Movement Meets Sound: Why We Bring Sound Baths into the Studio
I remember the first time I went to a sound bath. It wasn’t in some faraway desert, but in a quiet meadow just outside Yellow Springs, Ohio. A friend had told me about a yurt where people gathered for meditation, yoga, and sound healing. Something about it felt mysterious—like stepping into a hidden pocket of the world where time might move differently.
The yurt itself was circular, made of wood and canvas, and carried a kind of grounded stillness. Inside, a man sat surrounded by crystal singing bowls of different sizes, each one gleaming in the candlelight. As we lay down on mats and blankets, he began to draw sound from the bowls. What unfolded was unlike anything I had experienced before.
The tones seemed to move not just through the room but through me. I could feel them ripple across my skin, sink into my bones, and stir something deeper than the physical. At times I felt drawn inward, almost as if the sound carried me into the smallest corners of myself. Other moments, it felt like I was expanding outward into something vast, far beyond thought. Thirty minutes passed like both an eternity and a blink, and when it was over, I sensed a recalibration—physical, emotional, even spiritual.
Why Sound Healing Works
Sound baths have become more common in yoga and wellness communities. Participants are invited to sit or lie down while instruments such as gongs, crystal bowls, chimes, and drums create an immersive soundscape. The effect is usually immediate: the busy, restless mind softens into stillness, the body relaxes, and a sense of calm becomes undeniable.
Science offers insight into why. Our cells are equipped with tiny structures called cilium that act like antennae, receiving vibrational information. When sound vibrations move through the body, these cilium respond, helping shift our internal state at a cellular level. Every part of the body—each organ, bone, and cell—has its own natural frequency. Illness and imbalance often show up as dissonance in that frequency. Sound healing helps guide us back into resonance, where the body’s systems are harmonized again.
The Power of Quartz
Many sound baths, including the one I experienced in the Yellow Springs yurt, use crystal singing bowls. These bowls are made of quartz crystal—a substance with extraordinary properties. Quartz is both naturally occurring and technologically indispensable; it powers our phones and computers because of its ability to store, amplify, and transmit energy. That same crystalline structure also exists within our bodies, which is why the tones of quartz bowls resonate so powerfully with us. When struck or played, they produce frequencies that invite our own crystalline structures into harmony.
Chakras and Sound
One reason people often describe “seeing colors” during sound baths is the relationship between sound and light. Both are forms of energy vibrating at different frequencies. Each chakra—the body’s energetic centers—corresponds to both a color and a sound frequency:
Root Chakra: Red | C note
Sacral Chakra: Orange | D note
Solar Plexus Chakra: Yellow | E note
Heart Chakra: Green | F note
Throat Chakra: Blue | G note
Third Eye Chakra: Indigo | A note
Crown Chakra: Violet | B note
When crystal bowls tuned to these notes are played, they can help realign the chakras, restoring balance to body, mind, and spirit.
A Practice of Receptivity
That day in the Yellow Springs yurt, I didn’t know the science, the chakra colors, or the piezoelectric nature of quartz. What I knew was how I felt: reset, light, and more deeply connected to myself. In retrospect, I see that sound baths invite us into a practice of receptivity. There’s no effort required—just lying down and listening, allowing vibration to do what it naturally does.
It was the beginning of a journey for me, one that would shape my teaching, my healing practice, and the way I understand the relationship between sound and the human spirit.
Why This Matters at Our Dance Studio
At our studio, we’ve come to see sound healing as a natural complement to dance. Dance is vibration expressed outwardly through movement, while sound is vibration received inwardly through listening. Together they form a complete circle—one side active, the other receptive.
Both practices help people return to resonance. On the dance floor, you learn to move in rhythm, find alignment, and connect with others through music. In a sound bath, you drop into stillness, recalibrate, and reconnect with yourself. When paired, they offer something rare: a chance to experience harmony not just in body or mind, but across the whole spectrum of human expression.
This is why we find it so important to offer sound baths, yoga, and wellness alongside our dance programming. Whether you are stepping into a waltz or lying down for a sound bath, you are tuning yourself to rhythm, balance, and resonance—and that is at the very heart of what we do.