My Story

Hello, my name is Nritya (birth name Maria). I am creating this fundraiser to take the next step in my life as an individual, dancer, practitioner and coach.

My mission is to help people fully embody and embrace every part of their being (and all the emotions that come with it). To celebrate and transmute the stuckness of our lives through dance so we can live our lives truly free and ecstatic. 

Dance has become a passion of mine since I was a teenager. It all started with a holiday in Tunisia with my mom, which spanned into a lifelong passion for Latin dance. 

There was a point in my life when I couldn't imagine my life without dance.

Where I was dancing 20-30 hours a week on top of my full-time job!

It was my medicine. It was what kept me sane. It was my happy place.

What I didn't realize back then was that I was using it as an addiction. An escape. 

Instead of going there to heal all the things that weren't working in my life, I was using dance to escape from them. It was my drug! The dance floor was where I didn't need to worry about it. It made the whole world fade away. 

2 years ago I discovered ecstatic dance for the first time on a small island in Thailand.  I remember these people dancing on the beach, moving madly, chaotically, bewilderedly. All I could think was  ‘These people must be completely and utterly high and tripping on something'. 

Little did I know then that they were completely sober! 

Mere days later I found myself on the ecstatic dance floor for the first time in my life. No structure, no instruction, just music and movement. I was watching the vastness of people around me dancing their hearts out, dancing alone or connecting. No rules. Just beauty! Just freedom. Mere expression and oh the rawness of emotions both high and low. Some people were in pure joy, others were in tears. It was stunning and I couldn't help but get swept up in it.

Through my journey with ecstatic dance and tantra, I have discovered the power of moving through our emotions with movement. I like using movement because I feel like dance has many negative annotations. Some people have the belief that a ‘dance’ has to be this stunning, structured, technically correct thing. To me, dance is mere expression. It's feeling your heart and soul, feeling the music and allowing your body to move to it. A heartless dance is nothing. To me, THAT is just movement. Dancing without heart, just ‘moving’ through the routine. Dance to me is the emotions, it’s the true being we are inside, whatever that may be in that given moment, with all the vastness of our emotions, and expressing that on the dancefloor. Feeling it, pouring all those emotions and experiences into the dance, letting them move through you, transform, evolve, transmute! That to me is dance. Of course, many people would debate that. And so I use movement to help people accept that they don't need to ‘look’ good!  They just need to FEEL and move!

With my background in Psychology, since I discovered dance I became fascinated by the Psychology of dance. How does dance affect our lives, and how does our life influence our dance? What do they mean together? How do they correlate and how can you use them to enhance your life rather than run away from it? 

This is the work I want to bring to the world! I want to help people find their true, ecstatic, joyous, free being in dance. In whatever way, shape or form that may take. 

Imagine the Latin dance scene, instead of feeling like you can't go dance with someone because you are feeling sad or angry.. Feellike you can walk up to them and openly share ‘I am feeling emotional today, may I take this into my dance with you and express it?’. And if that person agrees, imagine flowing with that person, with that song, with that movement, with those emotions and allowing them to evolve, to shift, so that by the end of that dance you walk off the dancefloor a different person than you came? Isn’t that what we truly want from dance? Not an escape but a medicine? 

My dream

My Dream is to start teaching this work at Latin dance festivals and beyond.
My dream is to bring healing to those passionate about dance and help them use it as an empowerment tool, rather than an escapism tool.

How many of us run away from our lives and fall into the laps of dance just so we don't have to be alone, so we don't have to deal with life, so we don't need to feel the emptiness. The pain?

What if instead of running away, we went dancing to celebrate all of ourselves, every emotion, every aspect, every win and every pitfall? Every excitement and every dread? What if we could create an environment where we accept all of that person in front of us, and we hold space for them in our dance to feel it all, to release it, to create magic and art together of a different kind? What if instead of disconnecting from our heart and our emotions, we chose to channel them into the art that is dance and create beauty?

Why/ How can you support?

For those of you who have met me, you know I am an incredibly passionate, loving person that loves to spread inspiration, love and joy everywhere I go. Those of you who have seen me dance, know that I am a dancer through and through. I may not be a ‘professional’ dancer who has studied her whole life in a dance school and knows all the techniques, but dance courses through my veins.

