Dancer's Pose: Balances and Binds
Intermediate II
This is the first class in a series of four that leads you to the peak pose, dancer's pose (natarajasana). This class is a challenge to your balance, flexibility and strength. It's a fun class that mixes arm binds with foot balances, a vigorous power yoga flow and some wonderfully deep stretches for the whole body. It will also prepare you for subsequent steps in Dancer's Pose: Supple Spine and Shoulders, Dancer's Pose: Workshop, and Dancer's Pose: Playful Dancer's Flow.
Equipment:
Strap Videos
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Comments
Existing Comments
Such an energizing class! Just what I needed this morning. Thank you Fiji!
thank you, Fiji. Great class. Although I was not as graceful as I could be I enjoyed it. A question: I have been taking this 21-day lower back challange. Some classess are harder than others and I am not able to do all the thing shown fully well. I have kept going for 12 days now, but I wonder whether I should have repeated the classes to be really better at them before carrying on. Or going on each day regardless of perfection is a beyter idea. I feel stonger for sure when comapred to day 1.
I am happy to hear you are doing this challange! There are always going to be some challenging poses in any given class, even for me! Continue on with the journey, perfection is really an illusion, you will get stronger, more flexible and familiar with te poses over time.
Hi
I have a question for Fiji, or any of the yoga teachers really. I love this practice but am curious as to the progression from these poses to dancer's. I feel that the asanas in this practice are far more challenging than dancer's, so why do they come before it? Is bird of paradise not considered more advanced than dancer's?
Either way, this is a challenging, vigorous practice and I love it! Thank you !!!
Hi Marie, Thank you for your question! I created this sequence with someone in mind that is playing with standing balances. I am a conceptual thinker and see things big picture, I also have a strong preference to structure so this lets me break things down. I like to look at groups of poes, areas of the body that are related and create sequences that have connected thems or links. I don't really look at one pose being much more difficult than the other, only if they seem related to one another. While some may find the other poses more difficult than dancers, I know that this is not the case for everyone. Working on any of the poses in this sequence will help you be more comfortable in any standing balance. I hope this makes sense?
Namaste and thank you Fiji,
Yes it makes total sense now you explain it to me. I've learned a lot from you over the years, and having not long completed my yoga TT in India, I'm finding myself thinking more- or overthinking probably! - about structure and sequencing, which is why I asked you. I like your way of breaking poses down ....yes, it's more helpful not to overthink whether one pose is more challenging than another, as that's generally subjective anyway!
Thanks again for your response.
Marie
Hello! I love this class, but it throws a critical error related to buffering in Firefox v60.0 for OSX :)
Thank you for an invigorating and stretchy class.
This was great but felt like I was a bird learning to fly by fluttering all over the place.
My teacher Peter always reminds me that if I am in a class and don't feel somewhat out of my comfort zone , I should find a new class!
I found this one so, so hard! I was falling all over the place. Fiji makes it look so easy and effortless. I'm kinda scared to try the next three classes.
Don't be afraid! Be willing to meet yourself exactly where you are on your mat each day and enjoy the process of surprising yourself!
This class makes me feel like a superhero
You are a superhero!
I was intrigued by the bird of paradise pose that appears as the picture for this class. Loved the pace and it helped me get into a solid while not the most beautiful, bird of paradise while I was in Hawai’i. I set my goal earlier this year to be able to get into that pose before we got to Hawai‘i. Thanks Fiji!
Thank you Fiji, for this class with great ground work for balancing! It was challenging, yet with focus (and conviction :-) ) I felt much more grounded and strong in the balances. Definitely another to-to again.
Esp. any time that requires inner and outer grounding AND balance.
Fiji is so gifted!! Another wonderful class. Your body feels rejuvenate after the class.
What a challenge! I loved it!
I’ve been looking for a flow that doesn’t have many chaturanga dandasanas because of an issue with tennis elbow (tendonosis). This really fits the bill, as it creates plenty of heat in the large muscle groups, but doesn’t stress the smaller joints as much. Feeling “supple like a leopard” after this one. Arigatou!
Steady and strong. This class made me sweat...in a good way. Fiji has nice cadence and rhythm.
Fiji's classes always feel so right. As in all her classes, this class contains the perfect amount of warm up to get you where you need to be to progress forward in the class feeling confident and safe from injury. She just has a magical way about her.