Beats and Breath
Last month I had the pleasure of bringing together two things I love dearly: yoga and electronic music. Collaborating with DJ Technolasko one Saturday last month for Deep Beats: Deep House Yoga at House of Yes in Bushwick, Brooklyn was not only a fun time, but a unique way to merge traditional with modern. While I'm mostly a traditionalist when it comes to my yoga practice and teaching, I love to try new things when it comes to my life. We live in modern times, so why not try practicing in an untraditional environment, like in a club to house music? Because music is so important to me and I love free-form movement like dancing so much, I've always taken time to create my playlists, many of which include some form of electronic music (not necessarily house music) on them. I feel that music is often times daily life's heartbeat and teaching to a live DJ set is something I've always wanted to invite into one of my classes. So the universe, as it often does, serendipitously brought on this opportunity.
Technolasko is old school, like me, and we both have a sincere appreciation for the skills a talented DJ has to master in order to bring ambiance, energy, vibrancy and movement to a crowd. He started the the set with pretty lively beats and immediately got the vibe going. We easily synced with the music with the pace of the vinyasa flow as I find usually happens seamlessly with music and movement. The group that day was a wide range of levels, as many classes are, so, of course options, were given. It was great to see that the students were still listening to their bodies as I encouraged them to. While some rode the wave of high energy beats and tried the more advanced versions I was offering, others still took the opportunity to rest occasionally (some even bobbing their heads to the music while in Childs Pose). Still encouraging steady breath throughout, I used the freedom of the live music to improvise the flow to what fit with the vibe and students' spirits. It made my heart happy to see everyone enjoying themselves. As we began to wind down the flow, the music mellowed into more ambient sounds and, as any good DJ does reading the crowd, Technolasko offered students the chance to slow down by the music bpm, in addition to my cues. Soft beats still resonated I put the group into Savasana and lingered as we closed out practice.
Some students came to chat with me afterwards to talk about their experience. Many of them expressed how fun it was to practice in this untraditional way and that they appreciated the live set. It reiterated to me how music and movement can truly bring different walks of life together, in this case, also joining in breath and self awareness. These are wordless languages that unite people of varied backgrounds and is an essence of life I sincerely love. All this is so fitting, as yoga, after all, is union.
I had a great time, especially because both my mom and my sister joined in for practice. We had planned a day together and this was such an enjoyable way to unite my family, friends, strangers, music, movement, positive energy and this incredible practice called yoga.