About the Author

Sprocket is a conscious dance pioneer and co-founder of the Ecstatic Dance movement, which began in 2001 at the Kalani Oceanside Retreat on Hawaii's Big Island.

His relationship with music and dance began long before Ecstatic Dance existed. At age twelve, he organized his first dance party at his high school in Germany. By sixteen, he was DJing local events and immersing himself in a wide spectrum of musical influences that would shape his creative life for decades to come.

Kraftwerk, Tangerine Dream, Brian Eno, Giorgio Moroder, Joy Division, Frank Zappa, Led Zeppelin, industrial pioneers, experimental composers, heavy metal acts, and underground punk bands all became part of an ever-expanding musical education. What connected them was not genre, but a willingness to explore new territory.

Driven by curiosity and a fascination with sound, Sprocket spent his teenage years recording loops and mashups using two UHER reel-to-reel tape machines, a KORG MS-20 synthesizer, and anything else he could transform into an instrument.

Inspired by the radical creativity of Einstürzende Neubauten, he and his friends Lippus and Andreas formed the experimental punk band EGAL ("Who Cares"), pushing the limits of sound until either their ears gave out or the neighbors had heard enough.

Years later, while working with the groundbreaking Fairlight CMI at the Technical University Berlin Electronic Music Lab, Sprocket found himself dancing among the participants of the very first Love Parade during the summer of 1989.

What began as a political demonstration promoting peace, unity, and international understanding through music and dance attracted 150 participants. In the years that followed, it would grow into one of the most influential electronic music gatherings in history.

Finding Home on the Dance Floor

Among Sprocket's greatest inspirations was Berlin's legendary Far Out / Zorba the Buddha dance temple, a place where people from all walks of life gathered to celebrate freedom, diversity, creativity, and connection.

The club's welcoming atmosphere and eclectic musical landscape embodied a simple but profound principle:

That lesson would remain with him throughout his life.

His adventures eventually led him across continents and into the Nevada desert, where he became a longtime participant in Burning Man. Throughout the 1990s and beyond, he played sunrise sets on the playa, creating experiences that blended music, art, community, and radical self-expression.

Then, during the 2001 Burn, a chance encounter changed everything.

Sprocket befriended a group of Bohemian ravers from a magical oceanside retreat center near his new home on Hawaii Island. What began as an immediate friendship soon evolved into a creative partnership.

United by a shared love of music, community, and transformative dance experiences, they began hosting Sunday morning gatherings that invited people to move freely, connect authentically, and celebrate life through music.

The gatherings blended influences from electronic music culture, conscious community, festival culture, meditation, ritual, and embodied movement practices. There was no choreography. No performance. No expectation of how anyone should dance.

Just music, movement, and presence.

Week by week, the community grew.

What started as a local experiment rooted in connection, freedom, and authentic self-expression became the fertile ground from which Ecstatic Dance emerged.

Today, Ecstatic Dance communities can be found across the globe, carrying forward the same spirit that inspired those early gatherings: creating spaces where people can reconnect with themselves, one another, and the joy of being fully alive.

A Life in Dance

From underground clubs in Germany to the beaches of Hawaii, from Burning Man sunrises to Ecstatic Dance gatherings around the world, these moments capture pieces of a lifelong journey through music, community, and movement.