Dancing is not necessary for life. Because life is dancing. Ataturk
Dance is the only art of which we ourselves are the stuff of which it is made. — Ted Shawn
Dancing is the first and last word in life. In dancing one draws nearer to oneself.— Jean Dubuffet
We do not always dance because we are happy, but we dance and cannot help but become happy.— Anonymous
Shiva, the cosmic dancer
The featured pose for this week is natarajasana, the king dancer in Sanskrit. This pose references Shiva, the cosmic dancer. But its curious that the iconic pose that we see of Shiva dancing upon the demon of ignorance in a ring of fire is not the same as what we practice as natarajasana in a yoga practice. So we will explore both of them in our morning class.
Shiva is the God of destruction and in order to make room for creation, there must be destruction of the old. Thus, the first step to death and destruction is birth. The cycles of seasons, waking and sleeping, learning then teaching, planting and harvesting are represented as that ring of fire in which Shiva is dancing. The yoga posture natarajasana makes a circle with the hand holding the foot in a gentle backbend.
Hand mudras play a role in the dance posture of nataraja. The right hand is in the Abhaya mudra. This represents fearlessness or the phrase “fear not.” When you want to show someone that you are not armed and with no intention to hurt them, you would raise your hands and show them that your hands are free and open. This is the idea of this mudra. It is a greeting and blessing toward another person.
The left hand and left foot are close to each other representing Shiva and his devotees.
Although this image of Shiva is an ancient one, it was referenced by physicists who see the metaphor of Shiva’s cosmic dance of creation and destruction as the dance of subatomic matter.
Visit the youtube posting for this dance to get a very detailed description of this Dance of Shiva.
The person doing natarajasana, dancer pose in the photo is a friend from Salt Lake City, Charlotte Bell.
