Let's dance
Who's the best dancer? The one having the most fun

It’s a crisp Sunday morning, as light spills through the massive windows illuminating the pristine wood floors of The Light Box venue at Stillwater Music. The sound of laughter and the silence of smiles weave through the harmonious frequencies coming from the speakers next to the DJ booth. The space is immaculately clean, smells great and is full of joy. This is Soma Sound Space, aka Dance Church, a place where you can bring it all to let it go.

For this week’s Between the Beats, I sat down with the one and only Brady Wilson. Wilson is a yoga teacher, herbalist, DJ and one of the kindest, warmest souls you will encounter in Durango. We could write several columns about Wilson’s practices and creative gifts that he offers in the medicinal and musical world, but today we focus on his latest offering. As the wise Stephanie Dressen said, “Music is medicine.” And this conversation with Wilson will convert even the baddest goat or backslider out there to the truth that will help set you free.

How did you find your way into the magical world of sharing music on sound systems of all sizes and being a DJ?

The DJ stuff evolved out of being a yoga teacher, actually. I always joked about the fact that I became a yoga teacher, so I could share my playlists. At first, that was definitely part of the joy of being a yoga teacher being able to arrange a playlist to complement the practice. I’ve always been making mixtapes for friends and girlfriends when those were a thing. I’d splice in little sayings, quotes of people speaking into the mixtapes back when we had the side-by-side boom boxes. The yoga teaching took it to the next level.

What compels you to share your talents as a DJ with Soma?

I was a participant in a youth program in Boulder that was born out of a dance music community. It was an off-branch of ecstatic dance. That was my initiation into somatic experiencing. I believe somatic experiencing is a particular brand of psychological therapy. Basically, I came away from that program with a knowing in my core that dancing is an essential human activity. We as a culture largely do not have that opportunity available to us. We’re not taught dance, we’re not exposed to it, especially in a sober mind state. Most of us who dance started drunk in a bar. And there’s nothing wrong with that, but to bring a sober state to the dance floor is a whole other experience.

Exactly. It’s only been in the last decade of my life that I’ve realized that going dancing, for me, is not essentially about escaping with drugs and alcohol.

It’s catharsis. I don’t know the exact definition, but it’s something close to the ability to move emotions through your body. We talk about that as yoga teachers a lot. Memories, thoughts, feelings residing in the cells of our bodies. You can do talk therapy your whole life, but to get the emotion out of your body, you need to access those parts of your body, and that is available through dance, yoga and other embodied practices. We’re moving ourselves in ways that are maybe uncomfortable, suppressed, embarrassing, and emotions will arise. 

One of the things that comes up for me as a dancer and a DJ is ego. How do we step into our full power as the beautiful creatures we are vs. getting caught up in “what are people thinking about me?”

Very few individuals are capable of separating themselves from their egos. So, the ego is part of it, like it or not. But you don’t have to deny that your ego is part of you. You’re not going to get it right most of the time; you’re going to have to try again.

Who is Soma for?

It’s a multigenerational event. Children can come free. Who is the best dancer in the room? The one who’s having the most fun. The dance is for anyone who is curious.

You have one coming up Nov. 5. What does the event look like?

There’s a suggested donation of $20-$30. Wear comfortable, loose-fitting clothing. You can dance barefoot or in socks. If you choose to arrive at 9 a.m., you will be treated to a half-hour of warm-up yoga. The music begins at 9:30 a.m. and runs to 11 a.m. We will offer blindfolds for those who want to partake in that. We then do a half-hour live sound bath.