YogaDance~~Dancing Butterflies~~Dance as though no one is watching! Healing from the inside out through DANCE.By Kohava Howard

I met Kohava AFTER she had lead a working group in 45 minutes of energizing (and calf tiring) FUN dance.  We were there to talk about non profit status and how to get a group to have that, and before the presentation about that, this little FUN energetic dynamo that I thought was from Latin America got us up and on our happy feet and we just had the BEST time.  After the meeting I approached her and said 'please talk to me about how we can bring this to more people through Lumigrate'.  So we met for coffee and then we've worked on her introduction, I've made it to ONE class on Sunday afternoons which I highly recommend if you live in the Junction area.  And then hopefully shortly we'll have things up about how to get started, with video of Kohava and her Butterfies, helping YOU heal from the inside out!  ~~ Mardy

Blending is the order of the day in food, so why not in fitness?

Jennifer Lockyer

I enter the YogaDance room not knowing quite what to expect. But I immediately feel the warmth of 20 women ranging in ages from 12 to 55 as they surround me and grab my hands, urging me into the warm-up circle.

We start with some simple breath work, breathing deeply in and out, in and out, slowing the heart rate and freeing the mind of the day’s stresses. Then, at the activation of a soundtrack, the real session begins. Fern Westernoff, the leader, waves a long brightly coloured scarf like a magic wand, and from the outset, there is a weightless feeling, a sense of being a free spirit, unoppressed by body or mind. As the class progresses, the scarf is passed along to new leaders.

By day, Westernoff is a registered speech/language pathologist, but evenings find her in a community centre in Thornhill, Ont., instructing classes in YogaDance. This is a unique movement experience combining yoga poses, dance, breathing, meditation and self-acceptance. It is based on the Indian chakra system. In yogic philosophy, the Sanskrit word chakra, usually described as a spoked wheel or a manypetalled lotus, is one of the body’s seven centres of spiritual energy. Located in the sacrum, navel, solar plexus, heart, throat, brow and crown, these centres are considered important for physical, mental and emotional health, as well as spiritual development.

Working through the seven chakras takes you from basic groundedness through highenergy abandon to meditative spirituality. “Each chakra has a different responsibility,” says Westernoff. “By dancing through the system, we can move any blocked energies. Or we can throw all the theory aside and just have fun by being fully in the moment!”

Origins

Developed by American dancer Megha Buttenheim, YogaDance originated in the late 1970s as DansKinetics at the Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health in Sunneytown, Pa. It was construed as a way to bring motion and meditation together. Today, it is gaining popularity across the U.S. and Canada. “There are many more instructors than when I first started out eight years ago,” says Westernoff.

So how does this regimen differ from action regimens? “Perhaps it’s moving through the chakra system that sets it apart from other movement experiences,” says Westernoff. (See “Working Your Way Through the Seven Chakras.”) “However, I would not see it as better than others. Whatever brings joy, satisfaction and peace to the participant is the right experience for that person.”

As with other dance regimens, YogaDance is usually done to music — an eclectic array with pieces selected to match the essence of each chakra. “In fact, being able to listen to the music and name the chakra it’s going with is part of the training,” says Westernoff. “During a class, I like to use a variety — world music, New Age, popular, Broadway, meditative and familiar/unfamiliar.”

What Yogadancers Say

Westernoff’s students bear eloquent testimony to the power of this discipline. “Each week I attend is like a new journey into myself — my body, my chakras and my spirit,” says Alyssa Zobary, who has a background in dance and has been doing YogaDance for almost eight years. “It’s a joyous tool that helps unlock parts of yourself and gets you back in touch with different parts of yourself.”

Adds fellow student Luisa LeBlanc, who suffers from painful inflammatory bowel disease, “I never have symptoms during class, nor do I even remember that I am anything but music incarnate while I dance. I have learned through YogaDance that a class, initially taken to get my body involved, actually requires a balance of mind, body and soul — .a lesson that carries over into all facets of my life”

For Lesley Solomon-Izsak, a genetic counsellor and former dance teacher, the sessions are liberating. “I let go of all my inhibitions when I am in that room and just let my body move however it wants, with no rules, judgments or expectations. I become more self-confident in that room and in all areas of my life.”

Although there are no established YogaDance centres in Canada, there are growing numbers of teachers in British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Ontario, Quebec and Nova Scotia. “A good way to find a teacher is to post an inquiry on Facebook at "Let Your Yoga Dance,” says Westernoff. Or go to www.letyouryogadance.com.

