Class Aug. 21 at Longmeadow's Bliss Park.
Breathe like a bumblebee. This is one concept Lisa Katz, of Longmeadow, might try in her Creative Kids Yoga classes for ages preschoolers on up.
A practitioner of both yoga and pilates, Katz was inspired to start her business by a yoga dance class she took at the Kripalu Center for Yoga & Health in Stockbridge.
“(I thought) I want to lead a class like that – moving, dancing, yoga, some joyousness,” she said. “So I got certified for ‘Let Your Yoga Dance,’ and then there’s a take-off called ‘Journey Dance.’”
Katz adapted what she learned about yoga incorporated into dance movement for a class for pre-schoolers at the Springfield Jewish Community Center.
Lisa Katz, second from left, leads youngsters age 2-5 in a lion roar during her Creative Kids Yoga class at Heartsong Yoga in East Longmeadow. “It’s creative movement, plus yoga poses, and so it worked perfectly,” she said. “I’ve created my own yoga flow – we use lots of props, I have music and we dance around the room.”
Katz, who has since presented at other venues, including Heartsong Yoga in East Longmeadow, said a class for the very young starts similarly to a preschool class, where participants sit in a circle, pass an object around and say their names.
“We do different kinds of breathing,” Katz said. “There’s a bumblebee breath, a lion's roar, a volcano breath. We fill up your balloon and then let the air out and so there’s laughter and joyousness.”
Kids then move around the room, and do activities with “yoga dots,” which are small circles made of yoga mat material.
“We sit on them; I let the kids mess up the room with the yoga dots,” Katz said. “We flow and move through the room and get a little energy out – walking around the dots, jumping over the dots.”
Then come songs and some yoga poses, or possibly a story with movement.
“We do some more playfulness, and then I get them into a resting position and some nice meditation, and take them on a trip in the sky, to the beach or to a secret garden,” she said.
Because many yoga poses are based on animals and the earth, they’re easy to incorporate into a kids’ class. She doesn’t have younger kids hold the poses generally, but it’s an option for older children.
Katz said she is amazed at how quickly normally boisterous, active, young children can calm down and relax when it’s the appropriate time for it.
For older children, the stories would be different, and Katz said she likes to let the children take the lead sometimes by suggesting their own yoga poses or telling their own stories.
“I’ve been finding I go in with a plan and a music play list, and sometimes it doesn’t even go that way,” she said. “Someone will suggest something and I’ll say, ‘That’s a great idea; let’s go there.’”
Katz aims to make participants enjoy the benefits of such movement.
“I hope they walk away being peaceful and being happy with themselves,” she said. “There’s no competitiveness. They get to be free and they can go where they want to go in a structured way.”
Katz will be at Bliss Park, 252 Bliss Road in Longmeadow, on Aug. 21 at 10 a.m., offering a children’s yoga class. For further information, Katz can be reached at lisahkatz@gmail.com or by calling (413) 531-0567.