spirit groove

Before it was called "Ecstatic Dance" there was Dragonfly. His mixes are constantly taking dance floors to the ecstatic edge of terra incognita, a place defined by that familiar place of emotional depth, where it resides in the exhilaration of exploring music and movement. And at the same time, his sets - always unplanned, always a mystery - are a like a "trust fall", an experience where the dancefloor surrenders to a DJ whose love of the dancefloor is what comes first. Dragonfly's own initiation goes back to a metaphyshical and metaphorical rebirth in 1980, during the explosion of the punk and New Wave music scenes...and is true today, where the dancefloor is still a place he calls home.

All genres, tempos and cultures weave with deep bass, gossamer groove and beckoning beats for an inexplicable, exciting, soul-crafting session of empathogenic sound. Breathe deeply, go deep, dance hard.

PAST ECSTATIC DANCE APPEARANCES INCLUDE: Berlin, Bucharest, Amsterdam, Costa Rica, Jordan, Antwerp,  Portugal, New York (NY), Montreal (CDN), Oakland (CA), Nevada City (CA), San Francisco (CA), Portland (OR), San Diego (CA), Los Angeles (CA), Big Island (HI), Bend (OR), Eugene (OR), Ashland (OR), Palo Alto (CA), Sebastopol (CA), Sacramento (CA), Cambria (CA), Willits (CA), Global Eclipse Festival (OR), Lightning In A Bottle Festival(CA), Beloved Festival(OR), Burning Man Festival (CA) and many more...

About me:
I never plan sets. And I never will. One reason is that Ecstatic Dance is an adventurous dialogue between the dancers and the DJ. And just as the best conversations are not planned, but rather intimate explorations inspired by mutual respect, wonderment, curiosity, expression and mystery, I feel that the opposite is true for a planned set. It's a monologue. As a DJ whose first love is dancing, I am invested in the dance floor. And, to dance is to be vulnerable. To Never plan a DJ set also is vulnerability. To share in that place of raw unpredictability, is intimate connection. Dancers and DJs need each other to reside in that place in order to feel empathy , to stay connected. So, this approach to DJing may not work for everyone, but that's just me.... As it relates to preparing, that's an entirely different subject... in order for the dialogue to work as a place of connection, I have an unabridged encyclopedia of music dripping with sonic emotion and the rhetoric of rhythm. So being prepared means arriving at the decks with a broad range of taste in music, and an understanding of how dancers can become over saturated with tempo and tone. On a personal note, When it comes to music, well, that is where I am polyamorous...and under the covers is a veritable orgy of genres just waiting to make love to the sound system.

ECSTATIC DANCE

Tis the "Season of the Witch" and the Autumn Harvest. A time when we celebrate and give thanks for the abundance of Mother Earth - both literally and spiritually.  It’s also a good time to reflect on the Wheel of the Year, recognizing your successes and letting go of the things that did not serve you during the past twelve months. This mix is for all the Witches tapping into the magic of the season and reminding us of our power to cultivate the world we want to see, one of beauty and abundance for all.

Witches Brew Volume One

Expect the unexpected: Two hours & seven minutes of genre-hopping, tempo-morphing dance music. A slow build, followed by mid-tempo bump and groove gives way to driving tribal house , then collapses in to funk, twerk and eventually a grand, downtempo exhale

Designed and informed by the dancefloor, channeled by yours truly and mixed live, unplanned and uncharted on CDJs and with live percussive elements on my Roland Handsonic. Welcome to a journey of beat-huffing bass music, mystic glitch, electroswing, twerkhop, tribal house, Afrofunk,Balkan trap and dreamtempo!

Recorded at PDX Refuge, Jan 1st, 2014. Day of Intention with  Alex Grey and  Dragonfly, live music with https://soundcloud.com/peia-1

Partial Artist List Includes:

Anchor Hill
Plantrae
Drumspyder
Whitebear
Chris Komus
Push Pull
Marie Boine
Will Magid
Maga Bo
Buku
Keith Baker 
Jus Now
Psy-Fi
Synthetic Epiphany
Mnemesoyme

DRAGONFLY ECSTATIC DANCE SET- PORTLAND  JAN 1, 2014

ENVISION FESTIVAL - ECSTATIC DANCE
(edit. Sat, 9 March: Renamed set "JUNGLE PRAYER ECSTATIC DANCE". Thank you everyone for the feedback. Your dance in the jungle was juicey.  The set was a collective somatic prayer, an embodiment and a devotion to the dance as medicine).

And like all my ecstatic dance mixes, this is a raw portrait of the dance floor before me,  each set experienced as a unrehearsed, spontaneous collaboration with the dancers. But on this particular night in the jungle I had and agenda: Peace, prayer, healing, tribe, remembrance, beauty, home.

Envision Festival was the apotheosis of what a dance floor can do, and how far it can go as collective cathartic release: It was a total hot, sweaty meltdown of a trust fall.  

p.s. DJing ecstatic dance at a festival generally requires getting down to business from the get-go. Unlike indoors, these dances compete with other stages, are a porous container, comers-and-goers, talking on the dancefloor....and this also makes it special and surprising for the uninitiated.

p.s. If there is a specific track you want to know about, pm me. It will tell me that you listened.

