It’s 6.30 am on your average Tuesday morning in Chennai. Regulars at the corporation-run park on Haddows Road are milling around trying to get their 10k steps in. Suddenly, there’s a huddle at the far end. There’s some chatter and suddenly the group bursts into applause.
As they clear away, back to their stretching and power-walking, we spot a lithe woman holding a younger girl perpendicular in the air — using just her legs and a whole load of balance.
Welcome to the world of Acroyoga with Shilpa Chordia. “People didn’t know much about Acroyoga when I started. They used to stare weirdly when we lifted other people with our feet in the middle of a park. Now, when people see it, this (the applause) happens,” she says, smiling.
Combining elements of acrobatics, yoga and Thai massage, Acroyoga is aimed at awakening the inner child in you, to let go of your inhibitions, and trust people.
Shilpa, who graduated from Stella Maris College with a Fine Arts degree says that it’s a great trust-building exercise for this generation, “You need two people to practise Acroyoga, one to be the base to lift and the other to be the ‘flyer’,” she explains before adding, “We would like to make people aware of this trend because a lack of trust is the root cause of many problems in modern relationships.
We have been raised not to trust people easily right from when we are children but it becomes an issue when we don’t even trust those close to us. Acroyoga teaches you to let go and practise the art of giving and receiving.” Shilpa says that she accidentally stumbled upon Acroyoga through a friend at a yoga retreat. She conducts Acroyoga workshops in various parts of the country — talking about wellness, stress management and breaking mental barriers.
“I learnt Acroyoga from an American, I learnt more about the Gita from a Canadian who was introduced to it by a Muslim. All of this happened at a yoga retreat in Madurai. I guess what I’m saying is that all these boundaries that we have today are man-made and we need to break past them,” she adds emphatically.
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