Yoga and dance - beyond physical aspect

Dance and yogasanas share so many thing in common. Both use a body as a tool to achieve its goal. And on the way to their goals, both dancers and yogis need to strengthen, stretch and relax their and bodies and minds. Today, practicing yoga, especially the practice of asanas and some basic pranayamas, become more and more popular among professional dancers. This is because most of them have found out by themselves that yoga is a very good somatic supplementary to their training. While some of them found that yoga have benefits on them beyond physical level.

The benefits of yoga on the professional dancers are clearly seen. The benefit that is the most significantly seen is the physical one. The stretching and strengthening in a gentle way of yogasanas help dancers in expanding their capacities, extending their physical limitations, with least chance to get injured.

Yogasanas tone their body muscles, especially the core muscles – abdominal muscles and back muscles, which are very important in every kind of dances; the hip and the turnout muscles, which are very important for ballet dancers; and the leg muscles, which are essential for all dancers. In the same time, asanas tone other muscles which are rarely used among many kinds of dances i.e. upper-body muscles, arms muscles, neck muscles; hence, their strength of their body muscles are built in a balancing way. In terms of flexibility, by practicing yogasanas properly with breathe, their flexibilities incredibly increase with no injuries. Yogasanas also help stretching many parts of the body which are stiff because of the style of dance. For example, ballet dancers have very strong ankles, but the outside parts of their ankles have no flexibilities and injuries such as sprain or twisted ankles can happen easily. Sitting in some asanas such as Padhamasan are very hard for them but it is good for stretching that part.

Besides, . in the case of those dancers who get injured because of their dancing habit turn to yoga to re-align themselves before going back to dance after the injuries. These habits are often built up from poor training and they are very hard to get rid of. While doing yoga asanas slowly and smoothly with more awareness provides a good opportunity for the dancers to retrain their muscles memory.

In addition, by practicing yoga regularly or adopting yogic life style, the overall health of the dancers also improve; circulation of blood improves, lung capacity increases, stamina increases etc. Also, the yogic diet also keeps them in shape in a healthy way.

One significant part of doing yoga asanas is breathing. The dancers who practice yogasanas regularly automatically adopt the way of breathing for yoga in their dances too. This is because they found that breathing helps relaxing mind and irrelevent muscles. This helps they be able to perform so many dance techniques better; more stable, and with more confidence.

For example, in the movement called PIROUTTE or turning on one leg, one needs concentration, balance, and strength in the muscle to hold the position while turning. In the same time, relaxation is also needed in order to allow the body to turn like a top. If a dancer holds the body too tightly and does not know how to relax, one will perform the PIROUTTE poorly. However, to be relaxed in this movement is difficult because people have tendency to scare while balancing of the tip-toes of one leg and do the spinning; hence, the tension naturally comes. But the practicing of yoga which movements and breathing are bined together, the dancer can automatically adapt the breathing technique to keep relaxing while still holding the muscles being used in performing the movements.

Another example is the classical pose called PANCHE in ARABESQUE – the dancer lift one leg to the back as high as possible. It needs dancers’ flexibility, for lifting the leg high; strength of back and legs muscles, for keeping the position; and concentration for balancing. Because of its difficulty, the unnecessary muscles are often tensed. And the dancer tends to hold the breathe and cause unsteadiness. But if the dancer applies the quality of doing asanas – steady and comfortable, one will feel more relaxing, more comfortable and calmer.

Naturally, when performing on the stage, almost every dancer feels stress in various levels. This natural tension leads to the poor performance. But dancers who practice yoga will know that controlling their breathes will calm their minds and get rid of those unnecessary tension. There are so many tricks that being used among dancers to cope with such stage jitters, but the yogi-dancer will eventually realize that the “MEDITATION through DANCE” is one of the best. So they used their movements along with their breathes to relax their minds and bodies. They dance and meditate in the same time. Their stage performances turn to be the tools to relaxation. Their minds remain calm from the beginning till the end.

Their stage performances will aesthetically improved. By remaining relax, body and mind are able to be connected because he/she does not have anything to worry. They only let the dance pass through themselves to the audience. Then, there are no more dancers, but only breathe and the movements. The audience will not see the dancer but the only the energy that is flowing and combining together to create a dance. Then, it seems like the dancer and the dance become one. To reach this stage, the dancers’ minds must be relaxed and opened enough to let the energy inside them explode through their dance, and their technique, strength and flexibility must be good enough to let the enormous energy flow through their movements. And it is yoga which helps dancers in every aspect.

Finally, it can be said that ‘breathe creates movements’. Their dance will not mere dance, but a speech of some higher energy that dancing through the dancer’s body. This is what yoga benefits on dancers and their dances beyond physical level. This is how yoga brings dancers to the higher stage of minds, and reach their full potential as a human being through dance.