No More Dancers Doing Yoga on Youtube
Whenever I watch the latest viral video of a scantily clad babe doing acrobatic yoga in her living room, something in me laments. I realize that these videos serve as inspiration to others and I appreciate the beauty, skill and sense of personal empowerment they represent. But I can’t escape the feeling that these displays are better left to the performing arts than to a yoga mat.
To be clear, some of these clips are undeniably cool. I’m a sucker for good indie rock and, from a creative standpoint, the execution is certainly impressive. My problem is that, regardless of intent, these performances are playing right into prevalent and misconceived notions about yoga. In the same way that the use of abstracted and idealized body imagery in advertising has a diminishing effect on people’s self-esteem, so do these flashy presentations obfuscate the purpose of yoga practice and intimidate the uninitiated.
I remember when it first occurred to me that the display of challenging yoga positions as a means to inspire others is problematic. I had been asked to do a demonstration in class. After completing my handstand press in the middle of the room, my fellow students applauded and the teacher said: “Now that is what we are working towards.” In the moment, I felt pretty good about myself. I was the only person in the room who could do that handstand press. But on the way home from that class, I was wrought with dismay. At the time, I had all kinds of chronic pain in my body and was horribly disillusioned with life. I thought to myself: “If this is what we are working towards then we are really in trouble.”
Nowadays, my focus is almost entirely on the foundational and subtle aspects of yoga practice that were missing back then. Friends are often referred to me with reassurances not to worry, that this yoga class will be different. Still, new students readily come in with a mix of apprehension and fear. Almost always, they’ve been to one or two yoga classes before that were utterly traumatizing or they’ve never been to a yoga class before but they’ve seen some scary videos on youtube.
Even when teachers give lip service to the idea that yoga practice is not about achieving poses, the schedule still says “beginner, intermediate, advanced” or “level I-II-III-IV” and the difference between one and the other is what you can or cannot do physically. Recently, a gentleman came in for his first yoga class ever and, out of curiosity, I asked: “When I say the words ‘advanced yoga’ to you, what is the first thing that comes to mind?” He replied: “Something I’ll never be able to do.”
For someone like myself, who defines “advanced yoga” as feeling healthy and enjoying life, the preconceived notion that advanced yoga means an exaggerated sense of physical prowess is profoundly disheartening. Of course, it’s possible to utilize yoga poses for all sorts of purposes. What is important to note is that just because people are doing the same yoga poses doesn’t mean they are practicing the same thing.
Articulating the differences is where it gets tricky. The best way I’ve ever heard it put was from a friend who had practiced with me for some time before he, with my encouragement, went on to explore other styles and approaches. About two years later, he returned and we had a conversation. I asked him to tell me, in his own words, about the differences he observed. He said: “Some styles are like porno and some are like trying to have a meaningful relationship.”
I maintain that yoga is an intimate and personal affair, meant to appeal to the most caring and nurturing aspects of ourselves and not the least bit concerned with external displays. What makes yoga practice powerful is not its ability to inspire dance choreography but rather its ability to help people work through life’s difficulties and find a way to be well. Good news is that, while it may not always be as easy to find or as enticing, if you search around for long enough then you can find a video about that on youtube too.
This accompanying video blog discusses what it means to be “advanced” in yoga and different rubrics for gauging where we are in our yoga practice:
Thank you for such a timely comment. I agree with your thoughts and perspectives regarding the transformation of yoga from an ancient practice that at one time encouraged and inspired a sense of overall wellbeing to that of an exquisite physical flexibility and endurance exercise program. For the last decade I have had to announce to new students that the classes I teach are “traditional yoga” in order to differentiate the kind of yoga I offer from classes that are focused primarily on accomplishing great physical feats. I appreciate your voice on this topic.
Love!
Exactly why I love my long term teacher. Breath, balance, feeling the subtle changes, understanding doshas and incorporating considerations. I think some of the trendy styles sound intriguing but I really don’t even think of them as real yoga.
Love it. Thank you. I’ve also always liked what Donna Farhi says in “Bringing Yoga to Life:” “When we realize that what we are advancing toward is not some physical form but an inward recognition of the truth of who we are, then we will not feel ourselves to be failing if we cannot attain difficult postures. ‘Advanced’ practice is any movement that brings us closer to this recognition of our true self.”
Thanks for your wise words. It took me a long time to be able to truly walk my talk. Early in my teaching (decades ago) I made the statement that yoga is not about accomplishing poses, and I meant it. It made sense to me. But I still thought that the fact that my body was capable of doing things that most people will never do somehow elevated me. At the height of my physical capabilities, my life was a train wreck of my own making. Obviously, being able to do fancy poses did not make me an “advanced” yogi. I’m grateful to have worked with my long-term teachers who were committed the deeper dimensions of yoga–not just asana.
Well done
When I think of modern day yoga, I think designer pants, matching tops, bracelets, show off people, women scantily scad, and someone’s-making-big-bucks, all hidden under the disguise of spirituality. Enough said.
