Featured Teacher: Jeffrey Duval

I am inviting you to all come back to join your fellow teacher training alumni, current TTs, and Sonic friends for Yoga Trance Dance!!!

YOGA TRANCE DANCE KULA
SATURDAY MAY 14TH 6:30PM

For me, I feel very honored to be a part of Sonic Yoga.  Sonic Yoga is a special place, and you will hear people from all over the world say this.
There is something special about the energy of Sonic, and I think mainly what it is, is that it’s really about the Yoga. We don’t have a fancy studio or state of the art facility, we have great teachers and dedicated students.
Both teachers and students stay here for years and years because this energy is hard to find.

We are all here for a purpose, and our souls have been fortunate to cross paths on this journey called life. We are even more fortunate to be able to reap the benefits of yoga and wellness together.

We all know that Yoga helps us to stay healthy both with our physical and mental bodies and some of us know that yoga deepens our connection to a spiritual connection or philosophy that guides us.
Yoga is the medicine to relieve suffering.
I’d like to share with you my journey and how I found Sonic and how Yoga Trance Dance holds an endearing part of my heart.

I started teaching Yoga in 2001 when I first moved to NYC from Minneapolis.
I started teaching yoga at NYU when I was a graduate student in Dance at Tisch School of the Arts.  Initially I started out as a sub they asked me to teach yoga classes and fitness classes.  I worked there for about 2 years, and other boutique fitness businesses before I had any legitimate fitness or yoga teacher training.  I found Sonic in 2003 and it was a true blessing. My mentors Johnathan Fields and Lauren Hanna were the perfect blend of Shakti and Shiva. Jonathan was the practical one and Lauren gave that special spark of enlightenment and spiritual depth.

Lauren introduced me to the subtle body, such as the chakras and the nadis, and to Prana Flow or Prana flow that was founded by Shiva Rea.  When I started studying yoga with Lauren, I had experience with other styles such as Hatha, Sivanada, Kundalini, Bikram, Iyengar, Vini, Restorative and Vinyasa, but I never got as big of a transmission of Shakti then when I started taking classes with Lauren. I used to say her classes not only gave you an intense physical workout, you felt like your inner self, or spiritual self also got a workout! I learned a lot from assisting her classes and eventually studying with Shiva directly for my 300 hour training.

At that time, vinyasa was still relatively new, and it was rare to find a teacher that was so embodied in the wisdom that they were conveying. I also experienced my first Yoga Trance Dance with Shiva Rea.
I had actually done the trance dance a couple of times on the recording of the CD, and later there was Yoga Trance Dance dvd that came out.  To experience the power of dance and yoga merging together in spontaneous flow was a huge life affirmation for me. Lauren and I shared many epic moments while assisting our venerated teacher including trance dances where Jaya, her daughter, was still in her belly! When I reminisce on those maverick times, I can’t help but long for the nostalgia of bonding through free-form movement and dance.

Yes, you can dance at a bar, a club, or with your headphones on while waiting for the bus, but nothing compares to the bonding that can happen through a shared kinesthetic experience.

With that said, I’d like to invite you to experience the pleasure of spontaneous movement and dance at the re-inaggural debut of YOGA TRANCE DANCE!!!!!!

WHAT IS YOGA TRANCE DANCE?

In 2001 Sounds True release the CD Yoga Trance Dance, by Shiva Rea.  They actuated spelled the last name wrong (Rae) in case you want to listen to it. It’s amazing! There is also a track with just the music which is also groundbreaking.

Before then, she had mastered the art of leading Yoga Trance Dance, by offering it as an essential component for the transmission of shakti within her various teacher training modules.
With incredible live musicians, Shiva has led amazing trance dances at epic locations such as Kripalu, Yoga Journal Conferences, and other global hot spots.  Collaborating with live musicians, drumming groups,recording artists, kiran artists, and even offer a teacher training for Yoga Trance Dance. It was not uncommon to find yourself at an international retreat with over 300 people in a room dancing. Super fun and amazing!

Yoga Trance Dance is unlike a typical vinyasa class because the structure of the sequence does not rely on asana or exact sequences, but rather getting in touch with “the dancer within the dance”
And its different than learning choreography because its not a performance and we are mostly in the creative state of exploration.

We move off the dimension of our mat, and explore spirals, rolling, jumping, and curvilinear or nonlinear movement, stimulating both our problem-solving and creative sides of the brain.

Osho has a saying about how there is magic when the dancer and the dance merge as one. We move into an instinctual sense of being and emerge as the creative creatures that we are!

Lots of scientific evidence tell us that exercise and yoga are good for our overall health, and dancing is no exception!
If anything, dance may have a more positive effect, because it takes us outside of the box of yoga, and creates greater social bonds.

The brain wave rhythms shift with a sustained induction to a rhythmic state. For example if you stand and twist vigorously for 8 full minutes, your body chemistry changes. This is Kundalini Yoga.
Dancing offers the same type of transmission, but with a merging of music, and whatever dedication it is you might be working with.

How is it different from just going out dancing?

1. You can’t lay down in Shavasana at the club;)

2. The intention is that the alchemy of dance will create and invite a shift of your consciousness in a way that is typically unlike
what you might experience in a regular vinyasa class. You will have rolled and danced around the entire space, and moved your body locomotively, though spontaneous shapes and asanas, journeying through the elements first starting with Earth, and
Eventually bursting into spontaneous movement of ecstatic dance. Ending with meditation or deep restorative rest.
No one is “instructing” you into an “alignment” or adjusting your practice to make it better.  It’s a natural expression.  It may feel awkward to do something different that’s creative, but usually right after it starts people really get into it!

This will be a special event and its the first time we are offering Yoga Trance Dance post-pandemic.
Wear something festive and/or comfortable, and only move the way you love… No yoga mat required!

See you there!

Jeffrey