If you are wondering if yoga and dance complement each other in any way, let’s look at ways in which Yoga will help with your dancing and vice versa.
With the daily demands of life, a physical, mental and spiritual balance is imperative. Yoga and dance can be used together in a number of ways. One way is because Yoga helps one to relax and become more mindful, and there are many stretches in yoga that will help a dancer with their overall flexibility.
If you are short of time then even taking ten to fifteen minutes out of your week to practice some yoga relaxation techniques will help you no end. One exercise you will enjoy is the Relaxation Technique of the Corpse Pose from Yoga. It only takes 10-15 minutes out of your day friends. So let’s learn this simple pose today. This pose is great to both relax and revive you.
Embody Your Inner Peace with Yoga And Dance
Why should you Embody Your Inner Peace with Yoga & Dance?
Yoga and Dance are two practices that have been around for centuries. They both focus on the spiritual and physical health of the individual.
Yoga is a practice that has been around for over 5,000 years and is still growing in popularity today. Dance has been around for over 2,000 years but is not as popular as Yoga yet.
Both Yoga and Dance are practices that can be beneficial to anyone who participates in them. They both offer many different health benefits, including weight loss, reduced stress levels, improved flexibility, increased strength, better posture, improved balance, mind control, concentration, self-awareness, self-discipline, and overall well-being.
But while they share some similarities there are some differences between them as well.
Yoga focuses on meditation while dance focuses on the coordination of movements with music or rhythm.
Yoga and dance are practices that can help you find inner peace. Yoga is an ancient practice that focuses on physical postures, breathing techniques, and meditation. Dance is a form of physical expression that can be used to express emotions or tell a story.
As a dancer practicing Yoga, you’ll feel more alive and connected to your body and spirit, and you’ll be able to tap into the natural healing power of your body. Yoga is great to use for dancers who are about to perform and are nervous. Try some meditation before hitting that stage.
Yoga can give you a boost in confidence and creativity, which are qualities essential for performances and when choreographing as a dancer.
Other Benefits Of Doing Yoga As A Dancer
These benefits are not only for dancers but even for people who don’t dance. Yoga poses can benefit all.
Better Sleep
Yoga is a physical, mental, and spiritual practice that originated in India and one of its many benefits includes better sleep. The practice of yoga can help you sleep better by reducing stress and anxiety, improving your posture, and helping you stay calm. The deep breathing also helps your body to tune in and relax.
Releasing Stress
The practice of yoga and meditation together is called Yoga Nidra. Yoga Nidra is a form of deep relaxation with meditation. It can be practiced by anyone, but it is most commonly practiced in the evening before bedtime.
Practicing yoga and meditation together can help you achieve a deeper state of relaxation than when practicing each individually.
When you combine these two practices, it becomes easier to focus on your breathing and your body while also calming your mind.
Spiritual Relaxation Technique:
However one tries to relax the mind, one cannot completely remove all tensions and worries from it unless one goes to spiritual relaxation.
This is in itself is a slightly demanding but very rewarding practice.
Yogis know that unless man can withdraw himself from the body idea and separate himself from the ego-consciousness, there is no way of obtaining complete relaxation.
So from mental relaxation, he withdraws himself and identifies himself with the all-pervading, all-powerful, all peaceful, and joyful self, because all the sources of power and knowledge are in the soul and not the body.
Man can only free himself from the clutches of evil emotions by asserting his true self by stating mentally: “I am that pure consciousness or self” This identification with the self completes the process of relaxation.
The method to be applied here is to breathe deeply and squarely in a ratio of 5:5:5 seconds while mentally chanting the mantra above. As you will observe it goes hand-in-hand with mental relaxation after the physical auto suggestions are completed.
To get the most of this practice, you should practice this after your poses, before going to sleep, or even during a break in dance class or a recess at work or school, or right at your desk.
Yoga and Dance as Self-Healing Tools
Dance is an art form that has been around for centuries. It’s more than just a hobby; it can be used as a therapeutic tool. One could say the same about Yoga.
