ABSTRACT
This article examines the interweavings between yoga and dance (Bharatanatyam). Yoga can be broadly divided into two strains, one following the teachings of Patajali’s Yoga Sutras and the second being hatha yoga. Patanjali gives us guidelines to arrive at and sustain a meditative state that is contingent upon a yogic-way-of-living, whereas hatha yoga offers us a map of the yoga body as well as delineates physical and even esoteric practices. According to hatha yoga, which directly stems from tantra, the yoga body is an energy body that is made up of chakras (energy centers), vayus (winds of different types of airs), and shunyas (voids). The chapter focuses on the belief systems that support the cultivation of this void-experience in yoga practice. The void experience, as much as it may be a technique, can be cultivated and practiced, and it is connected to the real or imagined void-entity of the practitioner/performer which in other words denotes his or her lifestyle and position in society.
