What’s the Connection between Yoga and Performance?

I find myself in two parallel worlds. One of simplicity, light and yoga and the other of a performer, sequins, entertainment and night. So where is the meeting point?

Here is the answer:

Both yoga and performance ask for your entire focus and presence, both are a state of pure meditation.

It’s been a wild ride merging these two worlds but, to me, both strike a perfect balance. Teaching yoga classes, I’m swamped with hugs, compassion and kindness. Backstage burlesque is another story. I’m surrounded by confident, fierce and opinionated women. Each side has a value entirely of its own. Each side grounds me in its own way.

As a performer, it’s natural to be nervous. That feeling. The butterflies that begin dancing in your stomach before you do. It’s your body’s sign. It’s preparing you and giving you a chance to transform that energy into a purpose and an expression that is higher than yourself. It’s a static reminder that you are human. It practices resilience and it shows you that you care from your core, for your art. So in that moment, when it comes to stepping onto the yoga mat or stepping onto the stage, that feeling turns from static to stars and combusts into a driving force which is strong enough to melt away the ego of ‘I’ in you.

For that precious movement, that special state, is one that is shared with consciousness.

Any steps you tried to remember, lyrics you said over and over, or words you committed to mind have no place in you any more. In moments of performance, your vehicle for thought no longer comes from the head. A method that is shared in yogic practice. Your expression comes from the heart and the memory stored in the very muscles of your body.

I believe this state of ‘performance’ need not only be the one that I speak of. It can be movement, it can be spoken, it can be waking up everyday to be true to yourself and your art, whatever that may be.

Performance and yoga represent union of everything that is inside you, for a moment of time that no longer belongs to a structure. 3 minutes on stage can feel a lifetime and yet 60 minutes of yoga asana could pass in the blink of an eye. And this is why both paths, different as they might seem, belong to a deluging state of transcendence.

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Whatever your art or path, I’d love to know your thoughts on performing or how your yogic practice helps you. 🙏🏽