King Dancer Pose / Natarajasana (Yoga Tutorial) Tutorial

Transcript

dancer pose a beautiful standing pose with a lot of really awesome variations now i'm gonna make it tricky for us okay so pay attention because there are a lot of ways to do this where it looks really nice but it's not as difficult for your body okay so we're gonna really work on not not necessarily what's hard but what is the safest way for your body to do this pose so we're going to start with feet together standing tall i'm bringing the weight you can do it either way but i'm going to start by standing on my left foot lifting up the right right foot goes back behind me as i bend the right knee and notice that i'm trying to keep my knees together i'm not coming way out i'm not bringing the knee forward nothing like that knees mostly stay together and with my right hand i reach back for the inside arch of my right foot grab that inside arch and of course if you're working up to dance or pose this is a great place to start because balancing on one leg can be difficult in and of itself now with the left arm i like to reach four i'm sorry i like to reach up because it helps me remember to stand tall and i'm going to pivot from the hip so you'll notice that as my arm goes forward my knee goes back right so i'm going to inhale here fill up and then exhale i'm kicking back with my right foot at the same time pulling that right foot in so i have some really nice activation in the back foot and as i start to lean forward right foot goes up and back left hand and chest go forward and down so the top half of my body goes forward and down back half or lower half of my body goes up and back and again i'm kicking back pulling in and notice my hips here now this is the thing where you could get a really pretty dancer pose and maybe do it not necessarily correctly okay so if you want it to look really pretty open up the hip reach up straight leg la la la whatever i lost my balance sorry but to really try and get a good stretch and challenge your balance here keep both hips down toward the mat so notice open hip and let's not do that close hip hips down toward the mat you might not be able to get the leg as high but it's going to be a really good stretch and challenge your balance here now again you have a lot of great variations to do with your dancer pose so you can stay just like we did here or if you want to get crazy do a little mermaid grip where you're going to bring the right foot inside the crook of the right elbow and then left arm reaches back behind your head today is not my day for balance left arm reaches back behind your head clasping toward that right hand bear with me there we go clasping toward that right hand and again challenge yourself to see if you can mostly keep the hips square and then start to kick into it fun way to challenge the balance there you can also work toward a flipped grip which is a great time to practice with a strap so whichever foot you had lifted in my case right foot i'm going to step on the strap criss-cross and then with the standing leg step through over and through and then i'm going to bring that right foot back behind me just like i did before except this time my hands are on the strap and i'm going to start to lift that right leg up elbows come up and toward each other and i'm going to work my hands down the strap at the same time leaning forward remember chest goes down leg goes up and this is a nice way to get some shoulder openness and again some more balance and keep thinking of kicking that leg back and up try not to slingshot out of it like i just did right um but just think we're going into it in a really slow and controlled way and try to come out in the same way so however you do your dancer whatever dancer you like best remember hips square to the mat and active kicking and pulling in the back foot so kick back with the foot pull in with the hands good luck with your dancer pose