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| Where Om meets the 'Funky Cold Medina' Innovative class marries ancient practice with modern dance By Lisa Marshall, Boulder, CO - Monday, November 12, 2007 At first, it looked and felt a lot like a typical yoga class. On a Tuesday evening after work, eight women of various ages, shapes and sizes quietly filed into a north Boulder studio, took a seat on the floor, and fixed their eyes on a lean and limber instructor named Viki Psihoyos. Soon we were quietly making our way through a predictable series of hurts-so-good stretches and yogic poses with names like Downward Facing Dog, Table Pose, and Child's Pose. But just about the time I began to get that familiar, intimidated feeling that my rigid runner's body was just not built for this yoga thing, the mood began to shift. From the speaker in the corner, a deep Middle Eastern beat began to crescendo as Psihoyos directed us to bend our knees, put our hands on them, and swivel them in a belly-dance-esque circular motion. Soon, we were gliding through the room to the ethereal sounds of Celtic artist Loreena Mckennet, moving our arms as if we were swimming deep underwater, and waving our hands in the air as if our fingers were paintbrushes splashing vivid colors on the walls. Before we knew it, we were engulfed in a full-on free-form dance groove, sweating and laughing as Tina Turner belted out "Be good to me" in the background. "This is fun," I thought to myself, wondering if I'd ever said that in the middle of a yoga class before. That, Psihoyos explains, is what can happen when dance meets yoga. "Most people walk into a class and fear that they aren't going to do it 'right,'" says Psihoyos, a former professional dancer who brought Yoga Meets Dance to Boulder this summer. "I make it clear that they are here to have fun." A blend of easy Hatha yoga moves, guided imagery, meditation and various forms of dance, the trademarked Yoga Meets Dance class was founded in 1999 as an outgrowth of DansKinetics — a rigorous yoga-dance blend created at the famous Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health in Massachusetts. Beth Rigby, a Kripalu-trained yogi wanted to create an easier, more accessible combo with more free-form dance and Yoga Meets Dance was born. Since then, Rigby has trained more than 100 instructors around the country — including Psihoyos — and offered the class in just about every venue imaginable. "I've done it with wheel chair patients, trauma patients, for stress reduction in a corporate environment, on cruise ships, and in fitness centers," says Rigby, who lives in Sedona, Ariz. "It can be adapted to almost any population. It's just super simple stuff to de-stress, have fun, and let your hair down." According to the 2005 Yoga in America Market Study by Yoga Journal, 7.5 percent of adults in the United States, or 16.5 million people, now practice some form of yoga, and statistics from the International Health, Racquet and Sportsclub Association show that nearly 90 percent of fitness club now offer it. Meanwhile, dance as fitness has also grown in popularity, with nearly a third of health clubs offering dance classes. Combining the two, Rigby says, can help newcomers to dance loosen up and get comfortable in the group before the music cranks up. And unlike yoga, which can often be a somewhat inward-centered, solitary experience, it can cultivate community. "You feel connected to people at the end, whereas you might not at the end of a yoga class or an aerobics class," Rigby says. The yoga poses aren't held, so it's considerably easier than many classes, and aside from some general guidance through four dance forms based on the four elements (earth, water, fire, and air) step-by-step instruction is kept to a minimum. "It's less rule-bound," says Alyce Barry, a Boulder writer who recently joined the class. "There are so many rules in yoga." Half way through Psihoyos' Tuesday night class, eight women who had never met before walking in the room found themselves in a circle, red-faced, sweating and giggling as they took turns leading a dance to Tone Loc's "Funky Cold Medina." Then came more free-form grooving to "Wild Thing," and a cool-down dance with colorful scarves to the tunes of Cirque Du Soleil's Alegria. But perhaps the most emotionally challenging dance of the night came toward the end, when — as instructed —the women gathered in twos: With one hand over their heart and the other palm-to-palm with their partner, they were instructed to dance in a slow circle, maintaining eye-contact all the while — an art that many of us aren't used to. "It was very joyful," says Tracy Holderman, a yoga instructor who took the class that night: "You never make eye contact with the people you do yoga with." With class over, she and her classmates filed out, with a good stretch and rigorous workout behind them, and perhaps a few new friendships in their future. Yoga Meets Dance is held at 6:30 p.m. the first Tuesday of each month in Psihoyos' private North Boulder Yoga Studio. For more information, and instructions to the studio, call her at 303-618-4945 or e-mail viki@psihoyos.com. Visit website for more information and Teacher Trainings: www.yogameetsdance.com. The Yogi Gets Down by Melissa McReynolds Sun salutations to C & C Music Factory? Downward-facing dog and Wild Cherry? Welcome to the latest incarnation of American yoga! Yoga Meets Dance™, a new class taught by Matece Duncan in a second-floor studio just off the