Yoga Dance with Yogi Colleen Farnum

September 19, 2013

I’ve been curious about attending this class since it started up again a couple weeks ago. It is a donation based class that incorporates both yoga and dance. Dancing + Yoga + a good cause?It sounded pretty amazing, so I gave it a shot. The class began with advanced students practicing a routine they came up with. The flow of the two yogi dancers was smooth and effortless. In my head, I had not a clue of how I would even begin to bring myself to a place where I could gather my goofy dance moves to move like them. The only times I've ever felt like my dancing has been So You Think You Can Dance worthy is in the privacy of my own room, when nobody's home. Once the two dancers slipped out of their trance, Colleen, a tall, beautiful familiar face with gorgeous red hair took the floor. I had the pleasure of meeting her at Miami Life Center a couple weeks ago when I moved to Miami. She was welcoming towards me as a new comer and encouraged me to attend one of her classes. After we introduced ourselves, she asked the six of us in the class to start in corpse pose. After some guided meditation, we began to release ourselves to the music and our breath. Colleen led us through a series of swift and graceful movements starting from rolling over on the the floor to dancing into our warrior poses. She encouraged us to use our breath as a guide us as we danced. At first, I felt silly because my lack of coordination was slowing me down but Colleen smiled and giggled along with me every time I felt out of sync. I realized that laughing it off really helped me with connecting to that groove I loose myself to when I dance alone in my room. I tried a couple of back stretching dance moves and we ended with some yoga inspired choreography. My favorite was when Colleen introduced me to “the Back-Pack”, a pose that required me to stand on my hands in order for my partner to grab my legs, put them over their shoulders and lifted me off the ground. I was a little hesitant but it looked like so much fun. Once I was off the ground, courtesy of Colleen, I felt so free. It was a magical experience, especially when she started walking around with me as if I were her backpack. It was great! Overall, the class was really fun. It was good to let loose and dance, my body was craving it. Dance is such a beautiful art form and I really enjoyed combining it with the art of yoga, they interconnect in ways I never truly thought about before attending this class. Thank you Colleen for such a beautiful pratice! For more information about Colleen Farnum’s Yoga Dance Class, please check out her Bio and schedule at www.miamilifecenter.com or call (305) 534-8988.