On Elmwood Avenue in Buffalo, in a studio that sings with sun, an hour of yoga can be followed by 60 minutes of wine and chocolate. It also can be enhanced by finger paint or emboldened by music from Lady Gaga.

“Face it—yoga was created 5,000-plus years ago. We’re not the same society we were then,” said Erin Cook, 26, of Hand to Heart Yoga. “It’s important to bring it into our time.”

Cook’s second-floor studio is open nearly a month and its innovative offerings illustrate a movement toward the nontraditional by some of the 15 million people in this country who practice yoga regularly. Called Concept Yoga or Combo Yoga, these progressive classes are drawing a wider variety of participants to the yoga mat. How innovative are they? Cook teaches Hip-Hop Yoga, and is planning a Face Yoga workshop in April and Yoga as Art workshop in May.

“All of this activism is called living your yoga,” said Rita Trieger, editor of Fit Yoga Magazine. “The whole point of yoga is to rid yourself of stress and anxiety, but as Americans, for the past 20 years we’ve been so focused on the physicality of yoga. There’s nothing wrong with that, but now we’re starting to realize there’s something more.”

Poses and pop

The practice of yoga became popular in the 1960s because of the rising interest and cultural acceptance of mind-body therapies. Years ago, Susan McCartney practiced yoga, but the Hip-Hop Yoga class she takes now is nothing like she remembered.

“Hip-Hop Yoga really attacks all aspects of your body —the stretching, the breathing— but you’re doing it to Lady Gaga,” said McCartney, director at Buffalo State College Small Business Development Center. “I found that it really eliminates any aches that you might have. It just makes you feel really good.

“I actually feel taller since I’ve been to yoga,” said Mc- Cartney, “and that’s a big deal for someone who is 5 feet tall.”

Cook pumps up her hip-hop classes by alternating rounds of cardio fitness with dance and vinyasa yoga, where poses flow from one to another in conjunction with the breath. Playing pop music by Kanye West, Black- Eyed Peas and Mario helps, too.

Typically, the class starts with a traditional warm-up for the spine, and then turns to fitness, said Cook, who studied at the Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health in Stockbridge, Mass.

“You’re on all fours, lifting your heel up to the ceiling to work your glutes,” she described. “After that you stand, and the dance is on.”

Whether it involves a three-course pasta meal accompanied by Grateful Dead tunes or using your hands and feet to paint a masterpiece, Concept Yoga workshops are a great way of letting people get in touch with their sensual side, said Trieger.

Feed the senses

In Manhattan, yogis participating in “All You Need Is Love Yoga” pose to Beatles songs, while in Los Angeles those who practice Disco Yoga dig Abba. But music is not the sole stimulant.

In New York, for example, the “Yoga for Foodies” series featured catered meals served immediately after class to students seated on their mats who were encouraged to contemplate each mouthful. The key is in the timing.

“The thing is, after you do a yoga class and the 10 minutes of relaxation at the end, you’re supposed to be at your most heightened state, so it’s conscience eating,” said Cook. “It has to do with chakras, or the energy centers that run up and down your body.”

While conscience, or mindful, eating may have a role in yoga, so too, do aromas, according to Trieger, a fitness trainer and yoga instructor who conducts several workshops on Aroma Yoga in New York.

Her workshop this month— combining restorative yoga and aromatic oils including rose, lavender and jasmine — targets the heart chakra or anahata. In January (after the holiday glut), the theme was detoxification, and the oils included cypress, fennel, juniper and lemon.

“The thing that irks me is when yogis look at yogis as being on some higher plane than everyone else, loftily looking down,” Trieger said. “I understand that the deeper you are immersed into the practice, the more the layers and the deeper it goes. I don’t think we should discount everyone who is first coming to it or looking at it more on the surface, because they will get deeper, and if they don’t they weren’t meant to.”

A mat for all

Many yoga studios in Buffalo prefer the traditional forms of yoga that encourage enlightenment and purification. They may shy away from bringing food and wine to the mat, but still they advance the practice of yoga.

In January, Michelle Gigante opened Shakti, a 3,000- square-foot studio in a former bank on Grant Street. With high ceilings and heated floors, Shakti speaks to tradition.

“We do honor the tradition of yoga here,” Gigante explained. “We’re not one to do a spin-off, or fusion, to Westernize it. The mat is for everyone, and we can find a way to approach the Eastern philosophy with respect. When we come to the mat, that’s what we need to figure out.”

These offerings may interest some nontraditionalists:

At Shakti:

Dance: A 90-minute class that features live drumming with yoga and a touch of tribal dance. “We move fairly quickly to get the spirit moving,” said Gigante. “The goal is to find your inner rhythm, liberate yourself and purify the spirit.”

Community Yoga: The last half-hour of this 90-minute donation- based class is discussion. “We’re all trying to turn the wheels on how we can help the Sudanese refugees in the neighborhood,” said Gigante. “How we can raise consciousness in ourselves, and how we can make that work for others.”

At Hand to Heart Yoga: Face Yoga: Just as your body muscles need exercise to stay toned, so does your face, according to Cook. “People get so stressed out and hold so much tension in their face or jaw or eyes or forehead,” she said. “If you tone your face muscles — tightening that double chin or learning to relax your jaw — you’ll bring a nice glow to your face.”

Yoga as Art: What can you create when you combine painting and yoga? Find out as you move through different styles of music and postures all the while smearing paint on your canvas with hands and feet. “We’ll see what music and yoga evoke,” said Cook.

Born to yoga

At East Meets West Yoga Studio on Elmwood, the Itsy Bitsy Yoga classes pay attention to the smallest of patrons. Sara Drum, certified in Itsy Bitsy Yoga, has taught children ages 1 week to 3z ye 1/2 r 1/3 , accompanied by their parents.

“People don’t realize you can do yoga with a baby,” said Drum. “We put the newborns right on the mat. They’ve been curled up in the womb for nine months, so this is their embodiment lesson. The mom stretches out their arms, legs, toes, singing the name of the pose over and over. Within two to three weeks, they start knowing the drills.”

For tots (crawlers to age 2) and tykes (20 months to age 3z), the classes are more active with jumping, running, singing — different poses for each developmental group. Drum said she can quickly spot a child who has taken yoga lessons from birth.

“They become a special group of kids,” Drum said. “They’re so mellow and laid back. In the scheme of yoga, baby yoga is new.”