King Dancer – Natarajasana

King Dancer – Natarajasana

a) Stand in Tadasana (Mountain Pose). Inhale, shift your weight onto your right foot, & lift your left heel toward your left buttock as you bend the knee. Press the head of your right thigh bone back, deep into the hip joint, & pull the knee cap up to keep the standing leg straight & strong.

b) There are two variations you might try here with your arms & hands. In either case, try to keep your torso relatively upright. The first is to reach back with your left hand & grasp the outside of your left foot or ankle. To avoid compression in your lower back, actively lift your pubis toward your navel, & at the same time, press your tailbone toward the floor.

c) Begin to lift your left foot up, away from the floor, & back, away from your torso. Extend the left thigh behind you & parallel to the floor. Stretch your right arm forward, in front of your torso, parallel to the floor.

d) The second option with the hands is to sweep your right hand around behind your back & catch hold of the inner left foot. Then sweep the left hand back & grab the outside of the left foot. This variation will challenge your balance even more. Then raise the thigh as described in this second variation will increase the lift of your chest & the stretch of your shoulders.

e) Stay in the pose for 20 to 30 seconds. Then release the grasp on the foot, place the left foot back onto the floor, & repeat for the same length of time on the other side.

Full Pose

For the full pose, perform step 1 as described above. Then turn your left arm actively outward (so the palm faces away from the side of the torso), bend the elbow, & grip the outside of the left foot. (You can also grab the big toe with the first two fingers and the thumb). The fingers will cross the top of the foot, the thumb will press against the sole. Inhale, lift the left leg up, & bring the thigh parallel to the floor.

As you do this, rotate the left shoulder in such a way that the bent elbow swings around and up, so that it points toward the ceiling. It requires extreme flexibility to externally rotate & flex the shoulder joint in this way. Reach the right arm straight forward, in front of the torso & parallel to the floor. Hold for 20 to 30 seconds, release, & repeat on the second side for the same length of time.