Spirit Dance

Spirit Dance is a four-night medicinal ceremony of dance around a sacred fire and altar, held at PachaMama Eco Village & Retreat Center in Nicoya, Guanacaste, Costa Rica. It is led by Carmen Vicente (Carmita), a revered medicine woman from the Andes mountains, together with a tribal chief, and it draws on Andean and Indigenous traditions. It is for people drawn to ancestral ceremony, fire and sweat lodge work, and dancing as a form of prayer.

What to Expect

The intention of the Spirit Dance is to come together as family, dancing for the stars and the visions, the individual and the collective, and to awaken ancestral memories. The ceremony rests on the idea that the source of this knowledge is still within each person, even when it is not active in everyday consciousness.

Each of the four nights follows the same shape. The dance begins at 4 PM and the ceremony concludes at 12 PM. A purifying sweat lodge opens the dance and another closes it. Between them, the movement is guided around the sacred fire and a dedicated altar, to the beat of a drum and live music, both instrumental and vocal.

The page recommends arriving at least one day early and staying an extra day after the dance, to leave room for rest and integration.

About Carmen Vicente (Carmita)

Carmen Vicente, known as Carmita, is a medicine woman from the Andes mountains. She brings people together to revitalize the memory of the ancient cultures of the Earth and to renew awareness of the relationship between Spirit and Life. At the Spirit Dance, she guides the gathering alongside a tribal chief, around whom the community gathers at the altar and fire to meet the ancestral memories said to live in every being.

The Setting

The ceremony takes place at PachaMama Eco Village & Retreat Center in Nicoya, in the Guanacaste region of Costa Rica. Accommodation is available at the center, and participants can choose between a guest rate with accommodation and a visitor rate without it. Space is limited to 72 dancers, so the circle around the fire stays a gathering of a manageable size.

Before You Go

No prior experience is specified. Come prepared for a sweat lodge at the start and end of every night and for extended dancing around the fire over four consecutive nights.

The price covers participation in the four nights of the Spirit Dance and the sweat lodge sessions that open and close each night. Accommodation is not included for those booking the visitor rate, and a 13 percent Costa Rican value added tax is added to the total. An early bird rate is offered, and securing it requires full payment for accommodation by the early bird deadline.