square, combines the best of both mediums and produces a 60-minute wellness trip for the body, mind, and spirit. "Outrageously fun and simple," Matece’s promotional materials declare. "For all ages, shapes, and sizes. For dancers and non-dancers, yogis and non-yogis, for those with two left feet!" Yoga Meets Dance™ is the healing synergy of yoga, free and guided dance, community building, and stillness meditation. It is also a "sacred, sensual, and silly celebration of life that deeply relaxes the body and mind, and powerfully open the heart," Matece explained as she greeted new students on a recent Monday night. "I need a towel!" exclaimed Angela Floy, dripping sweat and smiling elatedly halfway through the class. A Near Eastern dancer who is in the midst of opening her own hair salon, Angela was taken by the music selection: hits of the 80s swirled with French funk. "Sheer, utter happiness and joy," is how Floy described the class. "There is safety in the space. And freedom. And trust." "During this class, I felt something I’ve been yearning for for many years," said Floy, who moved to Indiana from Iowa three years ago. "It was cleansing, incredibly cleansing. I actually was teary at the end of class. I felt a connection, a real heart connection, with everyone." Red Blustein, a Bloomington pre-school teacher originally from Illinois, attended the Yoga Meets Dance™ open house and has been coming back ever since!" "This class replicates the dancing I used to do in my living room when I was a small kid and a young adult," she said. "I can now dance here with other people and build community. It’s my dancing dream come true!" Carrie Schneider writes in her 2003 book, American Yoga, "This country has taken a tradition born on distant shores and changed it subtly with its embrace." Twenty million people now practice yoga nationwide. Matece, who graduated for the Healing Arts Institute in Fort Collins, Colo., in 1999 with certifications in massage and body/mind therapies, said she enjoys the discipline of yoga but was looking for something with more "juice". "I just love to dance so much!" she said before her twice-a-week class held at Blooming Lotus, a wellness studio that offers everything from meditation to bellydance. "And dancing from that place, that grounded, deep connectedness of yoga, is so playful, and safe, and expressive." Matece has been practicing massage therapy in Bloomington since 2001 and Reiki since 2002. In March of this year, Matece attended Beth Rigby’s Yoga Meets Dance™ (www.yogameetsdance.com) intensive teacher training in Sedona, Arizona where she became the only certified Yoga Meets Dance™ instructor in this corner of the Midwest. "And it’s so simple!" added Matece. "I just provide the space, and some guidance. Each person is free to have the experience they desire. They forget their concerns. They forget how old they are! There is affirmation, the feeling of being accepted, being seen. It is deeply healing." "This space is made for play." Yoga Meets Dance™ Beth Rigby Uses Ancient Methods to Achieve Modern Benefits by Paul M. Howey "Music can do so many things," says Beth. "It can cause you to feel more alive and free. It can calm your fears, it can make you weep. The exhileration one feels after seeing a movie is due, in part, to the soundtrack of the film. Music evokes deep emotion that helps people to feel alive and to rise above the boredom and drudgery of everyday life," she adds passionately. The people in her class talk nervously among themselves as they wait for the music to begin. A few appear to be self-conscious, probably asking themselves what they’re doing there. Then Beth enters the room and her easy demeanor and quick smile soon begin to put the others at ease. She offers little in the way of introductory comments other than to assure everyone to be themselves and to have a good time. She begins with some gentle yoga and breathing exercises to help them relax and detach from their often-frenzied activities. Then the music starts. A pulsating primal rhythm fills the air making it nearly impossible not to sway with the beat. A funky, rocking tune soon has the class shedding any remnants of embarrassment. A sense of raw freedom fills the room as bodies and minds are passionately set free with ease and laughter. What is it about music that moves us so? There are many theories. For example, it’s believed that the sounds of a drum connect us to the beating of our own heart. Scientific studies have shown that a slow, steady drumbeat creates a sense of calmness, whereas a louder, more frantic cadence can cause us to feel excited and even frenzied. In Beth’s class, she utilizes all forms of music and myriad rhythms to help her students express themselves through movement and find a sense of raw freedom and cathartic release. She emphasizes that there is no judging of style in Yoga Meets Dance. "However you’re inspired to move is the right way to move, though I do provide a structure to the class, to inspire you to experiment," she tells her class. There’s also the therapeutic side to music. A study was conducted recently in a hospital’s neonatal ward. While babies were crying in the center of the ward’s noisy machines and human voices, a harpist began to play an ancient lullaby. According to Kate Mucci, author of The Healing Sound of Music, nearly all of the babies quieted down and many fell into a deep sleep. Obviously, adults benefit from music as well. "It helps us to open ourselves emotionally and let loose with