THE MUSIC

"Dragonfly Ecstatic Dance: Where Dance and Live Music Come Together for Unique Adventures" 

 

Enter a world where music and movement converge. Here, the planet becomes your soundtrack, and the dance floor sets the tone for a blend of enchanting melodies. Let your spirit come alive through dance as the band spontaneously plays captivating rhythms. These skilled musicians create unique events where you can let go of inhibitions and simply dance. 

 

Dragonfly invites you to be part of a tribe of free spirits moving, expressing, and merging with the music. It's an adventurous interplay of rhythm and melody, where authenticity takes the lead, and dance becomes the language. This is more than just an event; it's an experience where every melody and rhythm come to life in the moment. Lose yourself in the unique sounds, dance without a sense of time, and experience pure joy. Come with an open heart, let yourself be carried away by Dragonfly Ecstatic Dance. Unite your spirit, body, and soul with the pulse of the dance floor. This is where the magic happens, where music and dance become an expression of your inner self. Join in and let the Dragonfly Ecstatic Dance band take you on an adventurous, rhythmic, and melodic journey like no other.

 

GENRE

Genre: Medicine Music inspired by world music fusion, intuitive music and sound healing. 

Female vocal improvisation, sounds & percussive ritms, dynamic mixed atmospheres: uplifting followed by calm music, or vice versa, alternately ecstatic, wild, calm, melodious and moving.

 

Recent video compilation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7H5CjvoLZH8

Old short compilation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OKLqIdcz1Xc

Longer fragment: https://youtu.be/Zcbc4mcoJpQ?si=xpbb1KAz6csxbMGm

Long flow: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0fD31DpxgA

Album: https://dragonflyecstaticdanceband.bandcamp.com/album/into-the-unknown

 

THE HISTORY

Dragonfly Ecstatic Dance band was founded in the end of 2017 bij Dymphi Peeters in cocreation with Marcoleon Baas (Ecstatic Dance Utrecht) in The Netherlands. Musicians of the first hour where Ignas te Wiel (percussion), Freek Zwanenberg (piano), Boudine van Slobbe (percussion), Mehmet Polat (Ud & Altviolin) and Dymphi Peeters (Vocals, Kora & flutes) The first live event happened in Utrecht at January 5th 2018. The first years Dragonfly kept on playing their gigs regularly at Ecstatic Dance Utrecht.

 

In the summer of 2018 Dragonfly spend one day in a church with great acoustics and studio facitilities. In this inspirational building they recorded five different musical pieces. Completely improvised. Instant composition. No overdubs afterwards. With great help by studio owner Arnoud and Ecstatic Dance organiser Lale. The tracks are sometimes unusually long. The longest piece counts 21 minutes. However, they all consist of a very fascinating musical trip, in which every measure brings new unexpected variations andemotions. Unable to cut the tracks in pieces to a standard album format, Dragonfly decided unstead to treat the different tracks as stand alone mini albums. Each with their own character and mood. All very danceble! Check it here: https://dragonflyecstaticdanceband.bandcamp.com/album/into-the-unknown

 

Mehmet Polat left the band at the end of 2019 and Lex Pantelic (Guitar, Greek Baglama and Tanbor) joined the band in the beginning of 2020. January 2020 Dragonfly played for the last time in Utrecht because of the Corona times and all the regulations.

 

February 2022 Ignas te Wiel played his last gig with Dragonfly and from the summer of 2022 Terence Samson joined Dragonfly with percussion.

 

Since 2021 on Dymphi started to organise her own Ecstatic Dance Events with Dragonfly and from that time the band has collaborated with (Ecstatic) Dance organisations and festivals in different places in the Netherlands: Breda, Ecstatic Dance Nijmegen, Ecstatic Dance Limburg, Ecstatic Dance Festival Holland, Hieros Gamos festival, Healingfestival, Ecstatic Dance Retreat Zutphen, Ecstatic Dance Den Bosch, Ecstatic Dance Avalon in Den Hoorn and other events. In 2022 they where invited at Yogafit Retreat Ibiza, which was great fun!

 

LINE UP

The present line up of musicians is: 

Dymphi Peeters - African Kora, Vocals, Flute

Terence Samson - Percussion

Boudine van Slobbe - Percussion, Hang

Freek Zwanenberg - Piano, Keyboard

Lex Pantelic - Guitar, Tanbor, Greek Baglama

 

BAND MEMBERS

 

Dymphi Peeters

The Dutch Dymphi is a voice and kora artist who creates medicine music inspired by world music fusicon, sound healing and improvisation. In an ocean of world music, she stands out – in addition to the special instrumentation of the African Kora -  through the great expressiveness in timbres and emotions in her voice that brings to various parts of the world, but also because she sings in an intuitive primal language that invites you to sink with your attention out of your head and into your body. Fans describe her as a “primeval woman” who can touch your heart and soul with her music. Her speciality is to play at all kinds of ceremony’s and rituals. In addition to her work as a musician, she focuses on voice healing and coaching. 

 

Terence Samson

Terence is a percussion multi-instrumentalist. At the moment of playing, he creates a magical world where different realms and music styles converge. The instruments played during a concert have a rich diversity of cultural and musical history. Terence plays percussion with groove, melody, color, and “sound.” His playing, tone, and color draw influences from various parts of the world (Indian Raga, Moroccan gnawa, and Brazilian samba reggae). As a percussionist, he combines many different musical and cultural traditions, taking the listener on a journey of sound, rhythm, and song where fire, earth, air, and water come into play. In Terence’s concerts, you can hear instruments such as Udu, Kanjira, PanArt Hang, Cajon, Framedrums, Pandeiro, Shakers, Sounds, and Bells.

 

Lex Pantelic

Lex plays various string instruments such as guitar, tanboor, and Greek baglama. He has a background in popular music, and his passion lies in Eastern world music and Iranian music. He serves as the musical leader of Orchestre Partout and leads workshops for the Stichting De Vrolijkheid. Lex is a kind of musical jack-of-all-trades. He also collaborates with asylum seekers, using music to connect them with the local community.

 

Freek Zwanenberg

Freek is a versatile pianist specializing in free improvisation. He improvises at various events, with theater groups, and in 2015, founded the multidisciplinary artist collective ‘Improv XL.’ For Freek, improvising together with a group is an experience of pure magic, as seen with the Ecstatic Dance Band ‘Dragonfly,’ where musicians and dancers flow together. In 2013, Freek independently released an album with eight piano improvisations, ‘Fragments of Flow.’ At home, Freek enjoys playing classical music by composers like Chopin and Bach. On his YouTube channel, you can also find viral videos of him playing ‘happy hardcore piano.’

 

Boudine van Slobbe

After studying Latin Percussion at the Hilversum Conservatory, Boudine found herself playing with the well-known Dutch percussion group, Slagerij Van Kampen, which was celebrating its 10th anniversary at that time. With them, she performed on various stages in the club circuit, at festivals, and in theaters, both in the Netherlands and occasionally abroad. Touring Dutch theaters became a lasting commitment, as she has been performing with SVK to sold-out venues for years. She still finds the performances with Slagerij during diverse theater tours to be a significant and ongoing challenge. In addition to performances with SVK, she enjoys creating (percussive) music for film presentations, offering private lessons, conducting workshops, or engaging in meditative percussion.