authorization. More importantly, they felt that the chart we had created was not an accurate representation of the 5Rhythms® practice.

While we appreciate the attempt at creating a written word map for the 5Rhythms® practice, the ‘Ecstatic Dance training' notes posted here are neither a comprehensive map nor an accurate representation of what the individual 5Rhythms® are (and what they aren't). Gabrielle Roth created comprehensive written maps for the 5Rhythms® and this is not it.

We have much gratitude and respect for your intentions to bring conscious dance and healing into your communities and it looks like you are doing great work! And, there are many ways to describe an Ecstatic Dance offering without infringing on our trademarks and without purporting to be an authority of and trained in something you were clearly not.

Please remove '5Rhythms' 'Flowing Staccato Chaos Lyrical Stillness' and this 'comprehensive 5R map' image from your site immediately.

I was surprised.

From my perspective, I was attempting to acknowledge the influences that had contributed to the development of Ecstatic Dance. I wasn't trying to teach 5Rhythms®, claim expertise in the method, or represent their organization. Nevertheless, their point was clear. They considered the material inaccurate, unauthorized, and potentially confusing.

Removing Everything

So I removed everything.

I took down every reference to Gabrielle Roth. I removed the chart. I deleted all references to 5Rhythms® from the website and sent an apology.

What happened next was unexpected.

I realized that although Ecstatic Dance had certainly been influenced by many conscious movement traditions, it was ultimately its own thing. The practice we had developed in Hawaii was not 5Rhythms®. It wasn't Sweat Your Prayers. It wasn't Movement Medicine, Open Floor, or any of the other movement modalities that would emerge around the world.

The Question of Ownership

That experience also clarified my feelings about intellectual property within the dance world.

The 5Rhythms® organization had every right to protect its trademarks, teachings, and training programs. They had spent decades developing a coherent body of work and wanted to ensure it was represented accurately.

At the same time, the experience reinforced a different choice that we made with Ecstatic Dance.

We never copyrighted the format.

We never created a licensing structure that required permission to host an Ecstatic Dance.

Anyone can organize an Ecstatic Dance. Anyone can use the name. Anyone can develop their own format, philosophy, or community around it.

The result is both beautiful and messy.

Today there are Ecstatic Dances all over the world that look completely different from one another. Some include facilitators and workshops. Some emphasize spiritual teachings. Some are highly structured. Others are completely free-form. Some resemble nightclubs. Others resemble ceremonies.

This openness has allowed the movement to spread far beyond anything we could have ever imagined.

It has also created confusion.

Without a shared reference point, people often have very different ideas about what Ecstatic Dance is and why it works.

That is one of the reasons why I'm writing this book.

Not to define Ecstatic Dance for everyone else.

Simply to document the original Hawaii recipe.

People can change the ingredients, add new spices, or throw out the recipe altogether.

Yet - this is the version that started it all.