feelings that may be causing disease," says Mucci. Beth agrees. "Music and dance have a magical way of accessing deep levels of emotion, freeing chronic stress, and restoring a sense of lightness and well-being. Gentle yoga relaxes people so they can more deeply feel the music, thus move more freely." she says. One of Beth’s students explains her own reaction. "I felt things moving and opening in me great joy and connectedness," says Cindy Brown from Massachusetts. As the class continues, Beth creatively incorporates the imagery of our most basic elements: fire, water, earth, air, and spirit, as they relate to our bodies and to music. Slow rhythms gradually build into an explosive, wildly fun, and high-energy experience. Energy-sapping emotions such as grief, worry, and preoccupation with the mundane are easily released. Before they know it, the people in Beth’s class are moving effortlessly, freely experiencing the sensual joy of movement. Some of the people in the class are in their early 20s and 30s. The oldest appear to be in their 60s and 70s. These are folks of a variety of shapes and sizes and levels of fitness all going at their own pace, free of judgment by others and more importantly by themselves. At the same time, Beth says, it is also a richly communal experience. In his book 'Contradictations,' author Erik Hoffman says, "In past cultures, the people’s dance was far more connected to their experience of the universe." He cites examples of rain dances, harvest dances, fertility dances, and more. People in these societies relied on each other for their very existence, he points out. "Now we live a different life. The old rites no longer hold the same significance. We need a new reason to perform our rituals." Among these, he explains, are exercise, camaraderie, contact, and love of music and dance. All of which are a part of Yoga Meets Dance™. Sitting in stillness as fresh memories of the entire experience sweep over them in waves the class dissolves into deep relaxation. Beth then leads them in a meditative cool down as each begins to richly experience sense of the calmness they’re finding inside. Michelle of Virginia describes it as feeling "peaceful and really alive all at the same time." "We take the magnificent stillness and love we’re experiencing in the class and project it outward around the globe," says Beth. "We dance not just for own healing but for the healing of all people. Just as a pebble thrown in a still pond ripples out, so does the positive energy generated from our dance ripple out." In addition to teaching dance and yoga nationwide, Beth also directs training programs for those who want to become Yoga Meets Dance™ instructors. "Teaching has taken me to many places inside myself as well as around the world," says Beth. "My most special classes, however, are those I teach to trauma survivors and to wheelchair-bound patients." "My greatest joy," says Beth, "comes from seeing everyone, dancers and non-dancers alike, regardless of their backgrounds or life journeys, coming together and experiencing freedom, laughter, and unity through dance, through the soul-stirring interaction with music. Then, we remember, we are all the same. This is why I lead the dance. We remember some important things about who are and how we are connected." Beth has been a featured faculty member and program director at the Kripalu Center for Yoga & Health, on Inner Voyage Cruises, and has also presented her work at the Esalen Institute in California and fitness centers and yoga studios across the country. She is also certified in neuromuscular massage therapy and expert therapeutic touch energy healing, and in reflexology. Beth is studying Zen meditation. She is also the director of Healing Retreat Adventures™ in Sedona, Arizona, an organization that hosts trips to experience the healing power of nature and to vortex sites there and in Ireland. Beth has trained dozens of instructors worldwide. Article by Paul M. Howey, AZ Text Publishing, Inc., www.aztexts.com Vision Magazine, San Diego, CA May 2001 Issue
"Beth's class was one of the most refreshing and spiritually rewarding things I have done in a long time. It was nice to get out of my head and into my heart. Beth lovingly and gently cajoles our spirits to emerge and dance the dance of oneness." says Jill Mangino of San Diego. Global Dance includes unique imagery of the elements that comprise our globe- fire, water, earth, air and spirit- as they relate to our bodies and music. Each class begins by relaxing with some gentle yoga. and simple breathing exercises to calm the mind. Musical rhythms slowly build into a wildly fun, high-energy cathartic experience. Old energies like grief and worry are easily released as layers of stress are peeled away. Participants move at their own pace and Follow their own timing and rhythm. You might even call it a Zen state of mindlessness, laughter and sweat.It's outrageously fun, non-competitive, and loosely structured. A class then ends with a meditative cool down period, dancing into stillness, sitting with profound clarity, centered in the heart enjoying visualizations for inner-peace and global healing. As Beth explains it, "We send the magnificent stillness and love experienced at the end of class out of the dance room and around the globe with guided visualizations. We dance not just for our own healing, but for global healing as well." Adding that "teaching yoga and movement has taken me to many places inside myself as well as around the world."
