From Bharatnatyam to Ballet: The Divine Role of Yoga in Indian Classical Dance – News18
Yoga and dance share a profound connection—both uniting the body, mind, and spirit.
Yoga is an old Indian discipline that helps dancers all around the world by improving their flexibility, strength, and focus.
We Indians are bestowed with many traditional art forms and studies. Yoga is one of them, which is benefiting not only Indians but the entire world. Yoga has spread to the nooks and corners of the world.
The term ‘Yoga’ means to unite, ‘Union of body and mind’. Daily ‘Yoga practice’ is definitely beneficial for the dancers. ‘Yogasana’ makes your body flexible, it strengthens the muscles, and it improves the concentration level. Yoga is interlinked with Indian dance forms. We can find similar poses in both forms.
I will recommend to the Bharatnatyam dancers to add Yogasanas like Bhujangasan, Marjarasan, Veerabhadrasan, Utkata Konasan, Setu bandhasan and Vrikshasan to their daily routine. Dancers can practice ‘Surya Namaskar’, the Sun salutation, every day. One Surya Namaskar has twelve asanas, which strengthen the entire body and the mind.
The kriyas like ‘Pranayam’ improve the breathing capacity, the stamina and concentration level. All these factors play a very important role in a dancer’s life. The daily practice of yoga helps the dancer present the art in a better way.
Yoga is a union of body and mind. Indian classical dance itself is yoga. It is a union of body movements and the soul. The Indian classical dance requires a higher level of concentration. It involves the entire body in one activity. While dancing, the dancer has to coordinate her/his footwork, hand gestures and facial expressions and also has to keep in mind the availability of the space. Dance is a ‘Yoga’, the union of two characters, the dancer’s own character with the character that the dancer is portraying. Like a meditation, the dance transforms the soul into another world.
(Inputs by International Bharatnatyam Artist Apeksha Niranjan)
