As I tiptoed into the yoga studio at Equinox’s SoHo location, dozens of yogis were already sitting cross-legged on the front of their mats.
It was just days before Thanksgiving — clearly I wasn’t the only one looking to fit in as many eagle poses as possible before ingesting a different kind of bird.
As I situated myself, I heard the instructor say something about singing. Out loud. Then I noticed her guitar.
And here I thought it’d be just another night of warrior poses, a few “Ohms” and a namaste.
No, this was “Rock Star” yoga, a new practice led by Alanna Kaivalya, a k a the JivaDiva, who combines musical, spiritual and physical elements, based on the Jivamukti style.
Her class was put on the schedule at a few Equinox clubs to help introduce its members to the instructors at Pure Yoga, which Equinox owns.
“We’re just trying to bring newness and create something unique,” says Carol Espel, the national director of group fitness for Equinox.
Indeed.
As 28-year-old Kaivalya began to strum her guitar, she suggested we sing along. People began looking around and giggling. One person left and another moved to the back row. No one knew whether to take this hipster-meets-hippie chick seriously, or if they were being punk’d.
Then she started to sing.
“There’s something happening here/What it is ain’t exactly clear . . .”
That’s for sure.
“There’s a man with a gun over there/Telling me I got to beware/I think it’s time we stop, children, what’s that sound/Everybody look what’s going down.”
What IS going down, exactly? Surely everyone knew the Buffalo Springfield song — it’s a classic. But during the first verse, there wasn’t a peep aside from Kaivalya.
“This will be the hardest thing you do all class,” she said. “Just look to the person next to you. Sing to them.”
Yeah. Like that’ll make this less awkward.
Slowly, as the chorus came around again, people turned to their neighbors, myself included, and started to join in. Once the song ended, everyone breathed a collective sigh of relief.
Would we sing again? I wondered. What song would it be?
As we began to move, however, class proceeded as any flow would. With the exception of a rockin’ playlist that included tunes from Led Zeppelin, Dave Matthews Band, Counting Crows and other groups that bring me back to high school, the singalong seemed to have ended.
But as I moved from downward dog into upward dog and back again, I felt myself wanting to belt out the chorus to “Ants Marching” and “Round Here.”
I wasn’t the only one.
“At first, I was surprised when she wanted us to sing,” said Equinox member Brad Katchen. “And then after a bout of laughter, I actually enjoyed the experience. It lightened up people’s spirits.”
That’s not Kaivalya’s only intent. In her regular Pure classes, she encourages students to sing during more challenging poses because it takes their minds off the physical sensations and where the mind wanders to in the process.
During headstands, for example, “it’s a way to kill time ’cause you’re up there for a while,” she says.
Hero pose, she adds, is another great time to sing because its simplicity — sitting upright with your feet tucked straight back under the legs — often invites fidgeting.
Kaivalya’s song choices, which range from the Jackson Five’s “I’ll Be There” to Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah,” are based not only on her own music preferences, but what others will know and appreciate.
“I don’t sit at home chanting Hari-rama Hari-rama,” she says. “I’m a rock ’n’ roll girl at heart. I sing popular music because that’s the language people understand.”
“Hallelujah,” sister.