What is Kripalu YogaDance?
by Megha – Nancy Buttenheim, M.A.
Background of Kripalu YogaDance
When I think of Kripalu YogaDance (formerly called "DansKinetics"), one phrase comes to mind: healing through joy. Kripalu YogaDance (KYD), was created in 1978 at the Kripalu Yoga Ashram by a visiting guest from Canada, a dancer and dancercise instructor named Ken Scott. With the help of ashram residents, in particular Dan Leven, DansKinetics was born, a form of spiritual aerobics which the ashram residents embraced with delight. Since then it has continued for thirty years. Many people have brought it along, including myself, Dan Leven, Connie Miller, Amba Stapleton, Peggy Schjeldhal, Laurie Magoon, Francoise Esteve, Gabriella Bengis, Anamika, Toni Bergins, along with hundreds of graduates from the teacher training. Since 1985, I have been steadily sustaining, nurturing, and recreating DansKinetics at Kripalu Center, and have been directing the teacher training for more than a decade. Over the years I have honed DansKinetics to reflect the teachings of Kripalu itself: meditation in motion in its many forms. I recently renamed DansKinetics to more appropriately fit that which it has become: Kripalu YogaDance. The name reflects my commitment to a Kripalu yoga and chakra-based movement practice.
What is Kripalu YogaDance?
Kripalu YogaDance is a unique approach to movement, combining the time-honored traditions of yoga, movement, breath, the chakra system, and user-friendly dance. Born from Kripalu Yoga, it is meditation-in-motion, sometimes wild and filled with abandon, sometimes quiet and still. KYD is a beautiful way to come in contact with grace and your indwelling spirit, providing spiritual, physiological, artistic tools that allow you to reach for the deeper source of energy within. It offers techniques that take you beyond the limitations of the body and mind. KYD also uses the joy of movement to tone muscles, build flexibility, endurance and cardiovascular fitness. In KYD, you come home to the self and return to the soul; you fall in love with your body, and experience community in a safe and sacred setting. This is a healing practice that literally anyone can do, even someone in a wheelchair or in a hospital bed. Modifications and variations abound in this gentle, compassionate practice.
Through this approach to dance and movement, you discover a new way to love your body while awakening your inner rhythms that allow your spirit to revel in the celebration of life. You actually experience what it feels like to be at home within your body, recognizing your mind, spirit, heart, and body as vehicles for healing and self-expression. This is an important element in Kripalu YogaDance: distinguishing the difference between being embodied and being a moving head that uses the body only as a vehicle to take the head from place to place.
The emphasis in KYD is not only on physical expression. Yoga and dance movements offer a way to cultivate self-awareness in every moment. An holistic approach to well being, KYD integrates the physical, emotional, artistic, and spiritual dimensions of your being, providing a vehicle for healing, wellness, prayer, and fun. It also provides a healing chakra bath to all of the energy centers in the body, which in turn enlivens the entire endocrine system. Over the years I have witnessed thousands of people receiving benefits from KYD, no matter what their illness or injury, including the rocky terrain of depression, grief, and loss. In recent years I have also watched first hand the benefits of Kripalu YogaDance with Parkinson’s disease. My students with PD are delighted with their increased movement ability, balance and breath, as well as a tremendous mood enhancement, so necessary for people with Parkinson’s.
Truly Kripalu YogaDance has a healing benefit for everyone.
More information here.