Dancing in Unity: Unveiling the Connections Between Ballroom Dance and Yoga

As a yoga practitioner (and ever evolving human), I’m constantly looking for ways to reach out of my comfort zone and try something new. The term “beginner’s mind” is used in Zen Buddhist philosophy, and essentially means to adopt an attitude of openness, eagerness, and willingness to be a forever student. The term “Beginner’s mind” reminds me to stay humble and to never think I have things all figured out - because there’s always something more to learn and there’s always room for growth and expansion.

Towards the end of 2023, I decided to try something new and sign up for ballroom dance lessons. At the time, I was just looking to do something fun and challenging. What I soon realized is that there were a lot of parallels between ballroom dance and yoga. I noticed that valuable lessons started to show up both on and off of the dance floor that could be applied to my daily life.

Here are some of my reflections that you may contemplate in your own life:

Cultivating Trust and Letting Go
In ballroom dancing, one partner is the leader and the other person is the follower. I was tasked first with learning how to be a follower. Which, to my surprise, is a lot harder than I thought!


As a business owner and leader in our community, I didn’t realize how difficult it would be to let go of control and let someone else take the lead for once. It was a huge awakening when my teacher told me again and again to wait for him to guide me and to stop moving ahead (lol).


Finally, he shared something that clicked.. If I kept trying to be one step ahead of him, one of us would surely end up stepping on each others toes. I realized that by trying to think ahead to the next step, I kept messing with the effortless flow that we were cultivating together. I wasn’t creating space for another to take the lead.. which I realized would show up as lack of trust in small ways in other areas of my life.


This is so similar to what we experience in yoga classes when we try to move ahead in to the next pose of a sequence, say in a flow class, before fully embodying the one we are in. How much different would life be if we stopped trying to control each moment and instead just surrendered and let go of expectations?


Another solid example is when we doubt that yoga or meditation could be the solution to a scattered or busy mind paired with a tight, achey body. I know so many yoga practitioners (I’ve been here myself!) that know deep down a few minutes of stretching and meditation can make a huge difference, yet the mind will convince us that we don’t have the time or (insert excuse here) to do a few minutes each day.


Practicing yoga definitely requires that we trust in the process. We don’t always see the results we hope for overnight, however, with consistency and dedication to the practice, yoga can become an anchor for us in our always changing lives.


Mindfulness / Responding to Each Moment
I learned very quickly that when your mind wanders, you lose track of what step you’re on and what direction you may need to be going. I had to keep myself absorbed in the moment by responding to each step my dance partner took. Sometimes the signals your dancer partner sends you happen within a split second that would easily be missed if the mind is not fully absorbed in the present.


There’s a light pressure that’s applied with the arms and hands between partners that allows you to sense into the movements and respond accordingly. Once you learn the basic steps, it becomes easier to feel into this sensation. It’s similar to noticing how the body responds to each breath or each sensation that arises while in a yoga pose. Or perhaps how the mind responds to thoughts as they arise in the mind during meditation.


How often are we really showing up to life with this detailed level of presence? Are we responding with intention to each stimulus or falling into knee jerk reactions to each stimulus? What would it be like to observe more from a birds eye view, taking in everything that each moment has to offer? How would life be if we really paid close attention to all that was here instead of letting the mind steer us away from each moment to convince us the past or future are more important than what is here right now?


Body Awareness
Ballroom dancing has taught me to be even more in tune with the mechanics of my body. New movements and step patterns are challenging my brain and created new neural pathways that are taking me out of the “box” (I literally learned a box step dance pattern so yes, pun intended here) and into a more vast and visceral experience of my body and it’s capabilities. My new found discoveries translated into my yoga postures and provided a fresh landscape of sensations for me to explore even deeper on my mat.


I’m getting more creative in my yoga practice and even the classes I teach currently from this new passion I’ve welcomed into my life. I think about how often we let things get stale in our lives.. almost like we are living in autopilot without inviting new ways of thinking, new perspectives, new solutions in. A good example of this is always setting up in the same spot of the classroom, week after week, or always using the same route to get to work, the yoga studio, or your home. Maybe it’s the way you’re approaching your yoga postures, with the same eyes every time, never opening up to new sensations or new awareness of body parts that could go unnoticed.

Here’s an invitation to mix things up a little bit and try something new in your yoga practice, or to even adopt a fresh perspective for something that feels familiar. Just by doing this, you too will start forging new neural pathways in the brain. If you’ve been in my yoga classes recently you’ll know about some of the “Brain games” I’m weaving in to create new neural pathways!


