A couple weeks ago I was salsa dancing, or actually “salsa watching” and my friend was salsa dancing. What a fun spectator sport that is! I realized that while the technical stuff is important the huge distinction I saw between the seasoned dancers and the newbies was the ability to make it look really easy.

I think being a female is probably tougher in salsa dancing because men lead so women do the moves, but in a responsive way. I noticed that the seasoned dancers do that *and* bring an ease and comfort to the moves. It looked like they were having fun and not saying in their head “and spin and turn and uh-oh what the heck are we doing now!” Which is what I’d be doing.

And I thought about how it’s the same quality we want to bring to the yoga mat. Not for spectators but for ourselves - that loose quality of ease should be on the inside. And of course there’s the technical stuff in yoga too, but if you can get through the review of the 2 or 3 elements of the pose that get you there, the rest of the time can be spent being responsive to it. Finding the firm and the soft. Like in Tree where your standing leg is working, but you might sway like a sapling as you enjoy the balancing. The effort and the comfort. Like in Triangle where you’re putting out energy to be there, but you relax into the twist, opening your chest and torso up and up. The doing, but also the responding. As you patiently feel for your body to open and then drop deeper into the pose.