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Yoga is a discipline that dates back more than 5,000 years.
Its popularity has grown to the extent that one can find books, videos and classes on it for everyone from children to senior citizens.
Maya Panicker, 6, a kindergarten student at Eisenhower Elementary School and daughter of Kumar and Usha Panicker, Winona Lake, will appear in a Yoga video.
According to Catherine Crowell, YMCA YogaKids certified instructor, Maya and three Warsaw children under age 8 who previously attended Crowell's classes, auditioned for the YogaKids video in April. The other three children are Rosie Fleming, Rachel McClelland and Laura White.
From the auditions, Panicker was chosen to be in the video to be filmed May 19-23 at Long Beach, Mich. The video distributor is Gaiam, a distributor of international fitness equipment.
During the audition, each of the children had to walk in front of the camera and take different directions for postures. They each also had to express a range of emotions.
Crowell said she found out about the auditions through a Web site. She contacted Marsha Wenig, who is the creator of YogaKids, and asked if she could bring some students from Warsaw. Wenig said all were welcome, so Crowell contacted some of her former students and took them to the auditions.
The video Panicker will be in is "My Body Knows the ABCs." The video focuses on Yoga poses with animal names and, along with the posing, children learn information about the animals themselves and ecology. It will help children with balance and increase their strength while helping them to learn to calm their central nervous system.
"You can be more focused and relaxed," said Crowell.
For her work, Panicker will receive about $500, Crowell said, and get to be in a video that will be internationally distributed.
"Hopefully," she said, "she gets a lifetime of learning, too." She will learn about her body and what her body is telling her through signals such as pain. "I think it's very empowering to know something like that."
Crowell said she doesn't know when the video will be released but Wenig is behind the video and the instructor in it. Along with her videos, Wenig just published a book for which Crowell wrote the appendix.
For more information about YogaKids, visit online at www.yogakids.com; call 800-968-0694 or 219-872-9611; or write Dancing Feet Yoga Center, 2501 Oriole Trail, Michigan City, IN 46360.
