World Rhythm Yoga at the Downtown Dance Collective

By Brooke Hewes, 6-26-08

	Caption: Gillian Kessler at Downtown Dance Collective

Dear Missoulians, I offer, no urge, the following advice: Grab a pen, find next Tuesday in your day planner, and write “World Rhythm Yoga” in the 5:00-6:00 p.m. slot. Taught by seasoned dancer/yogi Gillian Kessler, the class blends movement and music to the effect of pure end-of-the day, blow-off-steam, get-down-and-funky fun. Traditional yoga postures, interspersed with pliés and relevés, will challenge your muscles, refine your balance and build stamina—as well as open your mind to the invigorating possibilities of yoga/dance fusion.

World Rhythm Yoga takes place at the Downtown Dance Collective (121 West Main St.), which opened mid May. And if you missed their First Friday grand opening or haven’t peaked in the large street-side windows, trust me when I say the space is breathtaking. Exposed brick on the east-facing wall is reflected in an expanse of mirrors across the earthy wide-plank maple floor. The north and south-facing walls—the shorter sides of the rectangular room— are painted a warm shade of purple with just enough art hanging to suggest creativity without screaming it. The impression—which has something to do with all the honest, inspired energy put into the collective’s creation—is entirely pleasing. Add music and you’ll have to glue your heals down to keep from dancing.

The Dance Collective is the result of the collaborative imagination and hard work of local dancers and artists. Sustaining the lovely space is an inclusive mission is to bring dance, in its multicultural and aesthetic forms, too all Missoulians regardless of “social or economic status, age, gender, or artistic or cultural background.” The collective aspires to support local artists; to create community around movement and music; and to inspire non-dancers to dance, which they do by offering such diverse classes as Afro Brazilian Dance, Creative Movement, Rocking Body and Salsa, among many more like Gillian’s World Rhythm Yoga and Pre-Natal Movement classes. For me, the carrot was the word “yoga”—which for Gillian’s class was entirely appropriate, though decidedly more modern than traditional.

As the seven other women and I rolled out our yoga mats and slowly began stretching out workday stiffness, Gillian introduced the class as a fast-moving meditation. The next hour, she said, was an opportunity to move creatively and rhythmically through postures. “As a dancer,” she later told me, “yoga to music makes it easier to sustain postures—you just dance through them.” Gillian reminded us to stay present –to notice how our breath and body felt through the challenging sequence. And with that, we started moving and didn’t stop for an entire hour. We danced through variations of sun salutations. We made like ballerinas, stretching our arms up and out from first to second position. We jumped forward and back, and, eventually, to seated, where we assumed navasana (boat pose) while snapping our fingers and undulating our arms to the music.

Normally, mirrors freak me out. My focus shifts from an internal gaze to an external one, and I suddenly notice that, for example, my left leg is jutting a bit too far this way or that and my right arm seems to be drooping too much in this posture and too little in that. I get distracted. In Gillian’s class, however, the mirrors worked—I got to see my body move in ways I didn’t know it could. The mirrors also lent a sense of camaraderie: here we are, eight women, just grooving regardless of size, flexibility, and skill. (Though I have to say that the women there that day were extremely fit and remarkably able). As a teacher, Gillian said the mirrors enable her to practice along with us while also keeping an eye out for misalignments—which, once noticed, could be adjusted as the students remained steady in certain postures.

Gillian settled on the name “World Rhythm Yoga” because she didn’t want to confine the music to one genre, region or culture. Instead, she mixes Annie Lenox with Afro and Brazilian pop. She and Heather Adams, the collective’s owner, chose the word “yoga” not only because of the poses that fill the sequence, but also to draw folks interested in yoga to the collective.

“Yoga can be intimidating for people, and these [fusion] classes help,” says Gillian. “There are so many strong and fit women in Missoula who want to try yoga but don’t have time or aren’t ready to commit to a daily practice. This is a nice option for them.”

Other yoga classes offered at the collective include Kundalini, Boga (ballet/yoga fusion), Vinyasa Flow, Dancer Yoga and Yoga Basics. Gillian, 34, has practiced many different styles of yoga for more than 10 years. She started Ashtanga Vinyasa after college to help buffer the stress of her first teaching job in inner city L.A. Because she had danced since the age of 3, her body took right to it, and she has been practicing ever since—including before and after giving birth to her 10-month old daughter Eliana.

Though Gillian teaches slower classes more suitable for beginners, World Rhythm Yoga is, she concedes, most appropriate for those with dance and/or yoga experience. However, if you are a beginner and you did heed my initial recommendation to mark your calendar, many other classes are worth penciling in. In fact, with the collective’s diverse smattering of genres and instructors, there is undoubtedly something for most Missoulians—men, women and, with the collective’s summer workshop for ages 7-14, even children.

For class descriptions, workshops and instructor bios, visit the Downtown Dance Collective website, where you can also sign up for classes and become a member ($12/year for students and $25/year for individuals).