The Nataraja (Siva as Lord of the Dance)--with his wild dreads entangled with skulls and jewels dancing the universe into existence while stomping out the mini-me of forgetfulness--never ceases to inspire a class theme. So the ancient texts go his anandatandava, dance of bliss, consists of five acts:
• revelation
• concealment
• creation
• maintenance
• destruction.
Having recently sashayed, both on and off the mat, from a period of super fun expansion into multiple moments of suddenly feeling as if I'd been smacked down, his persistent dance routine has been top of mind. For example, I spontaneously began doing drop backs (standing dropping into a back bend and then standing up again), an asana which I’ve feared for years, only to slip and fall on train station steps which I've travelled for years and fracture my knee cap. As I am grudgingly coming to terms with my injury and slow recovery, it occurred to me how being adept at jiving to all five acts(not just high spirited party favorites like revelation and creation) is the key to resilience.
The iconography and stories of the Nataraja remind us that we live within an undulating cyclical dance on many levels. In the broadest sense, by watching ocean waves rising, rolling, spilling and retreating, depending on time of day performing anything from a smooth waltz to an high spirited hip hop number, we can actually see the powerful recursive cycle that embraces the earth in action. Or from a very different perspective, citizens of corporate America like myself may also recognize the Nataraja's five acts in organization design or team development theory which explain the ebb and flow of how we work together. And at the most intimate of levels, all of us will find this same universal dance is in
.....the cadence of our breathe,
..........the metronome of our hearts,
...............the pulse which enlivens every cell in our body…
So we changed our practice this week by turning up the dance music yet slowing down our asanas to active restoratives, proving to ourselves that the dance we so often seek externally, is deep within us (and that there is no shortage of PG rated songs, some sillier than others, from the 90's, 80's, and 70's about dancing!)
During svasana I shared the excerpt below from an accomplished scientist whose work links Eastern thought and physics. As he peered into a high powered technologically advanced telescope, he writes:
I saw cascades of energy coming down from outer space, in which particles were destroyed and created in rhythmic pulses; I saw the atoms of the elements and those of my body participating in this cosmic dance of energy; I felt its rhythm and I heard its sound, and at that moment I knew that this was the Dance of Shiva, the Lord of Dancers.
—Fritjof Capra, Tao of Physics
All in all, the Nataraja's dance is everywhere (a.k.a the rhythm is going to get you). Try as we might, we cannot control or trump a phase. It's seductive to only ever want to ride the crest of a wave but invariably each of us will need to maneuver its dissolution. These down turns invite us to give ourselves permission to be hurt and broken, versus chasing the wave that was, and trust destruction is an integral part of growth and not the final act...so long as the Nataraja keeps time with the tick tock of his hand held drum....revelation, creation, etc. is sure to follow.
Our yoga practice this week was intended to help tune in to where we truly are versus where we want to be within this recursive rhythm and then, lean in, surrender wholeheartedly to the hustle and flow, and just dance.
To the dance which resides deep within all of us, namaste (and boogie woogie)!
P.S. Apologies to Ed for torturing him with Barry Manilow’s Bandstand Boogie. While in konasana (seated wide angle forward bend), he held his ears and breathed very deeply, to get through the 2 ½ minutes. Every one's anandatandava is different, I suppose. After class I was inspired to download, the Marcarena, Electric Slide, Chicken Dance…
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