The Yoga Stripper: A Las Vegas Memoir of Sex, Drugs, and Namaste by Laila Lucent

Author:Laila Lucent [Lucent, Laila]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Autobiography, Biography, Entertainment & Performing Arts, Las Vegas
ISBN: 9781482000092
Google: UQhHmgEACAAJ
Publisher: Createspace Independent Pub
Published: 2013-03-18T00:00:00+00:00

ULTRA MUSIC FEST: YOGA AND RAGING PROPER

A blog post written for a friend’s music website, March 2011

Please allow me to introduce myself: I’m a woman of wealth and taste… ha, not quite. But here’s what I am: a college graduate of June 2010 who couldn’t stomach the idea of using my communication degree to sell knives door-to-door.

Upon graduation, I packed up my car and drove cross-country to seek my fortune in Fabulous Las Vegas.

How’s life in Las Vegas? Weird. Yesterday, I was lying on a sofa, watching a movie, contemplating how Angelina Jolie is so perfect, when a Vegas strip headliner’s wife burst in wearing a Mexican wrestler mask and tried to coerce me into giving her a lap dance. This is normal for Vegas.

I’m a yoga instructor and an electronic dance music fiend, and I just got back to Vegas from The Best Party Ever in Miami: Ultra Music Fest. I do not use The Best Party Ever label lightly. When I was 16, I raged hard for days on Laguna Beach in Brazil, widely regarded as the best Carnival in southern Brazil: dancing on the beach, no Americans in sight, samba dancing my heart out with exchange students from around the world, all while drinking underage. Ultra was equally mind-blowing.

I want to share my Ultra experience, one of the best of my life, with all of you from the lens that I viewed it through: Patanjali’s eight-limbed path of yoga.

The first yogic limb: Yamas

Yamas are guidelines to living life with universal morality. Patanjali talks about five of these, and I’m going to write about one - Ahimsa or non-harming. Over 100,000 people were in attendance at Ultra, and there were no fights. Bump into someone?

“Sorry,” you say.

“No problem,” they say.

The two of you begin dancing together.

An amazing amount of respect for everyone permeated the Ultra experience. Everyone was dressed in his or her most outlandish rave wear, and everyone was quick to compliment the ingenuity of new friends. There was no vulgar grinding. If you met a handsome girl, or guy, then the two of you danced; you really danced. If you did touch, it was beautiful, rhythmic, a celebration of the present moment.

I danced for three songs with a gorgeous boy.

“I’m already in love,” he said to me after the first song.

After song three, he smiled and said, “I’ll see you on the other side!” We hugged, and then he danced away.

The 2nd limb: Niyamas

Niyamas are personal observances to lead a spiritually fulfilling life. Patanjali discusses five of these, and I’ll explain one, Ishvara Pranidhana, surrender to the absolute. Holding an asana, yoga pose, for 12 long slow inhalations and exhalations teaches you to relax and to surrender. When you surrender to the pose, you’re able to sink deeper, and you experience the stretch, and life, on a new level.

At Ultra, you must surrender to the music. If you fight the music, stay in your contracted shell of neurotic mind chatter, you’re not experiencing the music correctly. Let the music wash over you.

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