Beth has taught on the Inner Voyage Cruise in the Caribbean, and she also directs Healing Retreat Adventures, combining hiking, yoga, and dance in the spectacular natural beauty of Sedona, Arizona and the Grand Canyon, where she lives. Teacher trainings and Sedona retreats can be found at www.yogameetsdance.com or by calling 928-300-6944. Article by Dr. Steve Hoff Clinical Director of Valleyhead School Lenox, MA May 2000 Valleyhead's multi-dimensional treatment program consists of individual therapy, group therapy, family work, milieu work, adventure based counseling and various experiential groups. The Movement Program is an innovative and important component of our treatment of adolescent girls. Beth Rigby's Movement Program is a form of movement which incorporates aspects of dance, aerobics, meditation and other relaxation techniques. The group (of approximately 10 - 12 students) is facilitated by Beth Rigby who alternates between leading structured stretches and dance movements and encouraging the girls to move freely and creatively to music. Groups are co-facilitated by two Valleyhead clinical staff members. Each session begins with a warm-up and is followed by a variety of energizing dance/aerobic activities. Subsequently, the girls are asked to engage in an activity focused on a particular theme. For example, the girls may be asked to write down something they want to "let go", or may write a letter to someone from their past expressing what they want to let go. After writing, the girls would dance freely as the entire group would rip up their papers and stomp them into the ground. Addressing the theme of "letting go" of painful memories or thoughts can take on powerful dimensions when addressed in the experiential arena. The sessions are characterized by a great deal of spontaneity, passion, intensity, and emotion. While a great deal of laughter and joy permeate sessions, tears are not uncommon. The process of movement in conjunction with music fosters emotional expression and the experience of feelings; critical aspects of treatment. In order to achieve maximum therapeutic value a brief, interpersonal processing piece, facilitated by a Valleyhead clinical staff member, ends each session. During this time the girls share their feelings and experiences. The content of the discussion is guided by the theme introduced earlier in the session. Thus, the activity of "letting go" described above might be followed by an interpersonal group discussion with the focus question of "what was it like for you to let go?" This discussion serves as a forum for group sharing,
allows therapeutic working through of issues and acts as a necessary "debriefing" period.
In addition to the obvious benefits of this program (group - connectedness; physical exercise; fun, verbal processing of feelings) are those more subtle but no less important - specifically, issues of body awareness and integration and individual integrity as experienced by adolescent females.
T'he importance of these issues is magnified for sexual trauma survivors. Participating in dancing and stretching helps our girls feel more comfortable with their bodies. Moving through this experiential group can, in fact, help them become reacquainted with their bodies, thereby undoing negative self/body-perceptions that formed due to their experiences of abuse. International trauma researcher and authority Bessel van der Kolk's notion that "the body keeps the score" is relevant here. He suggests that the experience of trauma has psychophysiological ramifications, and that physical types of interventions may be beneficial. The physical release and expression inherent in the Movement Program, combined with verbal processing of experiences, provides a holistic way in which to address the complex and deep reaching effects of sexual trauma.
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