Awake Dance Festival - Algarve, Portugal

I'm back in Sweden again after almost 3 weeks in Portugal. It turned out to be 3 very intense weeks so I'm still trying to integrate everything. There's so much I would like to share but right now I don't know how. I'll start with a post about the dance festival I went to after I left Lagos.

It took place at Awakeland in Algarve from June 29 to July 3. According to their website, Awakeland Portugal is a meditation retreat center and reforestation project that believes in a conscious life and auto-responsibility. This was the 5th edition of the dance festival, but they have a lot of different retreats, festivals, and trainings. It's also possible to stay in the community as a volunteer. The space is 21 hectares and their main mission is to plant trees (which is preferably done in the winter months). They were also proud to present this event as a carbon-negative event.

The place itself was more or less how I expected it to be. Compost toilets, outdoor showers and a very basic room with 3 beds (they have different options for accommodation, you can also bring your van or tent).

You might be able to see some doors in the background in the picture above. I stayed in one of these eco up-cycled marine air-conditioned containers which had been converted into rooms. I shared the room with 2 other people and as you can see you could also stay in a bell tent. This area was called Yoni village so I initially thought there might not be any men there but that wasn't the case, haha.

We were about 150 dancers who gathered in a big dome for 5 days. (Seen in the picture above). We were also served 3 vegan meals a day and I was impressed by how efficient the kitchen was run.

It was a packed program. The days started at 7:30 am and ended at 10:30 pm. It was a lot of different kind of dance sessions, and also some meditation in the morning and yoga in the late afternoon. I danced for at least 6 hours a day. Luckily the weather wasn't that warm at the time, just above 20 degrees Celsius. Just one day it was warmer and then it just got very hot in the dome, despite the air condition.

To maybe give you a better idea of what kind of dance festival this was I can name most of the dance sessions:

• Biodanza (I released a lot here, couldn't stop crying).
• Shamanic Ceremony
• Trance Dance (Was done blindfolded).
• Reconnect (I had the most beautiful interaction with another dancer that touched me deeply).
• Tantra Dance (Also beautiful interactions).
• Movement Medicine (This was my favorite, I was truly in a bliss state).
• Contact Improvisation (Sort of a continuation of the reconnect dance session the day before. Very interesting but it takes some time to actually learn).
• 5 Rhythms (This particular 5 Rhythms session got pretty wild, people got naked).
• Ecstatic Dance

I didn't take any pictures of people since that wasn't allowed, especially not on the dance floor (unfortunately I saw some people both taking pictures and filming anyway). Awakeland had hired 2 professional photographers and they were present more or less all of the time in the dome. I kind of felt they were invading the space a bit too much at times even though I could also see that they tried to be respectful. They wanted to capture our true essence but it was not only me that had a hard time feeling the presence of a camera directed towards me. And when that happens, you of course lose the moment they are trying to capture. But I decided to be ok with it (you could tell them if you absolutely didn't want them to take any pictures of you).

There were also some small lakes (I would call them ponds) where you could swim. I actually didn't swim there, I was so busy all the time. When not dancing, talking to a lot of people. But I did shower daily at least, you kind of had to do that out of respect for the rest of the participants really. And of course, it also felt nice 🙂

I had a great time at Awakeland, but I also went through a lot. I was happy to meet so many interesting and warm people. The 2 last nights in Portugal I spent in Lisbon and a new friend from this festival hosted me 🙂

3 days after this festival ended my second retreat started. It was a plant medicine (San Pedro /Huachuma) gathering about one hour outside of Porto. So I traveled up north and I hope to also share at least a bit from that experience.

Thanks for reading 🌸

Love and blessings to you all 💚