I have the knowledge and the resources to tap into my emotions, witness them, and the courage to experience them rather than run away from them, and transmute them through dance. I am damn good at giving this transmission to people. I love inspiring those around me and firing them up. I have a lot of experience helping people step up in their lives and take responsibility through my therapy/ coaching business. I am a loving and charismatic teacher and leader.

This is something that is not being offered to the Latin dance scene yet, and having such a beautiful vastness of experience from years of Latin dancing, training as a dance teacher in London, my experience in Psychology, in presenting, in ecstatic dance, in conscious communities, shadow work, tantra, emotional release, meditation and so many more make me the prime person to offer this work to the world. This work isn't about a single expertise. This work cannot be learned in a single school. It's about embodiment and lived transmission.

So how can you help?

• Donate whatever amount you are able to. Whether that is a few pounds, a few hundred or a few thousand pounds. Every little and large amount is lovingly received.
• You can share this link on your social media wall, your stories or forward it via PM to your friends or others you feel would love to be part of supporting this work coming into the world.
• Simply send me a message of love and encouragement, or jump onto a 1-hour market research call with me, to help me gain a deeper understanding of this field and the vastness of people in it so I can serve even better.
• Send me any questions you may have, any confusion or concerns
• Reach out to me for any form of collaboration, or book me for a future even

My gifts to you for your donation:

If you donate the following, please send me a PM to claim these rewards as a thank you from me for your love and support. These are all redeemable within a 12 month period from completion of the training.

£10

Attend an online group Emotional Fluidity Through Movement workshop run by me. All those who contribute £10 or above, will get free exclusive access to a group 3 hour workshop with me. This will consist of a mix of theory, practice, experience, dance freeflow, sharing circle and Q&A. Max 20 people in a group.

£50

Same as above, but with only 3 other people in the group. Receive more private, tailored guidance from me, personalized support and feedback and more time to ask me 1:1 questions with plenty of time for everyone to be witnessed and heard.

£300

Receive either a private 3-hour workshop or have me give a workshop to a group of your students online (or in-person if in Indonesia). (see £10 for details of the workshop)
* Travel expenses not included for in-person depending on location

£500

Book me for 2 three-hour workshop sessions at your festival next time I am in your country/ near or pay for flights. Please bear in mind I am currently based in Bali, so due to restrictions, when this is delivered will need to be negotiated. (see £10 for details of the workshop)
* Accommodation to be provided at festivals

What does Tantra mean to me? 

So how does tantra fall into all of this? 

“Tantra is freedom; freedom from all mind-constructs, from all mind-games; freedom from all structures; freedom from the other. Tantra is space to be. Tantra is liberation, a total orgasm of the whole being.” —Osho.

Oh, how this field has so much bad rep. I have to admit my first experience of it was also bad. But later I found out that what I experienced and heard about it, was not tantra at all. 

I won’t go into official terms, there are many controversies around this, and too many people’s experiences and judgements. I am not here to prove/ disprove or argue anything. I am merely here to share my experience of this field that has changed my life. 

To me, tantra is about presence, meditation, sacredness within oneself and others, deep honouring and about doing the work to release the patterns that no longer serve us, so we can re-remember who we truly are inside without all our traumas and limiting conditioning. It is a path of freedom and liberation, a path of courage to go deep, to keep witnessing and not running away and releasing, to keep moving forward, and to keep coming back to doing the work through as much joy, laughter and love as possible. 

At my first retreat in September 2020, I felt home for the first time in my life. I felt completely and utterly home like I finally found my tribe. Like I finally found somewhere I belong. I felt so completely and utterly accepted and celebrated for ALL of me. All the ‘good’ and the ‘bad’. I knew from then on there was no turning back. This is my path. 

Later I realized my path is weaving these two magical fields together! 

They both have a way of celebrating life. 

Both have a way of going deep within ourselves to know and understand ourselves better.

They both have a way of honouring our unique way of being and celebrating that. 

They both have a way of helping us understand and accept ourselves better

To peel the layers of what no longer serves us, to come back home to our true nature. 

That is my wish for the world. That is my wish for you. 

What is emotional fluidity?

Through my Market Research, one person shared their interpretation of emotional fluidity which I find absolutely stunning:

The ability to recognize within oneself and acknowledge the emotions that are coming up in the body as they occur. It’s like the red thread analogy. Rather than going through a hurricane to feel emotions, one can feel a faint whisper of a thread, one can start to notice the very faint, subtle signs of the emotions before they turn into a full-blown destructive hurricane, without any judgment or story attached to the emotions.