Taking Up Space
During one of my lessons, my teacher told me to extend my arm fully to proclaim my dance space to those in the room in certain moves such as opening to the side and turns.

At first, I felt guilty to extend my arm out.. thinking I would accidentally hit someone on the dance floor. My teacher told me, "it's really okay.. it's better to hit someone here than to get hit." What he meant was... by taking up space, I am communicating with my environment that I am here and it's up to the environment to respond to that. There’s nothing to feel guilty about since I am just as human as the other humans in the room and it’s OKAY to take up space.

This is something I tell my students in yoga class all the time (often in 5 pointed star pose). I thought it was interesting that it came up for me in this situation to explore even further through yet another layer of experience.


How often in life do we shrink away from being vulnerable, being seen, or taking up space? In what ways can you let yourself shine in your authenticity? The world needs more of YOU.


Small Steps Get You There Faster
Coincidentally, I had the opposite experience with my steps. I learned that my steps in rhythm dances were taking up too much space. Large steps cover a lot of ground, which made it harder for me to keep up with the faster pace of more rhythmic style dance music (salsa, hustle, rumba).


The smaller the steps, the faster I could move with grace and ease. The larger the steps, the clunkier I felt and I ended up doing more hops or strides than steps to keep up with my partner. I also noticed it was easy to lose balance with larger steps, versus more controlled and grounded "toes under nose" steps.


The moral of the story?
The little things add up to take us further than we know. Small steps every day allow for a smooth transition in the direction we are trying to go.


My master teacher, Karin Stephan, says “The slow way is the fast way”, which reminds me of taking small steps versus reaching for longer strides. There is a stable and grounded quality in the smaller steps, where technique can really shine through and support the dance pattern.


This could show up off the dance floor too - for example, developing more consistency with a yoga and meditation practice. If you’re just now starting to cultivate a daily practice, take small steps towards that goal. Instead of aiming for 1 hour of practice every day, maybe start with 5-10 minutes and build from there. A little bit goes a long way! Small steps take us farther!


Allowing Joy to Expand in the Body
Ballroom dancing is a practice that really opened my eyes to how often I would cut myself off from truly feeling the sensations of joy.


Don’t get me wrong, I have had many joyful and happy experiences over the years, but I don’t know if I truly gave these emotions the space to expand in my body fully. I don’t always allow the sensations to bubble up and pop at the surface of my skin. Instead, I may divert my attention to the next task on my list that I would need to focus on in order to keep up with whatever list of expectations I created for myself each day. There’s a fine line between productivity and emotional bypassing. I’ve been aware of my tendencies to just “keep going” but never realized how often I would cut myself off from fully experiencing  JOY.


The pulsing and radiant energy I feel every time I leave ballroom dance lessons felt like a lot to process at first. I remember after the first couple of lessons reaching for my phone to call someone so I could talk as a distraction on the drive home instead of allowing myself the opportunity to feel the energy pulsing through my body. Now, I bask in the radiance of JOY as I leave the studio and re-integrate back into the day. Through dance I was reminded of the beauty that each moment can bring if I allow joy in.


I’ve started practicing this in so many areas of my life, which is equal parts reinvigorating and satisfying for my soul. To be clear, yoga has taught me this too. However, ballroom dancing reminded me of the truth that I already knew deep down and wasn’t opening up wholeheartedly to witness.

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Over the last couple of months, these reminders and lessons have allowed me to show up more authentically for myself and others. I am truly humbled by how much I still have to learn and integrate both on and off my yoga mat. I am a firm believer in the truth that I will forever be a student of life.


I hope that these reflections open your mind’s eye to see to how yoga can be found in the most unsuspecting of places. If I can learn more about my yoga practice through ballroom dancing, maybe you can learn more about your practice while cooking in the kitchen, walking your dog, fishing, watching football or doing whatever it is that you’re doing in your free time.

If you’re curious about the parallels between ballroom dancing and yoga, let me know, because I’m convinced I need to hang a disco ball in the Lotus Room for a night and bring some instructors to Lotus Pond to teach our community the basics of partner dancing. Please help me turn this dream into form! :)


You can also join me for class as one of my guests at a local ballroom studio. I'm happy to share their schedule with you if you ask me. You don't have to convince me to go! I'd be happy to share this experience with you.


Until then, continue to practice mindfulness in whatever way feels true to you. Don’t wait until you’re at Lotus Pond to practice yoga. Let yoga be infused into your day to day life.


May we continue to walk this path together, one step at a time, with a knowing that we are exactly where we need to be.
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With love & gratitude,
Katie