Last Friday I attended my first Metal Yoga lesson at Tatwerk.
André Foisy from experimental metal band Locrian (Relapse Records) was in Berlin both for music and for some yoga action. As soon as I was informed about it, I didn’t miss the chance to hopefully experience something I started wondering about soon after I had began to practice some years ago: the proof that yoga and extreme music are not so far as one might think.
I’m not sure how long the class lasted, sixty or ninety minutes I guess, I stopped thinking about it as soon as I entered the room. You know, everyone has his way to prepare for the class. I like to arrive as early as I’m allowed and relax in shavasana pose until the class starts. This time the room was candlelit and drown in slow metal riffs at a quite high volume. Then I started losing count of the passing minutes.
Mr Foisy is a certified Turbodog Yoga instrurctor, a Chicago based yoga studio. His class is quite dynamic and combines a selection of atmospheric metal music (Locrian were included as well and I loved to practice over “Dream House” from Deafheaven) with sometimes tough asanas that made my legs shake and burn while opening up my joints very nicely. He leads the class using a mic so his voice can go on top of the metal madness, but beside all that, it is still a work hard yoga class.
A very special touch comes in the last part: while you are finally lying in dead body pose, Mr Foisy will plug the jack into his electric guitar and cuddle you with an amazing drone bath filled with piano melody as well. A stunning and unexpected relaxation experience on the vibrating floor.
As a metal fan I found Andrè Foisy’s Metal Yoga class a very meaningful one, showing a two-way link towards two worlds that are considered the further ones but have actually a lot in common, especially an inclination for pushing beyond one’s limits.
albi vs albi 