A unique dance and meditation event will allow participants to get in touch with their chakras.

The event, called ‘Heathens, Freaks and Sinning Weirdos’, is an ‘ecstatic dance’ workshop being held in Carlisle’s Creative Quarter.

It is being put on by Free Radical Arts, an arts CIC, led by instructor Steven Westgarth who has experience in ecstatic dance and guided meditation.

He explained what ecstatic dance is: “It's basically a session of freestyle movement.

“People come together in a sober space and basically you just dance however you want to dance, you just move your body however you want to.

“The music we're doing is based on the chakras of your body, so it takes you energetically through each point of your body to release that energy, it's a form of medtiation; it's a meditation of movement.

“It appeals to people who like to have more high energy activities because we'll have music from ambient all the way through to rave, K-pop, indie music, it's multiple genres, it really takes you through a relaxing state to a crazy raving state and then back down again.”

But what is a chakra, and how many do we have?

Steven said: “You have your root chakra underneath your groin, that keeps you grounded, then you have your sacral chakra, just above your groin, which is all about passion, you have your will centre or solar plexus which is for self-confidence, then your heart centre, and that's for self-love, you have your throat for communication, then third eye on your forehead which is intuition, and finally your crown chakra on top of your head which is spiritual or god energy.

“They've been known about for thousands of years, it has roots in holistic medicine.”

It’s part of a series of events called ‘Queerly Beloved’, of which Steven said: “It's called Queerly Beloved because a lot of queer people are facing harassment by religious fanatics, so we wanted to do an alternative event for LGBTQ+ people as a reaction to being harassed.

“People come together in a sober space and basically you just dance however you want to dance, you just move your body however you want to.

“It's for everyone to come and try, it's a supportive space, no one's judging anyone, you don't need any experience in dance, it's nothing to do with dance it's just moving your body.

“It's open to anyone 16 plus, and if they're under 16 they need to come with a responsible adult, it's about an hour and a half, and there's a chance for people to chat afterwards.”

This event takes place on October 27 at 7:30pm.

In the meantime, Free Radical Arts is also participating in the Borderlines book festival on October 4.

For more information, visit their Instagram or email info@freeradicalsunited.co.uk.

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