Ecstatic Dance Retreat 2025 • BORNEO

Sabah, Malaysia, Borneo

DT
Dance The Medicine
  • Email address verified
39 reviews
May 1 - 9, 2025
Group size: 1 - 22
Ecstatic Dance Retreat 2025 • BORNEO
Sabah, Malaysia, Borneo

Dance The Medicine
  • Email address verified
39 reviews

May 1 - 9, 2025
Group size: 1 - 22

About this trip

NATURE – DANCE – JOURNEY


Experience true freedom, unlock your body’s natural energy, and reconnect with joy in the heart of nature on a transformative 9-day journey!


Embark on a unique retreat in Borneo, where we’ll awaken your inner vitality through dance, creativity, and community. Immerse yourself in the vibrant pulse of nature, surrounded by rich colors, dramatic landscapes, and the primal essence of this incredible land. This isn’t just a retreat—it’s a transformative journey that will light up your spirit in one of the world’s most awe-inspiring settings.


Together, we’ll explore: 


• Ecstatic Dance: Guided dance sessions with DJ Bernice Raabis to reconnect with your body and spirit.

• Nature Immersion: Explore Borneo’s OCEAN, MOUNTAIN, and WILDLIFE landscapes in unforgettable settings.

• Cultural Connection: Engage with local communities and traditions.

Wildlife Encounters: Discover Borneo’s unique wildlife with professional guides.


Your ecstatic dance sessions will be led by DJ Bernice Raabis, founder of Dance The Medicine, and supported by a professional team of licensed guides. This unique journey across North Borneo consists of three mindfully arranged components: OCEAN – MOUNTAIN – WILDLIFE, blended with culture and environmental consciousness.  We are thrilled to have present its original author and our special guest Jo Swann from HANSAH Life and Downbelow Marine and Wildlife Adventures S/B.


Join us, and let’s create memories, connect deeply, and dance under Borneo’s stunning skies—together!

Your Hosts


✤ BERNICE RAABIS - FOUNDER OF DANCE THE MEDICINE

Having begun humbly in the Kootenay Mountains of Western Canada, Bernice is now a respected mentor for Conscious Dance Leaders across the globe. Her journey started with hosting Dance Church for over ten years, where she harnessed her expertise from training in various disciplines, including Soul Motion, Movement Based Expressive Therapy (The Life Art Process), and Relational Somatic Therapy. These were brought together to nurture her local multi-generational dance community, which flourished and surpassed even her most ambitious expectations.

In 2016, she stretched her wings co-founding Ecstatic Dance International, facilitating successful leadership trainings in the US, the Netherlands, Guatemala, and Portugal. Driven to incorporate DJ and dance facilitation skills into available trainings, she used the name of her unique practice, and founded Dance The Medicine, a collective of accomplished conscious dance professionals determined to infect the world with dance. 

While Bernice loves DJing and creating transformative events, her deepest fulfilment comes from facilitating deep somatic processes using a combination of dance, art, and ritual; to help dancers find freedom through connection to self, community, and humanity. 


✤   HANSH

Hansah is a transformational lifestyle organization offering tool kits, workshops, frameworks, private and group therapy that empower people to envision, plan & execute an extraordinary life. A member of the Transformational Travel Council. a group of global experts unlocking the power of travel & self development to positively transform how we live our lives, how we live with others, and how we live on our planet through transformative education, community engagement, experiences, and events.Learn more about Hansah.

What to bring?

Borneo is located just above the equator, its hot with day time temperatures around 28-30 degrees. Night time 26 degrees.


• Lightweight casual evening clothes, t.shirts, loose trousers suitable for the tropics.
• Casual shoes / flip flops for evenings
• Lightweight Raincoat
• Shorts & t.shirts suitable for hiking & sweating leggings for hiking are great.
• Hat, sunglasses, sun screen, insect repellent.
• Light weight towel / day hiking bag / refillable water bottle (there is a ban on single use plastic)

What’s included

  • All Land & Boat Transfer
  • 8 Nights Accomodation
  • Full Board Meals
  • Day of Snorkeling
  • Hiking Pineapple Ridge
  • Wildlife Safaris
  • Exploring Local Tribes
  • Ecstatic Dance Practices
  • Yoga and Activity Time
  • Play Time & Photo Shoot
  • Licensed Tour Guide
  • And much more!

What’s not included

  • International Flights
  • Alcohol and Carbonated D
  • Personal Expenses & Laun
  • Travel Insurance

Available Packages

Ecstatic Dance Retreat Borneo 2025
Deposit:$300

Our Package Includes:

  • All Land & Boat Transfers In Country
  • 8 Nights Twin/Double/Triple Share Accommodation in Stunning Natural Environments.
  • Full Board Meals
  • Day of Snorkeling & Beach Activities
  • A Day Hiking “The Most Beautiful Trail” Pineapple Ridge
  • Kinabatangan River for Wildlife Safaris
  • Cultural Immersion Sharing Stories with Local Tribes
  • Ecstatic Dance & Conscious Dance Practices by legendary DJ Bernice Raabis
  • Plus lots more … see full inclusion list below
  • Facilitated by Adventures In Borneo. Staff Team On Location.

A nonrefundable deposit of €300 plus 30% of the package is due when you sign up. The €300 is payable here, to Dance the Medicine. When you sign up here with your €300 deposit, we will send you a link to pay the remaining 30% deposit to Down Below Adventures. The balance must be paid in full by 1st March 2025. 

$3,900
Deposit:$300

Itinerary

Day One:
Land Transfer & Evening Opening Ceremony

11am scheduled land transfer from Kota Kinabalu City to Kudat.  Evening opening ceremony intention setting & dance. Free at leisure until dinner time.

Overnight: Ocean Villa’s Twin/Double / Triple Rooms, Air-conditioned with En-suite bathroom. (Lunch, Dinner Included)

Your Organizer


DT
Dance The Medicine
39 reviews
Our Dream Team at Dance the Medicine includes established Conscious and Ecstatic Dance event organizer, movement facilitators and DJ's, We are diverse, coming from a wide array of backgrounds and modalities with varying visions about how to deliver our dance medicine to the world. What we share is a love of dance, music and community. We are collaborative, empathetic, action-minded and believe that dance has the ability to change the world! Come learn, play and DANCE with us!

Reviews

Amazing experience, Bernice and all the staff were so professional, generous and Kind! And all the human encounters made at the training were unforgettable!
By Paola B for Ecstatic DJ School 2024 • ITALY on Oct 22, 2024
fantastic experience
By Cinzia D for Ecstatic DJ School 2024 • ITALY on Oct 19, 2024
Thank you very much
By Valentyna C for Ecstatic DJ School 2024 • IRELAND on Sep 20, 2024
CQ
This was a hugely enjoyable experience with a really great community of people, in a fantastic environment. Bernice and her team cover a wide range of technical skills, but also maintain a strong emphasis on helping people develop the underlying intuition that drives a great ecstatic DJ set. It's more than classroom training, it's a community experience where you get to spend quality time with a fantastic network of individuals who are on similar paths, resulting in a support system that can last long after the training ends. Great people, lessons, space, food, fun and dance!
By Carlos Q for Ecstatic DJ School 2024 • IRELAND on Sep 15, 2024
JK
As always with Dance the Medicine it wasn’t just about the training. It was the whole experience from start to finish! The wonderfully talented and patient team. The incredible food. The magical venue. The love and care shown to each and every student. It was awesome.
By Joules K for Ecstatic DJ School 2024 • IRELAND on Sep 10, 2024
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