Dance Meets Tantra x New York: 1-Day Immersion

Dance Meets Tantra returns again to New York, for a third time this year to the NY area, bringing and creating space for transformation, growth, expansion; and through connection to self, connection to other, and connection to soul and source– there is magic and love waiting to come out for all of us.

Our community, our heart, our dancing feet all grow stronger and more potent each time we gather. Following on two earlier beautiful and deep events, we invite you to rendezvous with Dance Meets Tantra for this 1-day immersion, Sunday November 15th, in Manhattan, NY.

As a collective and community we are stronger and bigger and more alive together, than the sum of our individual parts, and this is true in dance, in spirit, and in life. Opening this gateway of our immersion, we can reach transformations and depth in this more profound and collective and contained way– guiding each of us on paths to our freedom, fullness of expression, universal love and consciousness expansion, and of course with the language of movement and dance and connection.

Through opening portals of intimacy, presence, aliveness, breath, dance and music: we allow a Tantric path to deepen our journey together and individually, moving in our bodies and spirits, feeling our energy and eros, pouring light onto our shadows, and filling our hearts with love.

Our team will be once again led by the incredible and dynamic Rachel Rickards; supported by Kaviar Dragon and welcoming for the first time Guest DJ Nicole James bringing ecstatic waves to our dancefloor.

Please join us on this journey into ~ Dance Meets Tantra ~ in New York City, on November 15th, 2026; for this 1-day immersive journey.

Every moment can be a threshold

Welcome to Dance Meets Tantra.

Have you been feeling the call? For dance to become more attuned and embrace a wider spectrum of expression? For Tantra to be more embodied, playful, and vibrant. You instinctively know that something extraordinary happens when embodied movers gather with full permission to be alive, to connect, and to share their magic.

Led by an attuned, powerful, and experienced facilitation team, we will establish a trauma-informed foundation of consent, care and self-responsibility to go on a deep journey that weaves together conscious dance, Tantra, shadow-work and ritual & ceremony.

We are coming to let go of our masks and to explore the vulnerable, messy, sweaty, beauty of our bodies, hearts, & souls.

What to Expect

Our 1-day immersion is an opportunity to spend an extended time moving, breathing, learning and loving together with an incredible group of embodied humans.

We will create a powerful heart-centered container, set clear agreements, and explore profound connection and movement-based workshops that build upon each other over the course of the immersion.

🌀 You will learn skills to access greater attunement while bringing more authenticity and aliveness to your dance

🌀 You will explore tools and practices that expand your range and depth of possibility in connection with yourself and others

🌀 You will have the opportunity to experience the freedom and joy that comes with exquisitely clear boundaries

You will depart this experience connected to a wonderful group of humans, and feeling fully alive, on fire, and ready to bring new ways of being, connecting, and creating into the rest of your life.

About Dance Meets Tantra

Born in Boulder, CO, Dance Meets Tantra has grown into a movement uniting conscious dance with intimacy practices, ritual, and shadow play. Our immersions are potent, playful, and trauma-informed, crafted to welcome both vulnerability and eros, light and shadow, in ways that are alive and human.

Dance Meets Tantra is a Space of:

~ Vulnerability — feeling and owning the full range of emotion.

~ Permission — expressing the full spectrum of self, including eros.

~ Safety — rooted in boundaries, consent, and responsibility

Dance Meets Tantra is also a movement. Across the country, we’ve seen an outpouring of passion and yearning for conscious dance to evolve—embracing a fuller spectrum of human expression, and creating safer ways to welcome vulnerability and eros.

Our Approach to Tantra & Sexuality

For us, Tantra is the practice and art of being fully alive. It invites us to embrace the whole of our humanness, including sexuality, while recognizing that sexuality is not the focus of our work. No one is ever instructed to engage in anything sexual. Instead, we draw from both classical and neo-tantric lineages, weaving ancient wisdom with contemporary embodiment practices. In dance, this becomes visceral: the body as a doorway, erotic energy as life-force, boundaries as portals into deeper freedom.

At times, sexual energy may arise naturally. When it does, it is only welcomed within clear consent and within the agreements and our container we intentionally establish.

Our intention with Dance Meets Tantra is to support individuals in deepening their love, respect, and relationship with themselves, with others, and with the earth. Through a diversity of explorations, we aim to support participants in living a vibrant, empowered, and creatively awake life.

For more details on sexual energy and our approach, please visit our [FAQ] (https://www.dancemeetstantra.com/faq).

This Immersion is for You if:

• You’re a dancer ready to go deeper

• You’re curious about Tantra and want to explore in an embodied, grounded way

• You’re a practitioner or facilitator longing to receive

• You’ve never done anything like this, and feel the spark of curiosity

If you're feeling the call, join us. Space is limited.