DRAGONFLY - JUNGLE PRAYER ECSTATIC DANCE - ENVISION 2024

LIGHTNING IN A BOTTLE - FESTIVAL-STYLE ECSTATIC DANCE SET
Unlike most ecstatic dances this set reflects the open dancefloor and permeable container that comes with 20k beautiful and crazy people attending Lioghtning In A Bottle. As such, I adhered to what I would call a "traditional" approach by mixing up genres, vibes and tempos in order to keep the core dancers fully activated, regardless of their place in their flow... http://lightninginabottle.org

DRAGONFLY - ECSTATIC DANCE - LIGHTNING IN  A BOTTLE 2016

An awesome crew hosts a really high-vibin' get-down in a very sweet part of L.A. Lots of great juice bars, yoga studios, shops and hang outs...right near the beach, too. This set was was for their 2-year anniversary. What a great day!

DRAGONFLY @ LOS ANGELES ECSTATIC DANCE - 2 YEAR ANNIVERSARY

Oregon rocks. Eugene Ecstatic Dance was no exception. This set features an all world music Ecstatic Dance journey featuring: Latin, African, Balkan, Celtic, Indian, Middle Eastern...

DRAGONFLY - EUGENE GLOBAL ECSTATIC DANCE

DEEP MAGICK RITUAL MOVEMENT....2 hours, 46 mins of hypnotic, worldy, percussive and shamanic ékstasis ( @ Oakland Ecstatic Dance ). From its traditional slow warm-up to its conclusive grand exhale, traditional and contemporary Eastern, African, European and Asian motifs, instruments and voices weave through this serpentine mix of magical peaks and valleys.


DRAGONFLY - DEEP MAGICK:  PRIMORDIAL ECSTATIC DANCE - OAKLAND

You can now Pre-Order, Prism In The Dark Album )Released Jan 3 2017

Get Album

Stay Feat. Yaarrohs

This is my opening set from Soul Tribe's 2 year anniversary ft. Michael Manahan. This night we also had my dear friend Jason Bailey joining us on the hammered dulcimer. He comes in around 54:22 on this mix. Picture is from the end of the night after Michael and I did a surprise tag set to close the night and I began to give the closing speech. PC: Dustin Havens [Recorded from my Condesa Carmen V directly from Mackie Processing unit of the sound system]
Track List:
1. Aegeria (Original Mix)-Niko Christo, Synas
2. WY (Original Mix) -Monolink
3. Machines (Original Mix) -Deneha
4. The Other One (Simon Garcia's Tunnel Vision Dub) -[a]pendics.shuffle, Mikael Stavostrand
5. We Do It Differently (Original Mix) - rAin (MU)
6. White Tusk (Original) -Mark Alow
7. Orient (Original) -Definition 
8. Fisherman (Original Mix) -Yourr
9. Derive (Original Mix) -Stan Kolev
8. Saalt (Original Mix) -Stereo.type, Justin Marchacos
9. Intentions (Original Mix) -Pablo Centrini
10. Anunnaki (Hot Tuneik Remix) -Matteo Monero
11. Slap Back (Original Mix) -Reebyth
12. Mira (Tatsama Remix) -Tencode
13. Locutus of Borg (Original Mix) -Nhar
14. O Grande Amor (Original Mix) -Kamilo Sanclemente
15. Xpand your Mind -DR PACKER
16. No Smoking (Original Mix) -Alexic Rod, Colombo
17. El Vagabundo (feat. Pablo J) -WEISZA
18. Jafar (Original Mix) -Elfenberg

Bizio Ft. Focus LIVE At Soul Tribe 2yr. Anniversary

A Spirit Walk is when you heed the calling of your spirit, journeying where your spirit leads you, so that you may experience that which you to need experience in order to fully realize your reason for being here at this time and at this place.

Spirit Walk

Free Download

Spirit Walk v1.0

2025:
10/24-10/26: Bloom Festival Sebastopol, CA
https://www.sebastopolbloom.com

9/20: Ecstatic Dance - willits:
https://www.facebook.com/events/1508772770150357

9/11: SYNERGY @ SOFT MEDICINE - SEBASTOPOL
https://www.facebook.com/events/1172153334721233

Burning Man
> HOOKAHDOME: FRIDAY 1am-2am @ 7:30 & ESPLANADE (GLOBAL BASS SET)
> SOUND GARDEN:  SATURDAY 1:00-2:30AM @ 2:00 & ELLISON (GLOBAL HOUSE SET)
>DISORIENT: WEDS: 1PM-2PM supporting: AMPLIFIED YOGA @ Esplanade & 2:15
> Cuttlefish art car: tbd

Aug 3: Ecstatic Dance San Rafael: https://www.facebook.com/events/4177420649154296

