Last night, Luki took me to my first ever acroyoga class, at Yoga Haven with Lalitha and Mark. I’ve done some flying thing with Mia before, but it was mostly for poses and I have never took a class.
According to wikipedia, Acroyoga is a practice that combines yoga and acrobatics. Basically, you need at least 3 people to do acroyoga. One as the base, who stays on the ground and does all the lifting. One as the flyer, who’s being lifted and always stays off the ground. One is a spotter, who keeps everyone safe and watches all the movements, ready to help or catch, in case some slips or gets tired.
They taught all the basic stuff first, like the terms and basic positions. And we needed to learn the basic yoga poses that would be use often during the acro, like tripod headstand and handstand, which I haven’t been practicing… oops.
After the warm up and going over all the terms, we started as a flyer with Mark as the base and Lalitha gave directions. When it was my turn, Martina got to be my spotter… She’s one of the experienced flyers in the group and had been taking the class the longest.
Honestly, it feels soooo much different than normal yoga. The absence of the ground felt liberating and confusing at the same time. I have tried Flying Yoga before, which also let me stay off the ground most of the time. But Acro is even more confusing and disorienting, probably because I was interacting with another person, instead of with a piece of silk fabric. It felt scary and I kinda feel bad for stepping and putting my weight on Mark, especially during the transition from one pose to another, which was very shaky. But at the same time, flying was very intriguing… I felt like I want to try it again and again, until I get it right.
Then, at the end of the session, we got to base each other… which was even harder than flying! It was sooooo hard to be the ground of someone else, I can’t even explain! I tried to base Luki, which I failed miserably… And it took so much energy, that after doing the base, I felt like I could no longer move my arms.
Luki got to base me, too!
It was a lot of fun, though, because Lalitha and Mark were very funny… and everyone was very nice and helpful. I came home with jelly arms and legs… What a work out! And I think I want to do it again… after I can move my arms again, of course.