I meant scantily clad…
Thank you for this….I resonate with everything you said here. I’ve been beating myself up for awhile now, as balancing in handstand in the middle of the room is really challenging for me. So your reminder that yoga is an attitude as much as a physical practice is perfect. Thank you!
So refreashing!
Thank you – from a previously scared yoga novice.
Great article! I’ve been practicing yoga for 36 years now, since age 13, and there are lots of so-called “advanced” asanas that I cannot do, some of which I could at 17. I can’t even do many of the “advanced” postures in YJ, which occasionally bothers me as a teacher – I wonder, am I really supposed to be able to do those?! I have a confession to make: Sometimes after a couple of glasses of wine I will attempt to do the “advanced” YJ asanas or the ones on those videos. Nearly always I wind up on the floor in a giggling heap. It is fun but it’s not not the point of yoga. The simple HOY style of breathing and movement has literally made my life heaven, and I am seeing it have a profound effect on my students, healing them and enriching their lives – even those in a wheelchair. That is real yoga.
Quite simply…..Thank You!
Nicely stated J – similar to Bhakti is not just for great musicians
In the end, we can all ‘see’ those who have found a way to truly connect – in the sense of peace they exude, rather than in how well their body is aligned or how fit and flexible they look.
As a physical therapist working with people with different bodies, it is way past disheartening, and all the way to down-right insulting to promote Yoga as primarily a means to something visually appealing.
Maybe the key is to have both, but I doubt media such as yoga journal would be as interesting to the advertisers if they included as many real people pics as liths flexible bodies.
Love it! Going to reference this in a post on Monday. It’s so great to have other people speaking the same language here, yayyyyyyyy!
Also? I know we’ve talked about it before, but YAY to less chronic pain as a result of our yoga practices.
Written with such sincerity…so beautifully brings out the true essence of yoga. Thank you.
Good god, that was insightful and well-written. Bravo – and this would be the third time I’ve ever made a comment on a web site. I went to my first Sumits yoga class this weekend and I felt like I was in a Beachbody yoga commercial. Keep writing. Best, Beth
Well said J.
How many young people – some with a lot of money to pay for lessons – will come in and say they want to “learn that” …from the ads or the videos like that.
It takes a rank beginner to be over-awed by that display … and then leave taking yoga in such a huff when they come upon a brick wall trying to learn said pike handstand transition.
That is one way to kill yoga—and not explode it and expand it. I, myself, have moved on out of it only about one-third of the way. Others may throw it over completely …
I am sure the t’ai chi and conscious dance communities, etc., will come to LOVE what travesties like that video have done to their class ranks making them burgeon for the first time in well over a decade …
Yogis doing “yoga” … in their dance class …
This near-pornification of yoga, is a portent of the decline of “popular” yoga …
Great article and sums up what many of us yoga practitioners believe but never really said out loud in front of the showcasers.
I hurt my self in a yoga class trying to do things that were beyond my capabilities. It’s taken a long time to get back to where I can enjoy yoga again,and I can say that a simple straight forward practice is worth it’s weight in gold. I learned to value what I have!
excellent, I’ve been banging on about this in the uk, very glad your putting it out there. Pete
Amen, Namaste and Sta Nam!
First time reading this blog… thoughtful piece. My practice has certainly evolved, like others. (I remember laying on the sofa with bags of frozen peas on my hips from trying to power through a vigorous vinyasa class. No more frozen peas for me… unless I throw them in a soup! ) These days, it’s really all about wahe guru… from darkness to light, the ecstasy of the wisdom of infinity… God. : )
“When I say the words ‘advanced yoga’ to you, what is the first thing that comes to mind?” He replied: “Something I’ll never be able to do.”
Wow, I can so relate to this. Thank you for this message, it’s so important. My body is one that will most likely never be able to do ‘advanced yoga’, but I have higher hopes for my Spirit.
I feel eternally grateful for my first yoga teacher Mary. I was an inflexible and depressed 19 year old in a room full of 45-70 year old women (back in the early 90s when yoga was not yet cool). Mary was incredible. In her 60s and a retired ballerina her body held exquisite movement and flexibility.
She caught me checking her out one day during a pose that I was finding particularly challenging and rightly pegged me as thinking that I would never be able to do ‘that’. She said to me, “Cecilia, I’m still learning. Yoga is not something you achieve. I will always be learning just as you will always be learning. There is no where to get to, there is just being.” Yoga was still a challenge after that, but it stopped feeling impossible and in that opening there was an opportunity for true change.
Thank you. For years I avoided coming anywhere near yoga-in-the-US because it seemed to me that there was too much focus on the physical. I was horrified by the number of “yoga teachers” who showed themselves posing in their promotional materials, and wondered whether they had truly left their egos behind. With so much emphasis on “poses” or “flow”, no amount of recitations of the gayatri mantra will lead to “yoga”.
That being said, the 3-4 teachers whose classes I now regularly attend emanate spirit.
Final words: Smile, or exchange a few words with your classmates. You can’t achieve “oneness” via “apartness”.
