June 2021: On Dance

Today, 7am is back as our studio has opened its doors and we are practicing together on Monday mornings. 21 June 2021.

On Dance

Next Thursday will be my last class for this session. I have begun the countdown to the time where I will be traveling to Spain for my yearly sadhana retreat with Kia. In the freshness and perspective of the Alpujarra mountains, I take the time to replenish and reflect. This year, special as it is, I will be there double the time than usual, gathering strength for the next year.

One of my favourite things of this retreat is my daily gathering with a group of vibrant, beautiful young boys and girls, in age and in heart, to dance together. We work hard and we laugh hard. Seldom I have seen a more sincere, caring, generous and attentive group. The village loves our dances, I know, and that is because they come from the heart.

My teacher James Boag often recounts how surprised he was when he found out a lot of the sacred texts of yoga happen in a battlefield. Until that point, he thought yoga was about calm and peacefulness. But yoga, really, is about skilfulness. So his current teachings are around transforming the battlefield into a dance floor. Imagine what that would be like. Just like living the last scenes of Footloose, Dirty Dancing,Flashdance, or Fame (yes, I am a child of the 80s)!

There is a lot to this relation between yoga and dance. Śiva, the great yogin is often depicted as Nāṭarāja, the Lord of the Dance, and his skilful cosmic movement is believed to have created the universe. So, at the beginning, there was sound, and then there was dance. Dance is also seen as the most flavoursome art in Indian culture, the one with most Rasa. My dear teacher Rosina embodied this relation, as she first taught me dance, well before yoga. One of the wise phrases, which we adopted as our motto in the studio she left us:

Whatever the problem, it can be solved by moving.

As I leave to dance in the mountains for a few weeks, this will be my last newsletter until I return. I have hoped to make it a bright one to keep you inspired, to keep you moving with joy and in rhythm with your surroundings. That is what dancing and yoga are all about.

Laura x
https://www.lauragonzalez.co.uk/yoga

What I have been practicing

I have tried to introduce more flow on my mat. From one posture, to the next, with aware and lessening the effort, as the yoga Sutras suggest. Yoga can be like a dance, in joy and execution, as Laruga Glaser demonstrated that very well in this video, which I have watched a million times. I like the poses, but I LOVE the transitions. They are not the bit in the between, what we need to do to get to the important stuff: transitions are pure dance.

The Impossible | Ashtanga Yoga Demo by Laruga Glaser
Film by Alessandro Sigismondi

What I have been pondering

I have been having a conversation about what practice is with James and the wonderful group I meet with on Tuesdays. I noticed how in all the media I work with (yoga, dance, visual art) there are some similarities to how this concept is understood. James recorded some of the conversation here, in a lovely article he called ‘Life, Yoga and Contact Improvisation AND I want to live in a world where people dance on train station platforms‘. The video I shared, which James mentions in his piece, is this one:

Rising Falls, Irene Sposetti and Kieran Mitchell
Camera: Rune Abro | Editing: Kieran Mitchell | Music: Nils Frahm

What I have been listening to

Kia and Yotam are the gift that keeps giving! Dancing is exhausting. I know very well because I am learning the choreography I will teach in Spain and I can feel it in my body. Cool downs and rests are a must if we are to live life dancing skilfully. Kia and Yotam’s new savasana track is perfect. It is 22 minutes (what every savasana should be to feel luxurious). It is beautifully guided by Kia, with cues that I need to hear time and time again because I forget how to rest in this crazy busy world. And, to top it all off, there are 108 succulent Oms. Resting with this track is pure contentment.

OPEN CLASSES
UNTIL 1 JULY

This is my last week of classes. Keep an eye out for the September programme at Yoga Moves Glasgow as there will be some changes!

Tuesdays
07.15 – 08.30/09.00
ONLINE | Yoga (Led into Mysore) Thursdays
07.15 – 08.30/09.00
ONLINE | Yoga (Led into Mysore)*

*PRANAYAMA (Breathing) first Thursday of every month
1 July
07.15 – 08.30
ONLINE ON ZOOM

£5 PER CLASS

I am also available for pranayama one-to-one sessions online (introductory or following up your practice).

Check out the full Yoga Moves Glasgow programme for live and online classes.

RCS CLASSES for staff and students are off until September.
Enjoy your summer!

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