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The practice of yoga is intended to draw your attention inward. Although no one ever asserted that would be easy, the Louvre Museum in Paris just created a rather novel distraction.
On Tuesday, the world’s largest and most-trafficked museum announced that the galleries will be the site of yoga classes.
Launched as part of a cultural initiative leading up to the Olympics, the museum classes are not exclusively yoga. Rather, they’re a “disco, yoga, dancehall, cardio” situation orchestrated by multidisciplinary artist and choreographer Mehdi Kerkouche, according to the announcement on the French-language portion of the Louvre’s website.
“For the first time in the history of the Games, the host city is aiming to create a people’s Games where Olympic enthusiasm can be shared at both the event sites but also outside of the stadiums, in the heart of the city, in each district,” the mayor’s office said, according to The Guardian.
It’s unclear whether the postures, dancing, and other acts of athleticism will be a parkour of sorts amid statues and other priceless works of art. The classes are organized in conjunction with the exhibit “Olympism: A Modern Invention, An Ancient Heritage” and an art historian will be present.
“The Louvre is situated along the Seine River, where the opening ceremonies for the Olympics will take place, and alongside the Tuileries Garden, where the official torch will be displayed. The Olympics will run from July 26 to August 11 and the Paralympics from August 28 to September 8. The Louvre is physically in the center of Paris. It will be physically at the center of the Olympic Games,” explained the museum’s lead director, Laurence des Cars, according to The Guardian.
Practicing yoga among works of art isn’t unprecedented. The Louvre offers patrons regularly scheduled evening yoga classes once each month and, in recent years, classes have also been held beneath the stunning glass and metal pyramid structure in the museum’s courtyard. In recent years, museums everywhere from Australia to Belgium have also included yoga classes on their schedules.
Although the location may appear to be an aesthetic decision, there’s potential for more of a connection than one might imagine.
“Yoga is a system of philosophy and practice that seeks to help people align their body and mind in order to transform their experience,” according to a statement by the Rubin Museum in New York City that explained its yoga program. “Like yoga, the art objects…seek to link the worldly and the transcendent.”
Perhaps those classes won’t be so distracting after all.
The classes are scheduled to take place in the early morning several days each week, before the museum opens, through May 31.