Daybreaker at Kennedy Center's REACH

I have only been to one other Daybreaker event before (read that blog post here), but I loved it. So when a friend invited me to go to another one, this time at the Kennedy Center's new REACH center, I was definitely down. The event was part of the REACH Opening Festival, so it was cool to be one of the first people to be there (and this was for sure the first yoga event held there!). 

Bow pose. I'm not sure of the name of the sculpture in the background, but it is certainly iconic in this REACH space.

We arrived around 5:30 this morning, so the sky was still dark and you could see some stars. With the deep chanting music (FDVM was the DJ), I felt like I was in a planetarium. But it was amazing how quickly the sky turned blue; it happened so fast that I never noticed the change until it was fully daylight! It was cool seeing birds and planes fly above. I love doing yoga outside, so this event is totally up my alley. The whole vibe of the place and the hundreds of people there felt so good. The "ohm" we all shared in the beginning was really powerful, too.

Hawah Kasat. Image found here.

Hawah Kasat led the yoga practice, and he was great! He was fun and had great energy. He had us hold some poses a little longer than I might normally, but the flow in general was pretty good. I loved that he led us into poses where we were supporting our neighbors: in Warrior 3, Tree, and Boat, we held each other's arms or touched hands to help each other balance. That was so neat! I especially liked when we were in Tree pose, palm to palm, and then closed our eyes; because our hands gave our brains a frame of reference, we could easily stay balanced, as opposed to when you try to do it by yourself. He also read poems to us from The Poetry of Yoga, a book of poems that he helped edit. He is leading a yoga retreat in Belize over New Year's, and I have to admit that I'm tempted to go! He's local to DC, so maybe I will get another chance to practice with him or hear him speak (it looks like he's some sort of motivational speaker from his website).

My friend Eric and I enjoyed the free KenCen sunglasses we got! And I got several compliments on my Lisa Frank top.

Once the yoga practice was over, I thought most people would just leave like last time. But after a few minutes of grabbing some snacks (like Synergy kombucha, Lesser Evil egg white curls, and Emmy's organic coconut cookies), the crowd started dancing, and it really did turn into a dance party! MC Haile Supreme was super-engaging, and he had us moving and jumping and definitely got our heart rates up. He chanted "Love. Power. Respect." and we all joined in, which was really amazing. And the theme of this Daybreaker was "Reach for the Sun," so we frequently had our hands up in the sky. We felt like a dancing community of love and nature and all those good things. There was also a guitarist, so it was fun having live music paired with the DJ beats. I could have stayed all day, except I had to go to work. Bah, real life! The next Daybreaker is in October. I might have to sign up!