Want to reconnect your mind, body and soul and get fit in the process? Make your way to the nearest CHAKRADANCE™ class.

By Nicola Simmonds,
For The Sunday Telegraph 'Body & Soul' Liftout

In an inner city warehouse, 20 people are dancing as though no-one's watching. Loud tribal drumbeats ripple through their limbs as they keep time with the primal screams of a didgeridoo. The dancers see red, and move like lions, panthers, even wild dogs. The name of the game tonight is survival, or at least remembering the survival instincts. To stop thinking and start to feel. This is chakra dancing.

Offering similar benefits to yoga, chakra dancing is about relieving the stresses of modern day living. Apart from the physical benefits gained by dancing vigorously for two hours, chakra dancing is said to increase your awareness of the connection between mind, body and soul. Ultimately, it's about rebalancing these three aspects so they work together in harmony.

CHAKRADANCE™ is not the sort of dance that you learn. Rather than memorising steps and moves, it's about using your own style of dancing to express the music and focus on the way each chakra makes you feel. During classes, you may see a man leaping around, Peter Garrett-style, or someone else doing ballet moves, while another participant may be hardly moving at all, gazing trance-like at the ceiling. Many dance the way they would at a club - minus the smoke, the intoxicants and the lack of space. Most importantly, though, everyone dances with little awareness of anyone else. It's not about performance or looking good. In fact, self-consciousness and ego should be left, with your shoes, at the door.

inside out
Chakras are seven centres of energy, located between the base of the spine and the crown of the head. Each has a different frequency that resonates to distinct tones and music. "Think of humans as having an energy spectrum like a radio, where our vibrations range from low through to high vibrations," says chakra dance creator and teacher, Natalie Southgate. The base chakra - which grounds us - responds to primal sounds and very low tones. On the opposite end of the spectrum, high tones connect with the crown chakra, the chakra associated with spirituality.

good vibrations
Each chakra represents an aspect vital to our lives (like safety, sexuality, power, love, communication, intuition and self-realisation). You can think of chakras as energetic floppy disks, each containing vital programs. Some of our programming may be positive, affecting our health, emotions, thoughts and behaviour in a good way; others may be negative, having the reverse effect. It's not often that our chakras are fully balanced, and so dance is a great way to harmonise and thereby strengthen your health and wellbeing.
A chakra dance course focuses on one chakra at a time, teaching you how to recognise corresponding body parts, and stimulating tones and music.
Australian Natalie Southgate created chakra dancing in 1998, when she was studying spiritual healing and Jungian psychology at London's College of Psychic Studies. (Jung was the first Westerner to work with chakras.) Trained as a dancer, Southgate found that in the course of her own healing, if she wanted to feel better she'd put on appropriate music and dance to it. These instincts, together with her studies in healing and a quest to harness music's therapeutic properties, created what worked as a form of self-healing, not only for Natalie, but for her friends, and then a wide following of interested people.

poetry in motion
Southgate calls chakra dancing "a kind of vibrational medicine" which uses music and movement to heal body, emotions, mind and spirit.
Experts like Southgate feel chakras easily. "Dancing to the frequency of one particular chakra at a time enables us to experience different issues and work on them," she says. "Problems with experiencing pleasure, for instance, or the inability to nurture oneself and others, can be tackled by working on the sacral plexus. Such work may bring up emotions, thus providing clues to our inner health."
So, if you want to tap into your higher consciousness, unblock your creativity or release your inner fox, kick off your shoes and get dancing!

where to try it
• Courses available at Sydney's Naisda Dance College, 3 Cumberland Street,
The Rocks. Call (02) 9252 0199.
• Melbourne: One-day workshops to be held in January and February - check out website for details www.chakradance.com or call (02) 9252 0199.
• A chakra dance teacher-training program will also run from January until June in Sydney. Call (02) 9252 0199.

step by step: a guide to your chakras
• base chakra
Location Base of spine, perineum
Body parts Legs, feet, bones, large intestine, teeth
Glands Adrenals
Function Survival, grounding
Balanced Good health, vitality, well-grounded
Deficiency Disconnection from body, noticeably underweight, anxious, restless, poor attention, financial difficulty, chronic disorganisation Excess Obesity, hoarding, material fixation, lazy, tired, fearful of change Physical malfunctions Disorders of bowel, anus, large intestine, disorders of solid parts of body (bones, teeth), issues with legs, feet, base of spine, buttocks; frequent illness.