Without judgment or story. What does this mean? You know when we feel an emotion we often start instantly digging around for the cause of it? For example, I may feel sad, and I start analyzing why I feel sad. What happened? What was said, where does that link to. I may instantly see/ judge it as a ‘bad’ emotion that I don't want. Instead of simply acknowledging. Oh, I feel sad. This is neither good nor bad because all emotions are human, and I don’t need to know where it’s come from. I can simply acknowledge it, accept it and do the work to move it.

Dance is one of those modalities. Take those emotions onto the dance floor, allowing yourself to feel them without judgment and letting them naturally shift. Try this next time you dance. Allow all of your being to be present. Allow the music to raise any and all emotions in you and simply give yourself permission to be with them, to feel them, to channel them safely into a dance and watch what happens without trying to control the outcome. 

Why this training, how will it help me reach my dream and serve the world better? 

I have been fortunate enough to have been accepted onto Ma Sarita Ananda’s 2-year tantra teacher training. After filling out my application form, my heart leapt with joy when I received the email saying I have been accepted!

The two-year Tantra Essence Teacher Training is the most in-depth and comprehensive professional training that can be found available in this field.

I have worked with Sarita and experienced several of her training over the past year and a half and have deep trust and resonance in her as a teacher creating a transformational experience for me as well as others. 

 As an integral part of this Training, I will be learning experientially ​

• The creation and holding of Sacred Space 
• This is a crucial step in any form of session giving. How can I get even better at creating a safe and sacred container for my students to drop deep into their experience with intention, love and integrity. 
• Theory and practice of Tantra Meditation methods 
• Meditation is a huge part of life. When it comes to learning emotional fluidity and starting to recognize and witness those emotions in us, that in itself is a form of mindfulness. Going deeper into the meditation path will help me bring people deeper into their own journey.
• Methods for emotional release 
• One of the things I like to teach in my workshops is how can we release the emotions that we are feeling through movement? There are so many different tools and techniques, and although not all will be appropriate for the dance floor, I still love teaching the other forms so that this practice can be taken and used privately at home with other expanding tools.
• Dance and Party Therapy Skills 
• Right up my alley :) 
• Musical discernment and DJ skills 
• I have already started studying DJ skills and being able to take people on a journey through music, this will take me even deeper onto this path. Music choice is a crucial part of the work I am doing. Without the right music, and the discernment of the flow of the music, people won’t be able to drop into their body as well and therefore not get as much as they could out of this work. 
• Presenting yourself on camera 
• Inspirational discourses 
• The science and guiding of sacred rituals 
• Sensorial awakening skills 
• This is a powerful tool to help people come closer to witnessing their inner journey, their emotions and experiences and is an incredible extra tool in my tool belt. 
• How to create a magical and loving ambience for maximum transformation 
• Yes, yes, yes! Ever walked into a dance class when the teacher is just in a bad mood, or in a place that just doesn't feel right, that’s too chaotic and doesn't feel safe? How much more can you enjoy yourself when your teacher is fully present with you, fully available for you and the place feels relaxing and safe for you to express yourself?
• Men’s work / Women’s work 
• How to weave opposite polarities together in service of unity consciousness 

Read more about the training here: https://tantraessence.wixsite.com/teachertraining

This year’s training is taking place: March 5 – April 2, Bali 2022

Where will the money go?

All of the money raised is going directly into tuition and the cost of attending the training itself. Here is a breakdown of the costs. I need to raise a minimum of £4400 over the next 30 days by the deadline of this fundraiser. The remaining £2600 can be raised next year, but if it gets raised this year also, it would be amazing!

Tuition 2022

Tuition Amount Year 1: £3000

Tuition year 2 Deposit:  £600 

Food & Accommodation for the residential part of training: £800 estimated

Total this year 2022: £4400

Tuition 2023

Tuition Amount Year 2:  £1800 

Food & Accommodation for the residential part of training: £800 estimated

Total next year 2023: £2600

Thank you thank you thank you for your support!

Thank you from the bottom of my heart for your support on this mission. Without you, this truly would not be possible and I am so touched by you supporting me in your own way and getting this far in reading. Thank you for your trust. Thank you for your vision. Thank you for believing in me and the mission I want to bring into this world. 

With Love and deep gratitude

Ma Nritya Anurasa (Maria)

PS: Feel free to check out my social media or contact me on WA.