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Improve Your Dancing With Yoga: Vrikshasana –
Or Why It Makes Sense For Dancers To Climb Trees.
Guest Writer: Lubosch Bublák Editing And Translation: Kerstin Lange Photography: Helmut Römhild
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It’s thrust which makes a rocket shoot through space. |
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and contrary to the media attention these stories receive only a discouragingly small number of people ever saw a yogi elevate.
Standing tall, facing the challenges, not tumbling down like a rotten tree: We need the body – it provides the power to balance on one leg. And we need the mental capacity to be able to concentrate. |
Pause for half a minute to breathe calmy – just enjoy it, then start again ...
Bring your feet together, shift the body weight on one foot.
Bend your knee so it points outward, put the sole of your foot against the ankle of the supporting leg.
Keep the knee of the supporting leg flexible. Now start to straighten the body: stretch the flanks, bring up the chest, slightly shift your head backwards.
Put the palms together and, facing straight ahead, slowly raise your arms above your head.
Pause for half a minute to breathe calmy – just enjoy it, then start again with your body weight on the other foot.
Guest Writer: Lubosch Bublák
Yoga teacher, former competition dancer,
BDY, VYLK, TaMeD e.V.
www.ashtanga-yoga-kiel.de
Power Yoga In Dancesport.
In a short sequel of articles Lubosch Bublák will introduce yoga postures which are helpful for the competition dancer.
Using these power yoga poses immediately before entering a competition a dancer can harmonize body and mind,
make muscles, tendons and joints flexible and strong and considerably reduce stress:
only a well-balanced organism can fully use the music’s potential.
photos will show the yoga posture in detail while the text will highlight the important
aspects of the yoga exercises.
The 2 yoga teachers demonstrating the yoga poses are Alexa Potrykus and Petra Reiter-Löbbing.
They will show additional yoga exercises helpful not only in dancesport.
There is simply no time to fully exercise yoga before a competition starts.
But even a brief sequence of yoga poses, easy to go through, giving the final touch to all the other preparations and training
will show results as if by magic.
Power Yoga can become an integral part of the training for ballroom dancing.
While going through their yoga exercises 5000 years ago the Indians probably didn’t consider any implications
for ballroom dancing, for Slow Waltz or Samba.
Nevertheless the competition dancer can benefit from yoga by using a short sequence of yoga postures to raise awareness and concentration.
Yoga poses are demonstrated by Petra Reiter-Löbbing and Alexa Potrykus.
Petra Reiter-Löbbing
Yoga teacher (BDY/EYU)
www.vitalcenterwentorf.de
Alexa Potrykus
Yoga teacher
TSV Glinde von 1930 e.V.
www.tsv-glinde.de
The yoga photos were shot on the premises of Vital Center Wentorf and sportsclub TSV Glinde. We are grateful for the generous support.
Vital Center Wentorf e.K.
www.vitalcenterwentorf.de
TSV Glinde von 1930 e.V.
www.tsv-glinde.de
Well, that was beginner’s level but to learn means to start somewhere.
This time place your foot higher against the inner knee of the supporting leg: now the other leg not only bends outward but also ‘opens’ the pelvis.
To find stability put your fingers against your hip bones. Then put your palms together and raise your arms.
Repeat the routine standing on the other foot.
Place your foot high against the supporting leg, touching the inside of your thigh.
The bent leg will now point outward even further, the foot will start to slip downward, bringing you off balance, and making the exercise difficult.
Now you learn why this is a tree, not a rocket. Burning energy like a rocket wouldn’t help. It only works if 2 forces join in harmony:
Stability is the essential part, provided by the supporting leg. While one foot is pressing against the inner thigh of the supporting leg, the
supporting leg provides the counter force.
The neutralized forces are the secret of posture and concentration. They make it possible to breathe calmly and deeply.
Again put the palms together and raise the arms. Show composure while facing forward.
Like in nature also this ‘tree’ grows from inside ...
Now, standing in the final position, you will feel the ischium (the bones you sit on) slightly come together developing the power which lets you
straighten up ‘naturally’: like in nature also this ‘tree’ (and the dancer) grows from inside.
Inhaling deeply makes your body stretch. It not only feels better to use this technique than trying it with your muscles alone; it is the only way to combine a strong posture with
with a flexible midriff.
Dancers who cannot boast a natural sense of equilibrium can fight instability by keeping the eyes on one point.
Psychology is also part of the game.
If it is impossible to maintain balance the mental well being should be carefully considered.
Psychology is part of the game: Somebody who always has to work hard to concentrate should always look inside to find the root cause.
The dancer’s legs will become stronger the body will assume a straight, upright posture. But first and foremost the tree exercise will improve the ability to concentrate, to stay balanced even under the eyes of over-critical judges and keep ground contact despite harsh and unfriendly verdicts.
Yoga works – it works the same way dancing works, not bringing imediate results but building success through regular exercise.
In the end there will a visible difference between a dancer who just dances and a dancer who is able to feel the center and through the center is able to
communicate not only with the dancing partner but also with the floor.
©: Ballroom Website, 2009
Aktualisiert: 03.08.2009