July 18-20 Northern Nights Festival
https://northernnights.org/nnmf2025/
May 21-25 Lightning In A Bottle 
https://www.libfestival.org/
April 22 - Nevada City Ecstatic Dance
April 18th - Sacramento Ecstatic Dance
March 30th - Salt Lake City - Ecstatic Dance
https://www.facebook.com/events/957214139827736/
March 7th - with Beats Antique in Arcata, CA https://www.facebook.com/events/590483817146050/590483820479383/
Feb 16: Daybreakers - Yoga set w/ Nat Kendall
Great American Music Hall. SF
https://www.daybreaker.com/event/san-francisco/
Jan 25th - Soulplay Party @ 
Lake Merritt Dance, Oakland
https://events.humanitix.com/soulplay-soiree-connect

2024
Dec 31 - NYE @ The Flamingo - Santa Rosa
Dec 17 - Nevada City Ecstatic Dance
Dec 8 - Marin Ecstatic Dance - San Rafael
Nov 15 - Soft Medicine Sanctuary with Equanimous
https://www.facebook.com/events/2439626586226329
Sept 21 - PORTAL w/Janet Stone (Mill Valley)
https://www.theportal.house/
Sept 21 - SF How Weird Street Faire
https://howweird.org/
Sept 15th - Venice Beach
https://www.ecstaticdancela.com/
Aug. 26-31 - Burning Man
https://burningman.org
June 21-23 - June Jam (AZ)
https://www.june-jam.com
June 9 - Soulplay (CA)
https://www.soulplay.co
May 22-27, 2024 - Lightning In A Bottle (CA)
https://www.libfestival.org/experience
May 2-6, 2024 - High Vibes Festival (CA)
https://highviberecords.ticketspice.com/highvibefest2024
April 4-9, 2024 - Texas Eclipse Festival (TX)
https://seetexaseclipse.com/
March 4-10, 2024 - Envision Festival (Costa Rica)
https://www.envisionfestival.com/
Oct 5, 2023- Joshua Tree Music Festival (CA)
https://joshuatreemusicfestival.com/oct-event-info/


Music without a map: Showcasing travelogues from the global turntable...

Taste is trust.  DJing is trust. 
wHo: Hailing from the West Coast and serving sound as one of the most sought after Freestyle selectors in the Festival, Club and Ecstatic Dance scenes. A magic carpet ride of sound transports the dancefloor when Dragonfly throws down his full-spectrum, body-mind-soul transglobal sound experience. Think cutting-edge, polyrhythmic akashic bass meets primordial sound, elastic dreamtempo, tribal mayhem, and ecstatic bliss. 

wHAt: Each mix showcased is a unique snapshot or portrait of the dancefloor. No mixes are alike, no dancefloor is alike...and no set ever preplanned, recorded or mixed. This is raw.

hOw:  As a consummate crate-digger his days are spent down the rabbit-holes of sound, constantly discovering emerging talent and the hidden gems of sonic possibility. With an ear for the exotic and a background in movement arts, his approach is through the emotive keyhole of the psyche, while unlocking the heart of the dancefloor community. As a percussionist who’s adventured extensively throughout the near and far east, his mixes span all tempos and all genres of electronic dance music. His selections are drenched in global idioms, accented with tribal motifs, and interwoven with relentlessly intoxicating rhythm and groove.   

wHEre:
Past festival appearances include. Lightning In A Bottle,Symbiosis Gathering, Envision festival, Joshua Tree Music Festival, Hogfarm Hideaway, Enchanted Forest Festival, Lucidity Festival,Wanderlust Festival, Beloved Festival, Northern Nights, Stilldream Festival,Eclipse Festival (Australia),Great Convergence (Egypt), Envision Festival (Costa Rica), Shambhala Festival (Canada),Manifest, June Jam, Power to the Peaceful, Peace Village, Burning Man, Raindance, Earthdance, Harmony Festival, Awaken,OMIES Fest, Mystic Garden Gathering, Mystic Island Festival, Foreverland, 
Ecstatic Dance Retreats and Ecstatic Dance in: Berlin/Amsterdam/Budapest/Antwerp/Bucharest/Portugal, Jordan, Oakland/Nevada City/Portland/Cambria/Los Angeles/New York/Salt Lake City/Hawaii/Palo Alto/Berkeley/Santa Barbara. YOGA JOURNAL Conference, A-FEST Portugal & Jordan, SOULPLAY, Austin Yoga Festival, Science & Non Duality Conference, No. California Sufi Camp, Creating Enlightened Society (hosted by Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche), David Deida, Bioneers Conference, No California Permaculture Gathering, Julia Butterfly Hill fundraiser, Santa Cruz Film Festival, and many more.

wHy:
Life is short; may your dance be long.


((((*´`*´¯`·.¸¸o*o¸¸.·´¯`*´`*))))
~~~!!!~~~~dRAGONFLy~~~!!!~~~
booking:
djdragonfly@gmail.com

DRAGONFLY - JUNGLE PRAYER ECSTATIC DANCE - ENVISION 2024

DR∆GONFLY