Ecstatic Dance
“La Vida Extática”
Move freely, heal joyfully, and rediscover the wild, wonderful rhythm of your own body.
Do you enjoy moving your body creatively?
Or would you like to learn how?
Come check out free-form improvisational ecstatic dance.
Free-form dance is not choreography. It is pure release.
No steps to memorize. No partner requirements. No judgment. Just sacred sound, intuitive movement, and a welcoming community holding space for your body to unwind.
A safe, supportive space for all ages and all body types
— even if you're dancing in a chair or a wheelchair.
Everyone is encouraged to move in odd, eccentric, even bizarre ways — so nobody has to pretend they know how to dance.
Downtown Recreation Center • 1338 E 8th St, Brownsville, TX 78520
First ecstatic dance gathering • sliding scale $1–$10. All ages & body types welcome!
Ask about individual lessons, or gather friends for a custom group lesson!
Dance Your Truth, Shed The Stress, Reconnect
Whether you jump, sway, sit with closed eyes, or spin across the floor, your authentic movement is welcome here.
Healing The Healer
When you hold space for everyone else, who holds it for you?
Healers, bodyworkers, therapists, community organizers, nurses, teachers, and mothers carry heavy emotional energetic loads. We are conditioned to give until exhaustion.
Healing The Healer is a dedicated sanctuary created by Juanito — combining gentle somatic movement, unwinding trauma trapped in fascial tissues, restorative ecstatic dance, and nervous system replenishment.
Nervous System Reset
Somatic shaking, bilateral stimulation, and restorative stillness to shift out of fight-or-flight.
Uncensored Movement
Release caregiver fatigue through non-verbal expression without having to look composed or strong.
Sliding Scale Care
Accessible to community workers and grassroots caretakers ($1–$10 for open circles).
Ecstatic Life Coaching
Living with vibrant purpose, embodied authenticity, and fierce joy.
Traditional life coaching talks about your goals from the neck up. Ecstatic Life Coaching with Juanito integrates the entire nervous system, somatic wisdom, vocal expression, and playful release so insights stick in your bones.
1-on-1 Sessions
Deep individualized mentorship addressing emotional blocks, creative stagnation, career transitions, and reconnecting with your inner spark.
- Somatic embodiment practices
- Customized movement homework
- In-person or virtual options
Friends & Family Circles
Direct from the flyer: “Ask about lessons, or gather friends for a custom group lesson!” Perfect for milestone celebrations or bonding.
- Curated DJ musical journey
- Living room or studio hall
- Gentle warm-up & integration circle
Creative Movement Coaching
Specialized coaching for those working with physical limitations, chronic pain, or dancing in a chair or wheelchair. Movement is your birthright.
- Chair & seated flow techniques
- Gentle pacing & boundary honor
- Trauma-informed approach
Ready to explore coaching or lessons with Juanito?
Call or text to chat about your needs and design a custom session.
Juanito
Founder • 80 Years of Lived Wisdom • Coach
Brownsville, Texas • 956-312-3649
The Founder Behind La Vida Extática
“I turned 80 on September 26. I hold a background in clinical psychology and psychotherapy, followed by decades in organizational development and leadership coaching. I don't teach healing from theory. I have lived every chapter.”
Healers carry their patients' pain on top of their own, with little support for either. Healing the Healer and La Vida Extática complement the clinical skills healers already possess with the personal, somatic work that makes them whole, resilient, and joyful.
From corporate diversity programs with Harvard Business School case studies to 18 months lying in patient beds across Mexican and American hospital wards, Juanito brings an unmatched blend of systemic insight, deep embodiment, and radical compassion.
A Lifetime in the Making: Juanito's Story Timeline
Follow the pivotal chapters—from student activism and corporate systems design to hospital beds, van life revelations, and the birth of La Vida Extática.
Clinical Psychology & The Human Gap
Rochester & Cincinnati
Studied clinical psychology and psychotherapy. Quickly encountered a profound systemic blind spot: the medical training focused exclusively on what to do for patients, offering zero support or practices for developing the healers as human beings. Healers carry patients' pain on top of their own, creating chronic burnout.
- •Trained with Bob Pierce (supervisor at Strong Memorial Hospital, Univ. of Rochester)
- •Mentored across 20 years by Harvey Jackins, pioneer of Reevaluation Co-Counseling
- •Built peer-based co-counseling communities in two cities with his wife
- •Pioneered body-centered release: shaking stress out, safe anger expression, and crying out grief
Sanctuary for the Martin Family
Indigenous Guatemalan Refugees
Juanito opened his home for six months to shelter the Martin family—Indigenous Guatemalans fleeing violent genocide in Central America. With Spanish as their sole common language, a lifelong bond with Latino culture was born.
- •Learned deeply about communal dignity, spiritual resilience, and ancestral endurance
- •Solidified a profound conviction: Latino culture holds the keys to healing and living in true community
- •Began decades of traveling to Mexico, studying Spanish, and immersing in Hispanic communal life
Systems Thinking, AT&T & Peter Block
Corporate Systems & Harvard Case Study
Spent his second career driving systemic cultural shifts inside major institutions. Trained directly with Peter Senge (author of The Fifth Discipline) at Cincinnati Gas & Electric, demonstrating learning organizations in the corporate world.
- •Worked in organizational development at AT&T during its prime
- •Collaborated with Peter Block's firm (Designed Learning / Flawless Consulting)
- •Coached corporate training teams and worked alongside Carolyn Lukensmeyer (Clinton-Gore cabinet retreat facilitator)
- •Led diversity training for 1.5 years; co-created a 3-year systemic diversity initiative at Deloitte & Touche that became a Harvard Business School teaching case
30 Years Medicated — Reaching Bottom & Total Awakening
Cincinnati
In his early 40s, his life came undone. Diagnosed with bipolar disorder, Juanito spent 30 years medicated, isolated, and feeling ashamed of himself.