❔Questions? Visit our FAQ (https://www.dancemeetstantra.com/faq)

You can also reach reach out directly to our organizer, Kaviar:

📩 Email: dancemeetstantrany@gmail.com

Scholarships

We honor diversity and accessibility. Partial scholarships (30–50%) are available for participants from underrepresented backgrounds. Tickets are non-refundable but transferable.

Apply here: Diverse Backgrounds Partial Scholarship Application

Logistics and FAQ

Venue & Address: Downtown Manhattan, Canal Street area- Location given upon registration

Meals: Please arrive having nourished yourself on Sunday morning. We will break for lunch and finish in time for a late dinner. Please bring your own lunch and come very nourished. We start in the late morning so make sure to eat plenty before then as we will not be breaking for lunch until late afternoon.

(In service of maintaining our time integrity and intimacy of the container we ask participants not to go out for lunch)

Time: To maintain the safety, connection and intimacy of our container we ask that participants plan to attend for the entire duration of the immersion

• Sunday Arrival & Check-in time: 10:40am - 11:00am. Doors close promptly at 11:00am. Do not be late.

• Sunday Workshop time: 11:00am - 6:00pm

Refund & Transfer Policy: There are no refunds. Tickets are transferrable to another participant in advance of the event and we ask that you be responsible for finding the buyer.

Your Dance Meets Tantra Team:

Rachel Rickards, Facilitator

Rachel Rickards is an internationally recognized leader in personal transformation, intimacy, embodiment, and relational intelligence. As the co-founder of Embodied Intimacy (since 2014), and founder of Intimacy Camp (since 2018) Rachel has helped establish one of the world’s leading organizations focused on intimacy, trauma healing, and community building, supporting hundreds in reconnecting with their bodies and nervous systems.

In 2019, she took the lead in the Belly2Belly Facilitator Training, offering embodied practices that enhance nervous system regulation and relational healing. Rachel’s expertise in event production and embodied leadership has made her instrumental in creating transformative experiences in this organization. Most recently, Rachel founded and launched, The Field Facilitator Training (2022), a cutting-edge program that trains future group facilitators to create deep group-heart coherence and dynamic embodied leadership.

In her newest endeavor, "In Presence We Trust: The Facilitation Podcast," Rachel has become both creator and host in this brand new offering where she releases weekly episodes on her groundbreaking work in group facilitation (and beyond). Follow her binge-worthy journey to stay updated on her latest insights and developments.

To learn more visit: https://linktr.ee/rachel.rickards or https://rachelrickards.com and instagram.com/rachel.rickards or https://www.facebook.com/rachrickards/

Kaviar Dragon, Organizer, Apprentice Facilitator

Kaviar Dragón is a lover, a dancer, a vessel for transmitting and expanding consciousness, and a creator. With a background in medical sciences and anatomy, Kaviar then found yoga and Tantra. His spiritual path became his true calling, as a wanderlust, change maker, and community organizer. Based in Mazunte, Mexico and born & raised in Brooklyn and Queens, New York; Kaviar is a facilitator, organizer and presenter at trainings, festivals and events across Latin America, the United States and Europe. Kaviar teaches and guides in the realms of embodied movement and dance, including Contact Beyond Contact, sensual connection & inner/outer intimacy, Tantra, Hatha Yoga, heart-centered spirituality, s-positive sacred sexuality, conscious consent & boundaries, and trauma-informed emotional release and processing.

Certificates and achievements are held in Tantra and Hatha yoga (400hr RYT), ISTA Practitioner Graduate, Contact Beyond Contact (Level 2); Dance Meets Tantra Embodied Eros Facilitator Training; and experienced with facilitating across various practices and techniques--Osho, Thai Yoga Massage, Contact Improvisation, Hridaya Meditation, Touch&Play practices. In addition, Kaviar also lives his purpose of being a vehicle in service of others, functioning as a 1:1 space-holder and sacred bodyworker.

Kaviar continues to offer vectors for healing and expansion with a heart to the divine.

To learn more visit RitualSacrednessTantra.life and on Instagram: @KaviarDragon

Nicole James, Guest DJ

Nicole (Nic) James is a Brooklyn-based DJ, embodiment facilitator, and community builder whose sets are an invitation into movement, connection, and full-bodied expression.

Behind the decks, Nic weaves a sensual and expansive journey through deep house, organic and Afro-influenced rhythms, melodic electronic music, and unexpected moments of play. Drawing from more than a decade of work in yoga, somatics, embodiment, and transformational spaces, she approaches the dance floor as more than a party. It’s a place to explore sensation, surrender, connection, and aliveness.

