Try Yoga Under the Stars for a 'cosmic' yoga experience at Morehead Planetarium

The Morehead Planetarium and Science Center and Carrboro Yoga Company are beginning the year with a big bang in their second annual Yoga Under the Stars, a series of four yoga sessions under the shimmering lights of Morehead’s dome theater.

The series started on Jan. 23, and will continue every Wednesday from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. in the Morehead Planetarium until Feb. 13. Each session costs $20 per person, and participants are asked to arrive 15 minutes early and bring their own mat to the event. Because the venue does not have a lot of flat space, class sizes are limited to 30 people, said Sarah Brown, marketing manager of Morehead Planetarium.

The sessions are currently sold out, according to the Morehead Planetarium website. 

“I’m excited for a whole other way of experiencing something that I already do,” said Jessica Cuttance, a yoga instructor at Yoga Off East, a studio in Durham, before participating in Wednesday’s class. “It’s a relaxing, cosmic experience.”

The idea was introduced by Morehead Planetarium, said Brown. The planetarium had seen other science centers doing similar things and reached out to Carrboro Yoga Company to collaborate with them. The profits go to the planetarium to finance other programs and equipment, she said.

Yoga Under the Stars is more than just a fun workout, said Brown. It also encourages participants to practice mindfulness and leave the stresses of daily life behind.

“Yoga is really about being mindful, and science shows that doing meditation or reflection can help you in your day to day life,” said Brown.

Both yoga experts and beginners alike can get something out of the experience, said yoga instructor Lindsey Alexander, who teaches the Jan. 23 and Feb. 6 sessions. She said she has been a yoga instructor for four years and teaches three lessons a week at Carrboro Yoga Company.

The event is a unique combination of the planetarium’s scientific resources and the instructor’s yoga routine, said Alexander. Each session begins with the planetarium staff explaining the history of the venue and the scenes that will appear on the screen. Brown said the scenes show everything from the Chapel Hill night sky to faraway galaxies. The yoga program starts at the beginning of the farthest limit of the observable universe, and slowly gets closer and closer to Earth. 

Meanwhile, the room goes from fully lit to complete darkness — a challenge, Alexander said, for both yoga pros and newbies alike.

“Because of the lack of light, I start everyone low in seated poses and maybe one or two balance poses,” she said. “Balance feels different in the planetarium since the sky is moving, and it’s so dark.”

Brown said many participants have actually told her that they feel more comfortable in the space because it is dark, and they know other people can’t see them. Once the planetarium reaches total darkness, participants are invited to lie on their backs and look at the stars. 

“When you’re lying there underneath the stars and looking overhead it’s a good reminder of how small you are in the scope of things in the universe,” said Alexander.

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