According to Osho, dance happens only when the dancer dissolves—when the doer, controller, and ego vanish, leaving pure movement and energy. In that egoless absorption, grace or a 'pull from above' takes over, transcending ordinary limits; the dance dances itself. Let go, and the Divine moves you.
Real dance begins when you forget yourself and let the movement happen on its own.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
You have asked, “When does dance happen?”
And nothing can bring you near to the Divine as easily as dance can. Dance is utterly natural. Man alone has forgotten. The whole existence is dancing—except man. Man too used to dance. Primitive people still dance; only the civilized man has been deprived. The civilized man has forgotten to dance. He has become inert, like stone; not a waterfall that flows, not a spring. Melt yourself a little. Allow the Divine to touch you a little. Has Phagun brushed the mind a little? The camphor-white body has turned abir-hued. Have sweet songs touched the lover’s lips? Every heartbeat has become a pair of cymbals. Saffron beds have spread across the limbs, The sky prepares to take you in its arms. Suddenly the tresses grow playful, The boundaries of the veil draw tight. Have intoxicating breaths touched your breath? The Malayan breeze is fragrant now. Has Phagun brushed the mind…
Osho, I am dancing here. I, who never danced. Far from dancing—I had never even thought I would dance. I am astonished at myself. I ask: what has happened to me?
Love has happened to you; religion has happened to you. You have begun to come toward your home. You have turned back. You have set out toward your source. The Ganges has started flowing back toward Gangotri. The current has reversed. Your first steps have begun to fall in the direction from which you came. And when the first steps fall that way, dance is born. The farther you go from the divine, the more dance is lost; gloom, frustration, melancholy spread through life. When you are very miserable, understand that you are very far from the divine. The rishis have described the divine as sat-chit-ananda—being, consciousness, bliss. Saraha says, Tilopa says: it is mahāsukha, the great bliss. That means the more you are in sorrow, the farther you are from it. The proportion of your sorrow is the proportion of your distance. The measure of your sorrow is the…
[An indian visitor, who is a professional dancer, asked what meditation technique would be right for her, and then went on to ask about love and relationships.] There is no need to find any other meditation. Dance itself becomes a meditation if the dancer is lost. The whole point is how to lose oneself. How you do that, or where, is irrelevant. Just lose yourself. A point comes where you are not, and still things go on... as if you are possessed. Dance is one of the most beautiful things that can happen to a man. So don't think about meditation separately. Meditation is needed as something separate for people who don't have any very deep creative energy; no direction for their energy to get so deeply involved that they can be lost But a dancer, a painter, a sculptor, need not have any other meditation.
My understanding is that dance, in the beginning, was born out of meditation. And I think all that is significant in life has had its origin in meditation. Meera did not have to go anywhere to learn dancing. People are mistaken if they think that Meera found God through dancing. Meera burst into dancing when she found God. The fact is otherwise: no one finds God through dancing, but one can dance if he finds God. What can a drop do but dance when a whole ocean enters into it? What can a beggar do but dance when he suddenly comes upon a treasure of infinite wealth? But man has been so much crushed and crippled by civilization that he cannot dance.
Where is suppleness in stiffness? Dancing needs fluidity—where is fluidity in ego? Dancing needs the art of dissolving. When only the dance remains and the dancer is lost, then the dance is complete. But if the dancer stands stiff, do not mistake his hopping for dance. And sing as much as you like—if ego is inside, it will poison all your songs. If the vessel is filled with poison, whatever flowers you float in it will perish. What is the point of dancing or singing? What is the point of austerities? Do as much tapas as you like—nothing will happen. If the basic condition is not met, neither dance nor song nor austerity nor vow will help. The fundamental condition is one: let the ego go.