5Rhythms: Berlin, Germany 

Facilitator: Oliver Euchner 

No speaking, no phones.

Leave your things in the room on the left and then go through the doors.

That was all I was told. 

I wasn’t expecting what was coming. A room with subtle music, full of strangers and one person facilitating the flow of expression. 

Oliver told us all to start walking. 

That is what we did, walking in a room of strangers, no speaking, only body language and sound. The sound of the first of the 5Rhythms. 

Based in Berlin, Oliver has been facilitating 5Rhythms offerings since 2014. 5Rhythms is a dynamic form of movement that invites participants to explore themselves through their response to 5 distinct rhythms. He discovered 5Rhythms in New York, in a class facilitated by founder Gabriella Roth. Twenty years ago, the high energy of the dance drew Oliver in. He became attracted to the realness and intensity of the 5Rhythms experience. Now, Oliver facilitates offerings including workshops, classes and retreats. 

What is 5Rhythms? 

Oliver explains that the most obvious way of describing 5Rhythms is to name each rhythm. The words themselves describe the rhythms and each rhythm takes one through a process. The process starts with a beginning, a buildup, a crescendo, a landing and a finish. 

To each rhythm, there is a physical correlation. It is continuous with no interruption. The effect of the 5Rhythms is that one moves in a dance. 

1. Flow 

2. Staccato 

3. Chaos 

4. Lyrical 

5. Stillness 

Flow – It is a continuous movement, without interruption, to not be concerned with how this looks or how the movement feels, but to just stay with it. 

Staccato – People usually have strong emotional experiences in staccato. 

Chaos – This is about letting go and being available and witnessing the intensity of movement. Physically, this looks like shaking out very much. This could look like, shaking out hands, shaking out arms, letting go of my head, letting go of my shoulders. 

There is a level of intimacy to chaos and that is where it is like yoga, because in yoga, one commits to a certain posture that emphasizes sensations. In chaos, the emotional and mind experience is one of letting go. That requires trusting, that if I let go, I will be fine. 

If you shake and move, you shake out tensions. 

During Chaos, I watched people around me move rapidly, shake. Around the room, people were crying, laughing, screaming, all kinds of sounds were being sung around the walls. I kept moving, kept trusting I wouldn’t fall. 

Lyrical – Can also be called post-chaos state. It picks up the lightness that chaos has created from dancing off tensions. It is an expression of lightness, of inspiration, of being spacious, of having more room inside and letting the spaciousness of the inside being expressed on the outside. People are encouraged to follow the hands and arms, to oppose resistance. 

Stillness – The end of 5Rhythms is stillness. One fifth of the format, the “wave” is committed to stillness. Movement is present even when still. Rest as a way of being connected and integrated with movement. It allows us to appreciate quietness in our world of distraction. 

Why does the 5Rhythms movement bring people together? 

Physical tensions store emotional states, memories, experiences, stress, fear, anger, desperation. All these things are stored in the body. If one moves, the tensions soften more and more. 

Oliver explains how he sees people cry, people laugh, people scream, people smile, people can’t believe what’s happening to them. This is often seen in chaos. 

Dance does not lend itself to personality or to ego.

On a dance floor, these expressions of states or personalities are temporary. They are fleeting. They change all the time. You go from one to the next. By the time you can solidify a certain aspect of yourself, you are inspired. You playfully move to a different aspect of yourself.

Everybody is accepted just the way they are. Every state of the body is accepted, not just in a way that it’s tolerated, but it is invited to be there and to be expressed. 

The invitation of the 5Rhythms practice is to bring yourself and to share it, to make art of it, which is an inclusive way of having a common experience with each other.  

Come just as you are. 

Everyone is sharing themselves as they are and throwing that into the communal experience. There is something safe about that. 

The intimate part.

Everyone is intimate with themselves while in a room with other people. This means that you immediately engage in the same thing at the same time. You do this in different iterations, but the way of expressing it is the same. The commonality comes from that. It doesn’t come from political views or things outside of the practice. It is enough to bring this togetherness. 

Afterwards the community manifests in different ways. 

In Oliver’s workshops, he rents the room for more time than the dance. This allows everyone to sit together. People can share tea and snacks. This setting helps commonality to unfold.

At the end of the dance, the group sat in a large circle on the floor before breaking off into smaller groups to talk and share tea and snacks. The conversations were calm and connected, we spoke softly, our words dancing over warm herbal teas and candles.  

When we dance, we are human, we share a body, we have gone through the drama and gift of life with each other and that is what is being danced. 

That is how community here is experienced: through the communal method of dance. 

5 hours later the workshop had finished. I had no concept of time. I had been lost in the movement, in the connection with myself and with these strangers, I had been lost in the commonality of experience. I felt free, light, centred.  

You can find Oliver’s offerings here. You can follow Oliver on Instagram here. 

5Rhythms is a global movement practice started by Gabrielle Roth that creates communities in different parts of the world. You can find the full list of facilitators here.