Yoga for Performing Artists: 7 Ideal Poses for Dancers

This is the second article in a series designed to help you identify a handful of yoga positions that will be most beneficial to your particular performance genre. The first article was for marching band members.  This article focuses on dancers.  Check back for future articles for instrumentalists (not marching) and stage crew.

Practicing yoga offers performers many significant benefits, including lowering stress levels, promoting physical and mental relaxation, improving balance, and maintaining or improving flexibility. All of these things can help keep your immune system functioning optimally, maintain a healthy body weight, and reduce the likelihood of falls that can cause injuries. Additionally, regular yoga practice can improve body awareness, which can improve precision of movement, improve aesthetic qualities of performance and movement, lower unnecessary muscular tension, and improve posture.

To get the most out of your yoga practice, follow these simple tips:

• Practice somewhere quiet and peaceful, where you will not be distracted or interrupted – this includes distractions and interruptions from your phone, the TV, and the internet. Take a break from your phone.
• Don’t practice on a full stomach – some of the positions require you to press on your stomach and this is very uncomfortable on a full stomach.
• Always warm-up first. Your stretches will be more effective (so you can get larger improvements in your flexibility).
• Breathe in through your nose instead of your mouth. When you breathe in through your nose, the incoming air is filtered and warmed by your nasal passages.
• As a general rule, breathe in when you are coming up out of a pose, are raising your arms, or are doing movements that expand your chest (like bending backwards). Breathe out when you are moving downward, lowering your arms, or bending forward.
• Perform all motions fluidly and with intent. This means that you should focus on the movements you are making, instead of just flinging your body into the next position.

Dancers place a great deal of physical stress on their bodies while also demanding a high level of precision and athletic performance.  Dancers can help their bodies better respond to these stresses and meet these demands by exercising, eating nutritious meals and snacks throughout the day, getting enough restful sleep on a regular schedule, staying hydrated throughout the day, and using proper hygiene habits to avoid illnesses. To reap yoga's benefits, incorporate some or all of the following yoga positions into your regular exercise regimen (in addition to cardiovascular conditioning and strength training).

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