To learn more visit: https://nicjames.com

Dance Meets Tantra Testimonials:

"Having taught Tantra for 30 years, I know when a container is pristinely created and held and was impressed with how Spencer and Atilla built and held it. Before contact in the dances, they led us through 3 "Puja" stations that integrated the wisdom shared earlier of connecting first in our energy bodies with breath and, only with presence, going to touch. These experiences prepared this experienced dance community to move into contact from outside the auric field first, so settling to the nervous system of us empaths. I felt the contact more deeply for this Tantric approach to it that I left supremely satisfied." ~Evalena Rose

"DMT is a beautifully, well-oiled offering. The container is created with an immense amount of care, intention, and trauma-informed awareness. Atilla, Spencer, Gemma, and all of the assistants cultivated a space of permission, of grace, of courage, of trust, of exploration, of depth, of joy, of love, and of acceptance. Whether you are brand new to the worlds of Tantra and dance, or a devotee of these ways of life, DMT has something to offer everyone. Thank you for an incredible experience that re-sparked inspiration in my entire being!" ~ Brooke Alexander

"DMT empowered me to be in greater contact with my "yes's" and "no's." This container gave me permission to participate in the exact ways that I was ready for, and not push myself beyond my comfort zone in a way that was unsustainable. By the end, I had such a fun time liberating my weird/ wild/ kinky/ primal self on the dance floor and relate with others in a way that is rare to find in common dance spaces. I am forever grateful for this space and what Danny, Atilla, and Spencer are creating. Also, their facilitation is ON POINT. Raw, real, potent, and just as human as the rest of us. Give yourself the gift of DMT. :)" - Erica Shapiro

"The instructional embodied ease of the facilitation was amazing! Their ability to create a safe container to go deeper or be wildly playful as a participant was amazing and appreciated! Their ability to speak directly and precisely with clear energy and boundaries, combined with inner wisdom and strength, supported me in being more open and trusting!" ~Candy James

"It's rare that I go to something that is truly life-changing & empowering, and our Dance Meets Tantra day together was exactly that. It was one of the greatest days of personal growth, fun, and sensual exploration I've ever had." ~ Jason Lamb

"It’s truly hard to put into words the profundity of what took place at the dance meets Tantra retreat. There was an undeniable intelligence moving through each day that organized the field in the exact ways it needed. Moving through layers of shadow and alchemizing them into wholeness. Each person brought a piece to the puzzle that was incredibly important and the collective healing that unfolded was beyond anything I have ever been a part of. This container allowed it all to be there - tenderness, pleasure, joy, grief, beauty, pain, ecstasy, heartbreak, heart opening. I felt deeply safe in the space (and it takes a lot for me to feel safe) and a huge reason for that is the high quality presence and care each of the facilitators brought. It really was such a special experience that I will forever hold in my heart with deep gratitude and reverence." ~Anaia Sundara

"Dance Meets Tantra was exactly what I was calling in, everything I didn’t know I needed, and beyond all my expectations all at the same time. I firmly believe that vulnerability and deep transformation in group contexts becomes possible when the container is IMPECCABLY held, where safety and invitation and expert facilitation are held in paramount importance…and not every event has that. DMT does. This team brings such a thoughtful, attentive approach towards the day and held the group with perfection, which allowed me to LET GO on a profound level. I felt the safety and space to connect with my body and with tender edges of my sexuality and expression, with the knowledge that I was deeply loved and celebrated in all of my rawness. I left DMT with a deeper understanding and embrace of my own desires, and with transformation in my relationship with my partner. My partner and I faced edges alone and together, and within DMT had the structure to lean into those and emerge in deeper love." ~Megan Beatty

"Today was a full reclamation of the innocence of eros. I am so grateful." - Kat

"Dance Meets Tantra is unlike anything I’ve ever experienced before…and I can’t stop thinking about it! If you want to embrace your authentic self, learn techniques to connect more deeply with loved ones, create new intimate connections, and are ready to dive deep into your fears and desires, then I highly recommend checking out one of their events! Don’t be surprised if it changes your outlook on yourself and relationships, it's intense, but so worth it!" - Nicole Nichols

"Dance meets Tantra exceeded my expectations. I felt truly supported on such a deep level that I got to share the depth of pain with the eyes and hearts of love and be truly held by community in a way that allowed me to open to the divine. DMT builds safety in connection! You practice expressing your full self, even the parts of you that are afraid, and let your nervous system learn that you are loved just as you are! This space is potent, fun, explorative, and deeply supportive. I personally got to open deeply because of the level of skillful support that was available in the space. I have a lot of experience with this type of work, and have had a lot of criticisms in the past. This team was able to hold me on the level I was truly needing, so I could open to a new level." - Aya Amrita

Feel free to check out our website for many many more testimonials <3

Thank you, thank you. Can't wait to connect. ~

- Rachel, Kaviar, Nicole & the Dance Meets Tantra team

Location

Chinatown, NY