The Tantric Dance of Feminine Power with Nita Rubio.

Watching Nita dance is watching poetry in motion.

Witnessing Nita is witnessing the Goddess.

Nita has long been a secret treasure for women in Los Angeles and Orange County,whose reach and influence is growing. Flowing with grace, wisdom and strength, Nita empowers women by “aligning them with their internal compass.” In a female-only space, women have the opportunity to turn inward, identify beauty devoid of the male gaze and dance spirit into being.

For over a decade, Nita has been passing on the ancient wisdom of the divine feminine, a sacred element contained in every woman waiting to be accessed. Through this work, Nita guides women as they access that wisdom. In doing so, women come in contact with the knowing of the body and are able to enliven, heal, create community and recognize the Goddess as they stand before the mirror and behold themselves.  Tapping into these gifts is made possible by the energetic container that Nita facilitates, a container marked by female solidarity and support.

Nita began her life as a dancer, ballet slippers fixed on tiny pointed toes at age five. She credits the rigors of ballet class for preparing her for the demands of a committed spiritual practice.

Nita’s first “official” introduction to the Goddess was through a Goddess community, Long Beach Woman Spirit. This experience paved the way for future personal inquiries that included Wicca, paganism and shamanic work. After being a solo practitioner for many years, Nita was relieved to find Vajra Ma, the originator of the Tantric Dance of Feminine Power. Nita was immediately called to teach this work and underwent rigorous and lengthy training that included but is not limited to ritual work, subtle body energetics, and the cultivation of the authentic voice. In the summer of 2000, Nita was ordained a Priestess in this tradition.

The Tantric Dance of Feminine Power was the doorway to direct experience providing Nita numerous mystical experiences, insights and awakenings. Inspired by these experiences and this sacred movement modality, the seed of longing for more of the Tantric experience was firmly planted in Nita’s heart.

Nita was fortunate enough to continue her quest by being accepted by two teachers of the Shakti tradition of Tantra. One such teacher, Parvathi Nanda Nath, is a yogini descended from a direct and unbroken lineage carrying the transmissions of Kaula Tantra, Shru Vidya and Kasmir Shaivism. Parvathi’s teachings and practices have allowed Nita to continue to cultivate her own teachings and broaden her scope of understanding.

Nita’s other teacher prefers to stay anonymous thus preserving the nature of secrecy around Tantra. This secrecy is not about shame or elitism. It’s about each individual being called by the incredible power to explore the consciousness and, ultimately, being presented with the proper teacher at the proper time.

Nita has delicately woven the teachings of her mentors with her background in dance, yoga, the healing arts and  feminist consciousness. As a result, Nita offers her students a beautiful, inspiring and deeply nurturing practice. While many contemporary tantric practices focus on the physical culmination of sexual energy with partners, this practice is for the woman herself and the power is accessed by her alone.  The practice brings them in deeper contact with their authentic self through the portal of sexual energy or “the erotic,” concepts distorted by a contemporary hyper-sexual, pornographic culture too often highlighted by domination, power plays and disconnection.

As Audre Lorde stated in The Uses of the Erotic, the erotic is a source of power for women. It is a non-rational, fulfilling, replenishing and joyful source of power dwelling in our deepest being.

There are many kinds of power, used and unused, acknowledged or otherwise. The erotic is a resource within each of us that lies in a deeply female and spiritual plane, firmly rooted in the power of our unexpressed or unrecognized feeling. In order to perpetuate itself, every oppression must corrupt or distort those various sources of power within the culture of the oppressed that can provide energy for change. For women, this has meant a suppression of the erotic as a considered source of power and information within our lives.

Nita helps us step on to that female spiritual plane, ignite our internal flames as we dance and, in the process, rebuild a pro-woman spiritual lineage.

In addition to The Tantric Dance of Feminine Power for women, Nita teaches co-ed dance classes, Tantric Purification Practies (for women only or co-ed) and leads residential retreats in Big Sur and Joshua Tree.

To find out more about Nita Rubio, visit her website, blog and facebook page.

Photos by Barry J. Holmes. Video provided by The Hub, West Los Angeles.