• sacral chakra
Location Sacral plexus, lower abdomen
Body parts Womb, genitals, kidney, bladder, circulatory system
Glands Ovaries, testicles
Function Emotional release, sexuality, pleasure, procreation
Balanced Ability to experience pleasure, emotionally balanced
Deficiency Emotionally numb, fear of sex, rigidity in body and attitudes, lack of passion
Excess Excessively strong emotions (hysteria, mood swings), sexual addiction, seductive manipulation Physical malfunctions Disorders of reproductive organs, spleen, bladder, kidneys, also menstrual difficulties, lower back pain, deadened senses, loss of appetite, sexual dysfunction.

• solar plexus chakra
Location Between navel and base of sternum
Body parts Digestive system - liver, stomach, gall bladder, small intestine, muscles
Glands Pancreas
Function Power, will, drive, pro-activity
Balanced Responsible, reliable, effective will, good self-esteem, warmth, confident, playful, spontaneous, sense of humour, appropriate self-discipline, sense of one's own personal power, able to meet challenges
Deficiency Low energy, poor self-discipline, low self- esteem, attraction to stimulants, unreliable
Excess Controlling, overly aggressive, temper tantrums, arrogant, hyperactive
Physical malfunctions Eating disorders, ulcers, digestive disorders, hypoglycaemia, diabetes, muscular disorders, chronic fatigue, hypertension, disorders of stomach, pancreas, liver

• heart chakra
Location Centre of chest
Body parts Heart, lungs, pericardium, arms, hands
Glands Thymus
Function Love, relationships
Balanced Compassionate, loving, empathetic, self-loving, peaceful, balanced, forgiving
Deficiency Antisocial, judgmental, loneliness, depression, fear of intimacy, lack of empathy
Excess Co-dependency, jealousy, demanding
Physical malfunctions Disorders of the heart, lungs, thymus, breasts, arms, circulation problems, asthma, immune system deficiency, high blood pressure, tension between shoulder blades, chest pains.

• throat chakra
Location Throat
Body parts Ears, throat, neck, shoulders, vocal cords
Glands Thyroid, parathyroid
Function Communication, listening
Element Sound
Balanced Clear communication, good listener, lives creatively, resonant voice
Deficiency Difficulties expressing oneself, shyness, weak voice, tone deaf
Excess Talking as a defence, gossiping, inability to listen, dominating voice
Physical malfunctions Disorders of the throat, ears, neck, voice, tightness of the jaw, toxicity.

• third eye chakra
Location Between eyebrows
Body parts Eyes
Glands Pineal
Function Intuition, imagination
Balanced Perceptive, good memory, imaginative, able to access and remember dreams
Deficiency Poor memory, lack of imagination and vision, unable to remember dreams
Excess Hallucinations, obsessions, nightmares
Physical malfunctions Headaches, vision problems.

• crown chakra
Location Top of head
Body parts Brain, central nervous system
Glands Pituitary
Function Belief systems, higher consciousness, understanding
Balanced Ability to perceive, analyse; spiritual connection, wisdom, intelligence
Deficiency Spiritual cynicism, learning difficulties, rigid belief systems, materialism, greed
Excess Spiritual addiction, over-intellectualisation
Physical malfunctions Brain tumours, migraines, amnesia.

home bases
• do try this at home
Warm up by listening (and loosening)
to music. Stand and breathe. Roll your head slowly. Roll your shoulders, extending the movement gradually to your arms, hands and fingers. Next, flop down from the waist like a rag doll to release your back and hips.
Start to roll your hips, your legs and your feet. Eventually dance with every part
of your body, concentrating on waking up
all the muscles. Allow your energy to flow freely. Now work on a specific chakra...

• different music for each chakra
>> Base chakra music - is percussive, tribal-like and earthy (Australian didgeridoo music with drum beats is perfect).
>> Sacral chakra music - is feminine, sensual music which makes you want to move your hips (belly dancing music is perfect).
>> Solar plexus music - is fast, dynamic, fiery, energetic (music which makes your whole body want to move) to build up energy. Also, music that has strong, definite beats
to make you want to express your power (with strong movements).
>> Heart chakra music - is light, soft, gentle, expansive, uplifting, airy. This music tends
to be a bit slower so that you can focus on your breathing as you move.
>> Throat chakra music - has an ethereal quality. Use music you can make sounds
to as you dance.
>> Third eye chakra music - trance music is normally quite monotonous (which allows you to go into a trance-like state to open up to visions and insights).
>> Crown chakra music - transcendental, meditative, spiritual music.

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