April 25 2026 at Alton Baker park behind the bathrooms, free, all ages, all bodies. See you there!
Jan 31 2026 at 440 Maxwell in the courtyard, would love to dance with you, 1pm to 2:30pm. All ages, all bodies, all welcome. Rain or shine! Always free.
May 24th from 2-3:30pm we danced again at 440 Maxwell Rd in Eugene! Please dance with us–free, all ages, all bodies welcome.
You are invited to a new monthly ecstatic dance for fat, transqueer, disabled people here in Eugene. Anyone is welcome, but fat, transqueer, and disabled people are centered.
why we need fat transqueer disabled ecstatic dance
In dance spaces and many movement spaces, there are unwritten rules about who’s welcome. Fat, disabled, and transqueer people are less welcome where normative bodies are assumed. Abled-ness, thinness, and straight values and culture might be assumed. Dance spaces often are not accessible. Chairs might break under the weight of our bodies, and sensory needs might be ignored. We might be singled out as different. We might not be able to enter the space because of doorway width, stairways, uneven paths, missing handrails.
It’s respectful to dance in a space where all bodies belong. It’s healing to feel the assumption that fat, transqueer, and disabled bodies are perfectly ok. You are not a burden. In fact, you are expected, and you’re the norm. We’re here to honor you. We made this for ourselves and for you; all different ways of being are ok.
This isn’t a place where boring cis-het, capitalist beauty norms and abled ways of being win. We are wanted here exactly as we are. We upend the standard hierarchy. For an hour and a half, we live free of the eugenics of abled, thin, cis-het people being valued above all others.
All bodies are valid bodies. Many people who take their welcome for granted don’t recognize how meaningful it is, to show up in a dance space where it’s ok to be our whole selves and not need to apologize for our size, the way we dance in a creative way, the need to rest or dance seated, the need to dance with assistance…
Welcoming all bodies to a movement event, we co-create justice. We nurture the respectful justice culture that we need to live in. Dance is powerful; we enact the revolution. We dance in the revolution with our fat, transqueer, disabled bodies, creating the world we need.
We don’t ask a bureaucratic, violence-backed system like a government to make space for us. We take intersectional justice into our own hands, creating a place for one another in a dance moment, with love.
who is creating this event
A small group of disability justice, fat respecting, dance-loving, transqueer people are facilitating this Fat Transqueer Disabled Ecstatic Dance. So far the main person making it happen is me, Laura-Marie Strawberry Nopales, the person who makes the I Like Your Stims website. But I’m supported by my spouse Ming and close friends, and we hope a collective will form.
Please consider dancing with us. Our first try was April 5th, 2025. Here’s the flier.
We had an amazing time. You can read about that dance here and more here.
We plan to gather monthly. A fat, transqueer, disabled ecstatic dance is in the works for May 2025. I’ll share more info when we have it.
Our dances are all ages, so children are welcome. Our dances are free, but we have a donation can. People who believe in the cause and have the funds can chip in to pay the DJs for their work, and for other expenses like event space.
format
This is what it’s like when we gather. The DJ gets set up. Flowers and art might beautify the space. A case of water bottles is there, for anyone who forgot to bring their own water. A friend might bring snacks.
A facilitator welcomes us with words like these.
Hello, welcome. Thank you for being here. I’m Laura-Marie. Volunteers today are me Laura-Marie, Ming, and John Doe. Please come to us with any questions or needs. Our bathrooms are down the hall. Our DJ today is DJ Phil Intheblank.
We’re all here as valid people– fat, transqueer, disabled in so many ways. Ecstatic dance is about free movement, on your terms, not about how we look or being seen. It’s for the joy of movement. Please sit, rest, and move or not move, however you want.
Our rules are consent, so please don’t touch any person unless you have consent, and same with taking a photo. And also we’re here more for movement than for talking, so movement is centered in this space. As we dance, if you need to talk, please move to the margin. We’re allowing for the possibility of entering an altered state where we don’t need language.
Please sit any time. There are some chairs that belong to this venue, but we brought some strong chairs also.
Thank you for being here and giving yourself permission to move in the body you are. We appreciate you. There’s a donation can if you want to contribute to the rental of the space and contribute to paying the DJ–we hope to do this monthly. We are honored to move with you! Enjoy!
thank you
Thank you for recognizing the value of fat, transqueer, disabled ecstatic dance. We appreciate any way you would like to be part of this experience of pleasure and change.
