In the class, students use a hammock (think low-hung fabric sling) to support their weight while they practice yoga postures. While this type of hammock is traditionally used in circuses for entertainment, Unnata Aerial Yoga teachers use the hammock to instruct students on how to release chronically tight muscles. Unnata Aerial Yoga is not about performing tricks. In fact, it is about the opposite of effort: release and relaxation.

Learning to relax
Students dangle only inches off the ground to feel gravity elongate and lengthen the spine rather than compress it, which is how gravity normally affects us. In truth, all hatha yoga styles use yoga postures for this same purpose, even if they don't use this unique piece of equipment.

Already a yoga instructor once I began training in aerial acrobatics, I could feel the physical benefits to my back that hanging provided. I could also see how much easier it would be to teach alignment principles through hanging. I had heard of other yoga teachers experimenting with lifting students off the ground, so thought I would design my own version of hanging yoga.

What I found as I developed the Unnata Aerial Yoga technique is that the hammock helps mold students' bodies into the shapes of traditional yoga postures through relaxation rather than muscular effort. This is what distinguishes Unnata Aerial Yoga from other fitness trends as well as from many other yoga techniques -- because gravity is already a strong force, students must learn to reduce the amount of effort they use. Once students have an idea of what the shape of the yoga posture is supposed to feel like, and which muscles they must relax in order for the shape to unfold, they have an easier time refinding that same posture on the floor, even without the assistance of the hammock.

Without understanding what needs to relax in order to create various yoga postures, many students fall into the trap of overexerting and forcing their bodies into shapes that wind up being uncomfortable and, as a result, ineffective.

A dream of floating or flying
Because the use of a hammock during an Unnata Aerial Yoga class makes many advanced yoga postures (for example, a headstand) accessible to the average person, my main message has become quite simply to believe in possibility, to not worry about the look of the end result but instead have fun through exploration. Anyone, even a brand-new beginner, can easily go upside down in his or her first class.

Even the way I came to study aerial acrobatics was through this sense of believing in possibility. Literally, I had a dream that I was playing around doing aerial acrobatics. I awoke from the dream and became curious to seek out the activity, even though I didn't know where to go, or even what it was officially called. In a way, I suppose it's a dream that many people have -- a dream of floating or flying.

In an Unnata Aerial Yoga class, I'm able to help students capture that feeling of being airborne. And, since I'm also encouraging students to try something new, not to assume what they can or can't accomplish, they also wind up tapping into their sense of play, their creativity and their intuition. This helps them establish mental and emotional health along with physical health, which is truly yoga's purpose. Yoga aims to establish and maintain health in all areas of our being -- body, mind and spirit.

Michelle Dortignac has been a certified yoga instructor since 1998, and an aerial acrobatic performer since 2004. With an interest in helping her yoga students better understand proper alignment and the true purpose of yoga, she created the Unnata Aerial Yoga style in 2006, and continues to develop it today. To learn more about Unnata Aerial Yoga and find a class near you, visit AerialYoga.com.