Anastasiia
Gabi
Hoya
Julie
Nandini
Tyeece
Yohannes
The dancers got jetlagged. They left earlier because they were tired. That was the first thing that helped me start appreciating Aakash’s passion to teach contemporary dance. He was happy to teach us yoga Mudra with the hands.
We started learning it by sitting on the floor both legs folded inward. It was challenging for some of us to fold both legs inward and sit like that for a long time. However, most of the time we don’t even notice how much resistance we are putting on our legs when we engaged with the hand gestures Aakash was showing us. Since, it is possible to practice that wherever we are sitting anywhere, I found it easy and interesting. The story Gabriel made while teaching it to us about energy how it revives in our body and Nandini’s creative story with herself and how she get to NYUAD helps to put it in mind forever. Aakash kept teaching us until we all master it and we forgot how our legs were resisting much pressure from our body while we sit on them for a while, especially some of us who can’t fold both legs properly inward and sit straight upright. In overall, I understand and learned that the Indian yoga mudra is also a contemporary dance that transfers its own message to audiences and needs to be perceived.