Dancer Pose (Natarajasana)

Pronunciation and meaning

Natarajasana: nut-uh-raj-AHS-uh-nuh. The j is soft, as in raja, and the stress falls on AHS.

Dancer Pose is a standing balance and backbend: you stand on one leg, hold the other foot behind you and kick it back into your hand as the chest tips forward. Nataraja means lord of the dance, a name for Shiva in Indian stories, and asana means posture. It asks for balance, open hips and patience.

How to do Dancer Pose

1. Stand tall near a wall, close enough to touch it with your left hand.
2. Shift your weight onto the left foot. Bend the right knee and hold the inside of the right foot or ankle with the right hand, knees side by side.
3. Reach the left arm forward and up, or rest the left hand on the wall.
4. Press the right foot back into your hand. As the foot moves back and up, let the chest tip forward a little to balance it.
5. Keep the hips level and the standing knee soft. Stay for three to five breaths with your gaze on one still point.
6. Lower the foot slowly, stand on both feet for a breath and repeat on the other side.

Make it easier

• Loop a strap around the lifted foot if you cannot reach it, and hold the strap.
• Stay upright as a standing thigh stretch, with a hand on the wall, before adding the forward tip.

Pregnancy and after birth

Pregnancy. Avoid. A backbend balanced on one leg adds a fall risk as your centre of gravity shifts. If you want the stretch, hold a wall and take a gentle upright thigh stretch instead, and check with your OB or midwife before you start.

After birth. Adapt. After your doctor or midwife clears you, begin with the upright version and a hand on the wall. Add the forward tip once your balance and core feel familiar again.

See prenatal yoga notes by trimester before you adapt a pose.

Common mistakes

• Letting the lifted knee swing out to the side, which twists the lower back.
• Pinching the lower back to lift the leg higher. Lengthen the tailbone down and lift through the chest instead.
• Locking the standing knee.

Dancer Pose is a balance with a backbend inside it. It is one of the prettiest shapes to watch and one of the easiest to fall out of, which is why a wall nearby is a friend, not a crutch.

It usually comes near the peak of a flowing Vinyasa practice, once the legs are warm and the simpler one-legged Tree has woken up the standing foot.

Of all the balances on the page of standing poses, this is usually the one to leave until last.

Reaching back for the foot is also the key action in King Pigeon Pose, a kneeling backbend from Pigeon. If the full balance is too much today, Flamingo Pose, with the knee lifted in front trains the same standing leg.