BaliSpirit puts the fun in yoga

BaliSpirit puts the fun in yoga

The five-day Bali Spirit Festival 2014, which came to a close last Sunday, proved that yoga can be fun while bringing happiness and euphoria.

The festival provided more than 100 sessions of yoga and spiritual classes during the five-day event, with the help from 41 yoga teachers and body-movement experts.

The daytime event was held at the Purniati Center for the Arts, where a lush green venue was divided into several areas.


Jocelyn Gordon taught Bhakti Boogie yoga, which she described as an experience and practice of booty and body centered awareness that allows for emotional expression and connection. This translates into a class full of dancing and twerking.

In her session, a muscled man danced happily to Madonna’s “Like a Prayer”.

Sparks Evolution’s session was another example. Evolution believes that transformation can happen through a game or a play; that is why she uses hula-hoop as her medium of teaching. You can imagine what a class full of people playing with hula-hoops is like.

The benefits of yoga can now be achieved through various mediums, such as through yoga ethno choreology by Nadine McNeil, who combined yoga with writing.

The BaliSpirit Festival acknowledges such diversity in yoga. It welcomes many disciplines that are relevant to physical harmonization. This is why Graduado Noko’s capoeira sessions have been a favorite non-yoga program over the past few years.

The festival emphasized not just yoga but also dance and music as part of their tagline, “A global celebration of yoga, dance and music.” During the day, yoga rules BaliSpirit, but when the night falls, it is time for dance and music to double the fun.

In the evening at Agung Rai Museum of Arts (ARMA), yoga enthusiasts danced and sang to music from all over the world. The One World One Stage hosted performances by artists from the United States, Senegal, Iran, Turkey, Sweden, Australia, Chile and Indonesia.