Yogart teaches teamwork and trust

Melanie B, the owner of Yoga Bam Bam and our acroyoga teacher, started the lesson with exercises for us to get to know each other. We told each other what our favourite ice cream flavour was, as Melanie explained that being in a relaxed state helps us to be more flexible.

Plus, it was a good idea to get to know the people we'd soon be holding hands with and lifting.

After that, we all formed a flower with our feet. I thought that yoga was an individual activity, but acroyoga is about teamwork: we formed different shapes and poses together as a team.

Melanie's Yogart concept involves doing yoga poses surrounded by art that inspired us and became a part of us through the numerous elegant contortions.

I could feel the sense of Yogart as we formed the flower with our feet with the beautiful artworks of yoga poses on the studio walls. As we did various poses, we looked at the walls of art and our own reflections and felt like we belonged.

I finally understood what Yogart was all about.

Shannon Cho

I thought all kinds of yoga, including acroyoga, only involved flexibility and core strength. But there's another factor - trust.

Almost every pose we did involved three roles - a flyer (the person held up in the air), a base (the one holding the flyer up), and spotters, who are there to catch the flyer in case they fall.

As one of the junior reporters, I got the chance to experience all the poses at Yoga Bam Bam.

Trust is such an important aspect because you need to have faith in your base's ability to hold you up, and you have to trust the spotters to catch you in case you fall.

While doing acroyoga at the studio, I began to see the beauty of the various shapes formed by the bodies - a genuinely wonderful image.

Nitika Chandiramani

My favourite pose was the "front bird" pose, which requires the base to lie on the ground with their legs and arms up to lift the flyer.

I was excited to give the pose a go because it looked beautiful, but I was really nervous about being lifted up in the air solely by someone's feet.

Though Melanie was the base, I was still nervous about letting myself go.

But I put my trust in Melanie and the spotters and stretched out my body, allowing the base to support me, safe in the knowledge the spotters were right by our side.

Before I knew it, I was flying!

Joy Pamnani

I would have fallen and crushed the base when I was the flyer for the "front bird" pose, had it not been for the spotters.

The session made me realise the importance of teamwork. You need other people to do acroyoga, so cooperation and connection with partners is important.

Practising acroyoga surrounded by artworks depicting yoga poses is inspiring. The studio is a place to reflect, express and appreciate yourself. I felt confident while holding poses with my partner and it was really satisfying when I saw my body in a position that matched some of the art.

The session made me appreciate my own abilities while learning a new form of physical expression.

Nike Lai Kei

I was given the ultimate challenge at the acroyoga session when I was asked to demonstrate "the plank". The pose's name alone did not sound appealing: all I could picture was a bunch of pirates ordering me to jump into the sea to my death.

But, being a good sport, I cooperated and found out what a plank was. The base lifted me by the hips with her feet, so I was suspended horizontally, like a wooden plank.

It felt strange being up in the air, supported by nothing but a pair of feet and the human beneath them. However, I wasn't scared of falling.

I was thoroughly enjoying myself, and staring at the artwork helped me focus.

I learned that acroyoga isn't necessarily about complicated positions and flexibility, but it's about finding a way to trust others.

Christy Cheung

I took a leap of faith when I was the flyer for the "front bird" pose. I had to let go of everything and be supported only by my partner's feet on my waist.

To focus and stay balanced, I had to learn how to let my guard down by trusting the base and the spotters wholeheartedly.

It taught me a lot about the difference between the physical and the spiritual, such as how we perceive things to be harmful to our bodies when actually we fear the unknown.

As I focused on trying to make the different poses, all of life's trivial or negative events miraculously disappeared, no matter how overwhelming the emotions had previously been.

It's a sensation I've only felt before when seeing a movie or playing games.

In this way, acroyoga offers a deep-cleansing service, removing negativity and replacing it with a sense of peace and serenity.

In other words, Yoga Bam Bam will give your mind a wake-up call.

Veronica Lin

Yoga Bam Bam is at 28 Pound Lane, Sheung Wan.