Artist rolls the dice on D&D yoga

A Brooklyn artist has created a Dungeons & Dragons-themed yoga class, complete with a storyline.

The class came about after Scott Wayne Indiana spent a weekend on a yoga and meditation retreat and decided simply listening to a yoga teacher read out a set of poses was a bit dull. He developed the idea of having a narrative throughout a class and, having a “loose” interest in D&D (but several more dedicated friends), decided to make that the theme.

The class involves the yoga teacher being redubbed the Dungeon Master and describing a fictional setting and scenario. Although the participants perform tradition yoga poses, they are renamed to sounds more like actions a D&D character might perform.

Although each participant portrayed the same character, they had individual variations on the story. At certain moments the participants had to roll a D10 which determined their course in the story (for example, winning or losing battles), and in turn the poses they had to perform.

Indiana put the class together with fellow artist Eric Hagan and movement instructor Sarah Danke. Hagan explained to Wired that the design of the class meant there wasn’t much room for narrative variation. He’s looking at the logistics of the die rolls being more important and allowing a wider range of activity.

It seems yoga lovers may be more open to the mash-up than D&D players if ABC’s report is anything to go by. Writer Susan James noted her son found the idea “ridiculous” because it didn’t give the individual “players” enough creativity and differing experiences.

Indiana says he’s happy to help people who’d like run a similar class in their own cities.