- •In 2019, after two painful hospitalizations, he hit rock bottom and completely surrendered
- •On June 26, 2019, the 30-year cloud of despair lifted completely and has never returned
- •Partnered with an open-minded psychiatrist to safely taper off all psychiatric medication over 9 months
- •Senior psychiatrist Dr. Peggy O'Hara tearfully acknowledged: 'I believe you never had a mental illness'—yet a month later could not remember saying it due to professional conditioning
The 'Camper Van Cowboy' & Van Life Epiphanies
NC Mountains, New Orleans, Southwest LA, South Texas & Mexico
For five transformative years, Juanito lived on the road as a 'camper van cowboy' accompanied by his loyal dog Pancho. Traveling through rural America and spending two vibrant years in Mexico, he distilled 5 non-negotiable rules for healers.
- •1. Get back in your body: Shifted from desk keyboards to hauling, hiking, and physical labor
- •2. Resourcefulness means asking for help: Brainstormed solutions with strangers over truck hoods
- •3. Inner guidance can be trained: Learned to follow intuitive inner nudges with humor and courage
- •4. Open heart, solid boundaries: Loving everybody while maintaining fierce protective boundaries
- •5. Isolation is the shadow: Experienced the deep loneliness of giving without a supportive tribe
Total Kidney Failure & 18 Months as a Patient
Mexico, Asheville NC & Brownsville TX
On March 5, 2025 in Mexico, Juanito went into total kidney failure. Doctors pronounced him terminally ill with weeks to live. After two months in Mexican hospitals, he was medically evacuated to Asheville, NC.
- •An MRI revealed no cancer, only severe benign enlargement; surgery in September 2025 restored his health completely
- •Spent another week hospitalized with cellulitis and two weeks in rehab in Brownsville, TX
- •18 total months inside hospital beds observing nurses, aides, OTs, and PTs at their most devoted—and most depleted
Rooted in Brownsville: Launching La Vida Extática
Rio Grande Valley, Brownsville, TX
Turned 80 on September 26, 2026. On May 8, 2026, returned to Brownsville to put down permanent roots and offer what he views as his 'last and best professional contribution.'
- •Lives 3 blocks from the UTRGV campus; graduated from UTRGV's Small Business Academy
- •Launching pilot programs for UTRGV Occupational Therapy & Physical Therapy faculties and students
- •Performs poetry regularly at Búho Bookstore's open mic in Brownsville
- •Anchoring La Vida Extática: sliding-scale ecstatic dance gatherings, embodied retreats, and life coaching
A Lifelong Bond With Latino Culture
Roots, Rhythm, Resilience & “La Gente y El Espíritu de la Danza”
“The door the Martin family opened never closed. I have studied Spanish on and off ever since, because it was the only language we shared. I traveled to Mexico three times in my 30s and kept returning to the culture for the rest of my life.
When my van broke down in North Carolina, Kentucky, Illinois or Texas, the person who stopped to help was a Mexican with a pickup truck 80 to 90 percent of the time. Living here in Brownsville, what people call Little Mexico, I keep learning from a culture centered on la gente, the collective.”
Deep Borderlands Connection
Rooted in South Texas (956 area code) and deeply steeped in Tejano, Mexican, and Latin American warmth. The culture of familial solidarity, shared tables, and open-hearted embrace permeates every gathering of La Vida Extática.
Rhythmic Lineage & Percussion
Latino music carries an intrinsic medicine: cumbia syncopation, Afro-Cuban polyrhythms, Andean flutes, and modern Latino pop and rock. Movement in Latino culture is communal storytelling, grieving, and ecstasy intertwined.
Reverence & Inclusivity
The name La Vida Extática is an homage to living fully, vibrantly, and passionately. We honor Latino cultural heritage through respect, cross-cultural bridges, and an invitation for all backgrounds to dance as one familia.
“El baile no es un lujo; es medicina para el alma y la comunidad.”
Dance is not a luxury; it is medicine for the soul and the community.
About Ecstatic Dance
“Nobody has to pretend they know how to dance.”
No Steps or Choreography
Move however your body wants to move. Shake, roll, crawl, bounce, or lie on the floor. There is no “wrong” step.
Safe & Accessible
All ages and all body types — even dancing in a chair or wheelchair. Everyone is encouraged to move in odd, eccentric ways!
Non-Verbal Dancefloor
We take conversations outside the dance circle so you can drop from thinking mind into somatic sensory presence.
Substance-Free Space
Naturally induced euphoria through breathing, rhythm, community warmth, and endorphin release. Pure authentic connection.
Free-form improvisational dance sessions could help you…
- •Release stress, anxiety, and trauma
- •Overcome shyness, embarrassment, and self-consciousness
- •Strengthen your personal presence
- •Become a more high-impact person in everything you do
What to Bring & How to Prepare
First Dance Playlist
Juanito curated a vibrant 5-part wave of modern Latino pop and rock for our first gathering — Saturday, November 14 at 10 a.m. at the Downtown Recreation Center. Stream the full playlist below, then RSVP to save your spot.
Open the full First Dance Playlist on SpotifyJuanito recently discovered Chuwi (the Puerto Rican band popularized by Bad Bunny) and spent 30 minutes in continuous, wild, improvisational ecstatic dance to their album Libertad. While our first gathering focuses on modern Latino pop and rock classics, Chuwi is slated for our upcoming experimental live DJ waves!
RSVP & Stay Updated
Get notified of all future playlists and any possible schedule changes (if Juanito is out of town or the venue has a conflict on a particular date, etc.). You can also use this form to request individual dance coaching or Ecstatic Life coaching.