It is incredible how more and more people practice yoga dance: the type of yoga that unites the benefits of ancient art with the movement, joy, and creativity of several dance rhythms of the world.
If this is your case, know that the practice, besides being fun and dynamic, brings several benefits for body and mind health. It is worth a try!
But where did this very different type of yoga come from? In this article, Fernanda Cunha tells us a little about the development of yoga dance and how the practice can transform our lives. Check it out below.
Benefits of Yoga
To know more about yoga dance and its benefits, it is first important to understand its first origin: yoga.
The benefits of yoga are so practical because it is rooted in the holistic principles of harmony and unification. Yoga brings us unity and balance.
Yoga activates the parasympathetic nervous system responsible for relaxation, thus promoting more excellent balance.
This balance happens not only in the central nervous system but also in the endocrine system, which influences all the other organs in the body.
The asanas (physical postures) remove physical discomfort and promote the flow of prana (vital energy) through the body.
The relaxation and breathing techniques (pranayamas) help control the prana, restoring the body and mind.
The meditation techniques help reduce the mental pollution caused by so many thoughts - they help us focus on the important ones.
With all these benefits together, yoga becomes a tool for connecting with our essence.
As we practice, we become more conscious, the mind becomes more prepared, and incredible transformations can occur.
It becomes more apparent, for example, if the fears we have are real or just the result of our identification with thoughts.
All these were steps towards a fundamental change in my life: the creation of yoga dance.
How Yoga Dance Came About
The story of yoga dance is mixed with my personal story. I have always been passionate about dance.
As a child, music, and movement connected me to what I believe to be the divine in a way that no other play - or candy - did.
It was like a sacred moment, of a prayer drawing through my body. I was in communion with something more significant, and I felt this something greater.
The years went by, and I got to know yoga. I started my meditation practices and studies in Florianópolis, deepened in the United States a few years later, and graduated as a teacher in 2007.
It didn't take long for me to realize that this union, this awareness provided by the practice of yoga and meditation, was the same I had felt since my childhood dances.
I believe that the two practices have a lot in common, and for a while, I imagined that it would be wonderful to unite them, since one has so much to offer the other, and both can take us to the same place: inside ourselves.
This is how the first insight for the invention of yoga dance came about.
Yoga Dance Inspirations
I understood that this integration, in which I became the dance, is the meditative state and yoga, which means integration.
So, I began to perceive dance as a dynamic form of yoga. To work on yoga dance, I started looking for masters worldwide who could combine these two arts into a yogic and conscious language.
I found the Kripalu Yoga Center in Lenox, Massachusetts (USA), which, to my delight, offered a training called Kripalu Yoga dance (or Let Your Yoga Dance).
There I studied with Megha-Nancy Buttenheim and Jurian Hughes, who has been developing this work since 1985.
They were my first teachers and inspired me to start a work journey to develop a new and unique practice in yoga dance.
Still in the United States, I had the opportunity to study with many other teachers of different types of yoga.
Back in Brazil, I continued my studies in yoga philosophy in the Vedic and Tantric tradition with several teachers, such as Gloria Arieira and João Carlos B. Gonçalves.
Creation of Yoga Dance
Throughout the years, putting these diverse experiences into practice, I observed my students and tried to polish an approach that honors these two millennial traditions.
I sought ways for the practice to promote balance, celebration, authenticity, and connection for any Being in any place or situation.
All of this led me to create the practice of yoga dance, which was inspired by so many masters, uniquely integrating various arts.
I have eternal gratitude and reverence for all the masters, teachers, and students who contributed to this process of creation and re-creation, embracing and dancing consciously and authentically.
Benefits of Yoga Dance
Yoga dance is a type of yoga that integrates two millenary practices: yoga and dance. It allies the consciousness and principles of yoga with the vibration of sound and the freedom of dance.
The practice is focused on Hindu mythology and the vision of dance as a tool for connection, liberation, awareness, and soul expression.
The practice has simple dance dynamics and movements inspired by yoga postures that enable physical, mental, and energetic balance (through the chakras' flow).
Bringing these two practices together can maximize the benefits that each offers on its own in a single method.
In yoga dance, we dance for ourselves and not for others. We dance reality as it is. We dance our emotions, our light, our shadow, in short, all aspects of ourselves.
We transmute anxieties and fears into joy and fullness (ananda), which is our natural state according to yoga philosophy.
This happens by bringing our attention inward, completely disconnecting us from any external gaze.
The Importance of Breathing
We start bringing our attention to our breathing through yoga dance without trying to control the breathing rhythm until the attention becomes internal.
From there, with the breath flowing, we begin to connect with our internal rhythm, our emotions, and everything that is part of this moment in movement.
With the movements initiated by the awareness of the breath, of simply being in the present moment, the body begins to express this internal movement through its dance.
We surrender to it without resistance, without analysis, just dancing and becoming the dance.
In this yoga dance practice, we allow our emotions to come to the surface to digest and understand them better. We are bringing them into the light of consciousness without pushing them under the rug.
We create a ritual where we can finally process our emotions through our dance with joy.
And this, to me, is the most powerful element of the whole practice: yoga dance offers the opportunity to deal with emotions with joy and fun, honoring our entire journey and allowing beauty and freedom in every moment.
Yoga Dance and Chakras
Yoga dance is also an invitation to explore the seven chakras. In each song, we bring our attention to one of these energy centers.
This exercise, according to yogic tradition, can remove conflicts or tensions that can unbalance us.
Yoga Dance Rhythms
The movements allow the
prana to flow freely through the body and mind, accompanied by rhythms from
around the world:
- Latin
- Indian
- Arabs
- Trance
- Africans
- Brazilians
Yoga dance is not a purely physical practice: yoga and dance offer a way to cultivate self-awareness and exploration at all times.
In this article, you have learned a little more about yoga dance and its development in Fernanda Cunha's story.
Now, how about knowing even more yoga styles and discovering their benefits.
References:
Saraswati, Swami
Satyananda. Asana Pranyama Mudra Bandha. Munger, India: Bihar School of Yoga,
2008.