I’m sure people will remain to be divided on the merits of the non-physical aspects of yoga, and the idea that it isn’t about demonstrable achievement. I also think a lot of people don’t know about the idea of there being another ‘seven limbs’, or however you want to phrase it, so making people aware of that is a good thing.
I think it is important to see this from all points of view. The physical practice of yoga is one very small side to yoga. The mental side is something unheard of in America but it is the larger aspect of ancient yoga. Americans love to try anything that will get them the “perfect body”: extreme dieting, exercise, plastic surgery. Another common issue is that many people have problems exercising whether they have a disability or they havent found something they just love to do. If Americans are using the physical practice of yoga to maintain a healthy body, I see that as directly affecting their state of mind. One could hope that by doing asanas, it is easier and more possible to have a clear mind. Many yoga studios in America do not offer a class in learning the yoga lifestyle. The concern about what class levels mean is foolish when practicing, this could only lead to the negative feelings towards something harmless. To many first-time practitioners, the poses, instructions, and their own minds seem to fog up the small quotes given during class about being in the moment. I feel that with time, when more accurate knowledge is spread through the country, many people will become open to it but it takes time. I, personally, like the video. It could possibly be a gateway for many skeptics to ponder if yoga might be right for them. The yoga path is endless from there.
about the as you are calling her ”danser” on the picture above(yogini b.smyth) http://www.elephantjournal.com/2012/01/briohny-smyth-the-full-story-straight-from-the-yoginis-mouth/
Amen. That is all. Amen.
I agree & disagree…I used to be a dancer myself & have recently started practicing yoga full time. After reading this article it makes me feel as if I don’t belong in a yoga studio. Every individual comes into class for different reasons…I know for me personally my motivation in class changes from day to day. It’s not like dancers are coming into class trying to show off & make people feel bad about themselves. I have grown to love yoga for many different reasons…mainly the fact that I feel mentally stronger than I ever have. Dancers have just as much of a right to practice yoga as any other human being.
Thats a lovely point
of course you do.. perhaps the problem is when flexibility is unconsciously elevated into the realm of ‘good yoga’ rather than just the yoga your body does.
Hey I loved your article but I was surprised and dismayed hearing in the video that you know people who can do incredible things with their body who are still “totally horrible people you would never want to hang out with…”
The audio went super low there so perhaps I misheard it. Hopefully.
It’s a great point that physical prowess can’t make you a better person. But yoga isn’t about “becoming better” – it’s about realizing the great goodness you have been all along and learning how to connect with that. It’s really essential because how can we be compassionate if we have this notion inside us of there being “horrible people?” It just isn’t true and a yoga teacher (ideally) understands that everyone is where they are. Maybe you know people who are in a horrible place in life. but that doesn’t make them horrible people.
Anna- Your point is well taken. Honestly, I was being flip while we were filming and I regretted it some afterwards. I did not mean to suggest that anyone is horrible. I was referring to poor behavior, not essential being. Thank you for calling me out on it. You are right to do so. Cheers.
yes and yes. i love your writing!
and what about the phrase i often hear when a person timidly comes to class for the first time and says, i can’t do yoga. it is in direct response to the “prevalent and misconceived notions about yoga.”
you can do yoga! i suggest to them. yoga fits to you; you don’t need to fit to any idealized form of physical yoga. pay no attention to those bendy bodies and wide-range-of-joint-mobility people. you can do yoga… listen and sense.
then we practice gentle pranayama, a little asana not too serious and 20 minutes of guided meditation.
and more often than not, they leave with an open face, a soft smile. that to me is yoga.
In the same sense as you did not mean “to suggest that anyone is horrible” and that you were “referring to poor behavior, not essential being”, when some responds to “Advanced Yoga” isn’t it quite possible and reasonable to assume that they are meaning the level of yoga asanas being practiced in a particular class?
Are we getting a little too philopsohical about this distinction between yoga “asana” and “yoga”. They are just words and we don’t need to quibble about words, especially when intended meaning is clear. Words are just words, the meaning is more important and we can get hung-up on definitions and debate this forever, but that seems a bit pointless really and even a little condescending really.
Perhaps we shouldn’t pretend we are so clever and the only ones enlightened enough to discern this difference you explaining in your article. It’s not that profound nor difficult to understand, even for a “beginner”. Many words have multiple meanings, especially in different contexts.
I feel it is appropriate that there are different types &/or levels of asana class so that personal preferences and physical abilities can be matched.
Isn’t “Advanced yoga” not a reasonable abbreviation for “Class with very challenging asanas, requiring very good levels of physical strength, balance, cordination, agility etc., and probably requiring a prerequsite long-term regular practice, but not necessarily meaning advanced yoga in the traditional sense, which I’ll describe in another 1000 pages”?
Your point is well taken. You are right that yoga and life will continue to play out regardless of whether I analyze or write a blog about it. However, intellectual discernment has always been part of the yogic tradition and, respectfully, words do impart meaning. The word “asana” and the word “yoga” are not synonymous and to be “advanced” in either has very little to with any sort of levels or physical prowess. Of course, you are welcome to disagree.