Yoga to heavy metal music offers ultimate relaxation

Blistering guitars, a black tent and a yoga instructor who doesn’t say namasté, but ‘hail Satan’ (or ‘hail seitan’ for the devout vegetarians). Last Tuesday, students and staff were invited to join a vigorous session of metal yoga at the Erasmus Pavilion.

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The metal yoga classes were part of Club Roulette, a mini-festival on campus marking seventy years of Studium Generale. In a large black inflatable tent, which had to be set up inside the pavilion instead of on the plaza due to stormy weather, there were lectures, live performances, short films and, of course, yoga classes set to metal music throughout the day.

Tante Alie (the stage name of Rhea Bogaart) taught participants not only classic yoga poses like downward facing dog and cobra, but also yoga moves to help you stay upright in a mosh pit or survive a stagediver landing on your head at a metal concert.

Neurodivergent

Tante Alie has been teaching yoga to metal music for quite some time and says she already has a loyal following. “The music works like white noise against sensory overload, which is especially helpful for neurodivergent people because you’re not easily distracted. Personally, I find it really hard to get into the flow with singing bowls and dolphin angel sounds.”

One of the students present immediately recognised this. “I have ADHD myself and I really clicked with this music. You really get into a flow and that’s kind of funny. I definitely feel zen, a different kind of zen, but still zen.”