Figure Yoga, 917 Front St. No. 160, Louisville, 303-747-3667, thesanghastudios.com, annettebancroft.com

Instructor: Annette Bancroft, of Eldorado Canyon, who has been dancing since age 3. Bancroft has danced for the Denver Nuggets and the Colorado Crush, as well as a variety of others. She also teaches tap and other kinds of yoga classes. She got involved with yoga for a deeper connection with her spirituality.

She created Flow Sessions about six months ago to incorporate the different aspects of everything she loves into one.

What is the workout? A fusion of different world dance styles and yoga. The first 30 minutes were high-energy dance routines, several done in a circle. Class wraps up with yoga postures specifically designed to complement the dance styles. We did several balancing poses, too.

Dance styles include samba, flamenco, belly dance, African, capoeira, ballet and even a classical Indian temple dance called the Bharata Natyam.

Routines are simple, light-hearted and designed to be easy for anyone to follow, even if you don't have a dance (or yoga) background.

What's different? Here's where the class gets particularly interesting: The dance styles are organized to specifically coordinate with the body's chakras (centers of spiritual energy), starting from the bottom up. For example, to stimulate the root chakra: grounding African dance. For the second chakra: hip-centric dance styles, such as belly dancing. For the heart chakra: flamenco.

Raven Roth performs a yoga move during a class called Flow Sessions at Figure Yoga in Louisville. (David R. Jennings / Daily Camera)

The music also corresponds to the chakras, Bancroft says. You can feel classical music in your crown chakra. The shouting during capoeira opens the throat chakra.

Bringing that all together creates a rounded experience and gives the dancer different styles to play with and connect with. It can also be a kind of self-check: Where are you feeling stifled? Where is your body feeling open?

See the rest here:
Workout of the week: Flow Yoga (Dance Yoga)