Healing Through Dance

The founder Shri Yogendraji, brought yoga to us householders. He also introduced simple breathing techniques in the Yogendra Pranayamas. He was a great lover of music.

Shri Yogendraji 

On his 114^th birthday this year, The Yoga Institute was graced by a very talented teacher and dancer par excellence, Ms. Aparna Ramaswamy. She is a hypnotherapist, trained in EMI techniques in cases like depression, schizophrenia, etc. She is also a qualified Reiki healer. She’s currently pursuing healing through dance, specializing in Bharat Natyam.

Ms. Aparna covered three aspects, first being a little demonstration of the dance. She then connected dance and its movements to the principle of Ashtanga Yoga. Lastly she explained that as Samadhi is the final step in yoga, in her life through dance, she believes one’s life purpose should be to utilize one’s skill/ knowledge to help and heal others. She started her dance with the traditional Namaskara, seeking blessings from Mother Earth, following a graceful invocatory dance for Lord Ganesha, seeking his blessings for a successful completion and inviting the divine energy to enter the stage.

Bharat Natyam physically involves perfect form and it can thus be likened to the physical aspects of Yogasanas, Pranayamas, Yamas, Niyamas, etc. Dance also involves experience i.e the transition from the external world to internal preoccupation…Pratyahara. While physically dancing, breath awareness is as important as Pranayama (correct breathing) is while doing Asanas. There is a Shloka in Bharat Natyam:

“Yatho Hasta Tatho Drishti, Yatho Drishti Tatho Manaha,

Yatho Manaha Tatho Bhavo, Yatho Bhava Tatho Rasaha”

This Shloka literally translates as: Where the hands go, the eyes will follow; where the eyes go, the mind will follow, thus followed by Bhava and finally the dancer achieves complete immersion into the dance.

The purpose of Natya (dance) is therefore complete immersion of the Self. The dancer’s job is to listen to the music. The emotion and the Bhavas harnessed from that music tap into the energy from the dancer’s organic body, keeping the mind isolated. The eyes of the audience are thus engaged by the dance, the ears engrossed by the music, the brain captured by the language of dance, thus taking the audience into a meditative state.

Yoga and dance are the integration of the practitioner’s energy. If the physical self is dominant, the dancer is self-conscious, so it is impossible to focus fully on the dance. On complete Ishwar Pranidhan there is intense manifestation of Dharma. She also explained that the road of the dancer is not to act but to BE. viz. it is difficult for an audience to connect with a rasa if the dancer fakes the emotion.

One can use Natha (melody) to achieve balance in emotions and harmonize one’s energy. It can help transcend one’s anxieties. Ms. Aparna urged the audience to know how to manage their human emotions as a currency, positively, and get over them. One should ask whether that frame of mind actually depicts his true self as God made him.

- A Report by Vyoma Chauhan