Mardy's Note: The above link takes you to a really good website which has a video clip embedded in it of a practitioner on a lovely beach, well worth a look.  IF you need to take things slower, go half as fast and do half as many repetitions and you'll stay synched with the music.  Kohava is taking advanced training in special populations and I will HOPE will write (and show and tell) about it here, soon.

Working Your Way Through the Seven Chakras

The first, or root chakra (located in the sacrum), is associated with groundedness and being fully present in the moment. This stage is accompanied by music with a heavy slow beat. Actions might include movements that involve the feet, such as walking like an elephant.

The second chakra (situated in the navel) concerns pleasure, sensuality and sexuality and might be accompanied by bluesy music or anything that gets the hips swaying.

The third chakra (whose site is the solar plexus) is about your personal power and strength. Things start to heat up here and participants take turns taking the scarf and serving as leader.

Chakra four (in the heart) is the heart of the session and involves connecting with others. At this point, the dances might involve working with a partner in a circle.

In the fifth chakra, the throat, you speak your truth. This phase may include chanting or singing. The energy starts to come down a bit.

The third eye, chakra six, is about seeing clearly. The movements and actions begin to be more meditative and individual, such as dancing alone with scarves.

7 The last chakra (the brow) is softer and more spiritual and may lead directly to the end of the session.


Bliss In Motion

Abandon the day’s worries, relax your mind and let your spirit lead you in a joyous high-energy, music-driven class that combines breathing work, dance, yoga moves and meditation but requires no previous yoga or dance training. YogaDance is a repertoire of mainly interpretive dance movements, accented with long vibrant scarves and sometimes including chanting and yogic cat and cow tilts or tree positions moving into side bends. Simple stances such as the warrior may serve as your warm-up and your entree into moving bliss in which you hear the music not with your ears but with your entire body.

 

What a fun way to move -that was my first reaction to Yoga dancing with Kohava. Just moving freely is something I think we forget how to do. What I enjoyed  most was relaxing into the music without having to think. let my body go free and it knows how to move if I just get out of my own way.

I am looking forward to a full yoga dance session with Kohava. 

Gwen

YogaDance in March was amazing -- to dance with two men, to see how they unfold and open-up to the dance ... Great experience.
Yoga Dance~~ Dancing butterflies will dance once a month on Saturdays; 6:30p at Elite Dance, 350 Main Street (Downtown, above Ruby Canyon Cycles -- next to LaRouge and across the street from Dolce Vita, making it an 'evening out' if you bring your people for 'apres dance'!  $10, please call or email me so I can best prepare for us to DANCE! 

April-9,

May-7,  Postponed to May 15th/Sunday at 4 pm due to the Jazz and Arts Festival on May 7th (speakers/noise interferes with the DANCE music SO on May 7thth Kohava and the class are going to Join the fun in the streets --- come out and Join us). 

June 4

Dance with you all soon :) Kohava 

Hey Kohava -- thanks for stopping by and updating people at Lumigrate about your upcoming monthly class schedule.  It was as FUN as ever and I really enjoyed that the mom brought her husband son -- both of my gal pals that came have sons that are older and it just was a really neat group. 

This was now the 4th time I've done YogaDance with you and each time it's unique based on who comes.  I think I'll always remember the lesson I had from the young women who had a dance background who initially intimidated me and then got to step up to role of teacher/facilitator with me during the portion I was less comfortable with.  I think that was one of the more profound things I'd seen in terms of the group process that goes on with this form of class. 

I happen to think it's as much the unique teacher -- my pals went away talking up you and your class and we remarked after at 'Apres Dance' / dinner that you're quite exceptional.  You exhude openness and nonjudgmental/noncritical thinking, and I personally have always resonated, as you know, with your world-wide experiences, which you bring with you through your shells from Israel as well as the fiber of your being. 

Thank you for doing what you do for health and well being every day, Kohava, and for being part of Lumigrate's Grate Group by writing here as well as participating in the Grate Groove of the Grand Valley/Grand Junction.  I hope to see people thinking as I have related to special populations and simply getting a group of similars together and having you schedule to come do a class for them! 

~~  Mardy 

Please take a look at this video as it's one on YouTube that Kohava posted on facebook and gives a great idea about what it's about.  www.youtube.com/watch.  I also talked with her on the phone today and she was so encouraged by the number of reads about YogaDance and she's going to add information about the association and how to find a provider in your area.