Arts and Entertainment Bushwick

VIDEO: Metal yoga, the enlightenment and darkness conjunction

November 22, 2017 By Liliana Bernal Special to the Brooklyn Daily Eagle
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In the backstage of the Cobra Club in Bushwick, a group of people come together to practice a series of postures and progressive movements, synchronized with breathing to balance body, soul and spirit.

The soundtrack of this yoga experience, far from being a Zen melody, is the strident tune of distorted guitars, emphatic rhythms, dense bass and drum sounds and the high-pitched voices of metal.

The result is metal yoga, the enlightenment and darkness conjunction.

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Metal yoga involves several aspects of traditional yoga, but “it takes yoga away from all the peaceful and quietness to craziness,” said Saskia Thode, metal yoga instructor and founder of Metal Yoga Bones. “It’s a lot of screaming, a lot of cardio, core, yoga poses — but we have a band,” she says of the poses, “and we play guitar and drums.”

The goal of a yoga class is to find a more content state of mind. With traditional yoga, it is necessary to work hard to get there, however with metal yoga, people can meet their goals easier, the German native argued.

“Here is just like they get thrown into it. They do not know how it’s happening because it’s so fast paced and you scream so much and you move, and you punch and kick … and suddenly you’re in the ground in silence and it just takes it all away … you are just happy in that moment.”

Her Vinyasa-style classes are a certain type of performance. While leading the class, she energizes the participants using guttural voices and sometimes asks for the names of the bands and songs that are playing. Few participants know the answers.

The classes are not just for metal heads, she says, but for a clientele that is attracted to the extroverted exercise.

“There are some people who come in that don’t want to be in a yoga studio, having the yoga studio atmosphere, that don’t like to be quiet because I allow everyone to talk, scream, sing … basically anyone who wants to try it can come in.”

The idea of metal yoga was never her goal in itself, but it arose in 2014 when Thode was finishing her instructor training and had to create her own playlist for her classes.

“I don’t really listen to that much music and my teacher of the training just said, ‘Just make a metal playlist, that’s fine. It’s your class, do whatever you want to do.’ and I ended up never using it but I started to use the playlist, practicing teaching on some of my friends, my metal friends.”

Although this type of yoga is expanding around the world, it has some opponents who believe that metal yoga is not aligned with the principles of the traditional practice.

“Someone wrote a comment that he is going to report us with the yoga chief in India and it was kind of hilarious, but hey, it’s not for everyone and obviously it’s taking it away from the tradition,” Thode said. “I think it’s a great idea because it’s something different and the result that I have with this class is exactly the same that someone else is trying to achieve in a regular yoga class.”


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