Dance is also an activity that has been shown to improve the moods of those who participate in it. One could say the same about Yoga.
Many people enjoy dancing because it makes them feel good, but some people dance to heal themselves. There are many different types of dance, and there are many different reasons people might choose to dance. There are also many different training methods in Yoga, from deeply spiritual to more stretch based.
Most Beneficial Yoga Poses For Dancers Short On Time
Here are the six most beneficial yoga poses for dancers that will help them to improve their agility.
Trikonasana (Triangle Pose)
The Trikonasana is also called the triangle pose and is a foundational standing pose in yoga that strengthens and lengthens the hamstrings and groin while also opening the shoulders and stretching the hips. This also releases tension in the lower back and stimulates your organs. The foundational posture is named for the triangle shape your body makes as you bring your bottom hand to the floor and keep your feet grounded during the move.
Utkatasana (Chair Pose)
While sitting in a chair sounds easy and comfortable, sitting in an imaginary chair is a little more challenging!
The literal meaning of Utkatasana is intense posture or powerful posture.
This pose exercises the spine, hips and chest muscles. It tones the thigh, ankle and knee muscles and helps to strengthen the lower back and torso.
Setu Bandhasana (Bridge Pose)
This post strengthens your upper arms, back, core and your glut muscles.
Poorvottanasana (Upward Plank Pose)
This pose strengthens the wrists, shoulders, arms, back, and spine, while stretching the intestines and abdominal organs. It is basically a reverse plank. It is great for dancers as it improves the respiratory function. An added bonus is that it stimulates the thyroid gland.
Adho Mukha Svanasana (Downward facing Dog Pose)
This is a great all over stretch and strengthening exercise that is very beneficial for dancers.
Shavasana (Corpse Pose)
And last but not least the corpse pose, which you can see a video of at the beginning of this article.
Conclusion:
Yoga and dance are both great ways to introduce mindfulness into your life. They teach you how to be present in the moment. And they can help you release any pent-up frustrations or worries that may have been weighing you down.
We all know that one of the necessary things needed to keep a vehicle in good condition is cooling the engine when it gets hot.
Well, the same principle applies to the human body. When the body and mind are constantly overworked, their efficiency in performing their duties diminishes. Modern social life, food, work, and even play make it difficult for the modern man to use a proper relaxation technique for rejuvenation.
If you look at nature, it will show us that animals love relaxation and sleep. They get as much sleep as they want. Rest and sleep are essential to recharge our nervous energy
As our physical, emotional, and mental balance depends on the quantity and quality of these vital necessities. They are the only things that recharge these batteries and allow for the proper elimination of metabolic wastes.
Yoga and dance seem like they are worth pursuing. Yoga helps dancers with flexibility. These forms focus on the spiritual, physical health, improved balance, concentration, self-awareness, and self-discipline. These are all elements that enrich our lives.
Love these key poses that will help us to reduce stressors in our world and seem like they are complementary interests that are ready to blossom!
Can we bridge mediation with unique and beautiful movements in dance?
Well meditation is not really supposed to be done with movement as dance is, but meditation can help dancers to focus if they practice it regularly.
Amazing article, these are my two favorite workout regiments that I love to do, yoga is more prominent for me after every morning when I am done, I feel so relaxed and serene, I feel I can move a mountain.
Dancing is dancing, however, in my dance moves, I sometimes discover there are times the calmer side of yoga stretches comes into play. I am glad yoga is here to stay, and once you have done this over and over you never forget a step.
True, it is amazing how your muscles just seem to remember the movements once you have done them over and over.
This is a great article. I am someone who loves dancing and used to do yoga. However, I never considered yoga to help with my flexibility as a dancer. With that said I will have to try it out. I’m always interested in things that help with my dancing. Just seeing the poses I see will really help me out. I’m going to try out a yoga class and continue to do so, as it is something I can do for life. Thanks for the beautiful article.
Thanks for stopping by to comment Kiersti. Yoga will definitely help with that flexibility.