Photo by Jennifer K. Hugus for The Los Angeles Beat
Quick! Think of the funnest, most enterprising thing you have ever done with your dog and triple it by the half-life of 1/3 your third eye! Then forego your dog’s Frankenstein or Banana Costume this Halloween and take him/her to the newly inspired dog yoga class aka Doga! Doga: Everybody’s doing it!
Throw in some health food awareness in the process, doggie style, and a Hollywood Celebrity by way of Lance Bass and you’ve got the new Natural Balance Sponsored Dog Yoga aka Dog Yoga with Lance Bass!
The only drawback: Fido will not be able to multi-task by stopping and marking his/her territory whenever s/he chooses. But that’s okay, when you’ve got umpteen n’ 20 dogs in the same umpteen square-foot hardwood floored studio, marking said territory is rendered a rather moot point as they all “become one” in the process, both spatially, and spiritually. (And quite honestly, once all humans have emBARKED in their quests for the perfect downward dog, the dogs, in flawless balance and opposition, have no choice but to cop that of the “upward facing human”. The pooches in turn then render themselves just as Nsync with one another as both calm and excitement descend upon the entire pack in deference to the feel of the room and tenor of canine mood. Quite the fascinating epistemological study really!)
A dog lover for life to speak nothing of animal activist, Bass has teamed up with Natural Balance pet food to foment a movement that both flows and shows via the coat’s elevated pro glow!!!
Photo by Jennifer K. Hugus for The Los Angeles Beat
In launch and celebration Natural Balance’s Limited Ingredient Diet ® High Protein Formulas, Bass was on hand this past month to host an enterprising and actualized Doga class at Den Meditation in Hollywood. At the class’ intro, Bass spoke of his own fitness regimen with his pooches, how he planned on celebrating National Dog Month, and gave us an exclusive on his new show on VH1 90s House!
I caught up with Lance shortly after class, and even more briskly after the lavish brunch served by Den Meditation (wherein yogurt was served IN a YOGA studio—Can yuh diggit?!?) and was fascinated by the depth and breadth of Bass’ knowledge concerning animal rights to speak nothing of his additional talents and projects:
So, you have three dogs. Are they all Teeny Ones like that?
They’re all the same size. It’s so weird. Lilly we’ve had for 7 years and then they grew ‘cause they were literally this big when we got ‘em – the size of your hand – it was the cutest thing I’ve ever seen, and then they grew up to look almost identical to her – just different coloring.
So, how did you come into your partnership with Natural Balance?
Well, it was a natural fit. My fans know that I love dogs. I love pets and I’m a huge activist for adopting and protecting our animals and what’s happening in Yulin and all that, it’s just so depressing…
Go over that really quickly, for those of us who are not familiar.
Yulin is a festival in China – a dog meat festival and it’s not even an old ancient thing. It was created five years ago for the dog food industry… It’s a horrible festival where they celebrate kidnapping dogs, abusing them, and the more torture they have, the better the meat will taste. So, we’ve been working a couple of years now to stop that festival and we’ve gotten really close. They announced that they were stopping that this year but they ended up doing it anyway. But that’s something near to my heart. Lisa Vanderpump also is [very supportive of stopping it too] and she’s spoken at the U.N. So, everyone knows I love dogs. So Natural Balance called and wanted to know if I wanted to be a spokesperson with my dogs with their new Limited Ingredient High Protein Formula because my dogs are very active. (laughs) I love exercise and it’s the perfect diet for them.
Photo by Jennifer K. Hugus for The Los Angeles Beat
And I assume that you love yoga too.
I do. I love yoga. …I’ve never been one of those people that loved going to the gym, but then just recently, I’ve gotten into it ‘cause my 40th birthday’s coming up and y’know what? I have to do this. I have to really concentrate and do this!
(putting reassuring hand on forearm and whispering) It’s not that bad…
(laughter)
But my thing was, on my 40th Birthday I want to take a picture with my shirt off for the first time in my life and be like “Okay, that’s good.” And then I can eat after that. I just want to be able to show my kids, “Hey Dad looked like that at one point.”
So you, what, you mean you never took a picture of your shirt off when you were in Nsync?
Not on purpose no. If I’m at the beach maybe but no. I get very shy…
Photo by Jennifer K. Hugus for The Los Angeles Beat
That’s interesting. I know you were aimed at the younger generation so maybe it wouldn’t be that racy but still… Have you had dance training at all? ‘Cause I notice when you jumped just now in class it was very crisp and precise.
I think I’m a terrible dancer and when I joined Nsync I did not dance at all. And then the guys told me about a month into it, “Oh yeah, let’s go do choreography. We’re gonna dance,” and I was like “Whaaat?!? I thought we were just an a Capella group.” So, it took me a very long time to learn how to dance… I took lessons every single day and I really started to enjoy it! I loved being able to choreograph things and I feel like I’ve made a whole career out of dancing [which is so] ironic because I really think I’m just the worst dancer. But from Dancing with the Stars and Nsync — I’ve judged a dancing show. That’s been my life!
That’s right. You were on Dancing with the Stars! I remember thinking, “Yeah, he was pretty good!”
Well that’s where I kinda came out of my shell. It wasn’t ‘til I did Dancing with the Stars that I gained confidence ‘cause I always thought I was the worst dancer and I was just so shy… But that show made me realize, “No I can do this.” And I was really happy with all that went down.
That’s so cool. What do you plan on doing in the future: Either projects separate from your work with dogs or your work with dogs?
I always constantly want to be working with dogs, especially shelters…trying to get dogs adopted… I [also] just learned five years ago about the ingredients you should be giving your dogs and to really look at the label…I feel so bad that it took me that long to realize…just like humans, you are what you eat. Once I changed their diet, I saw a complete difference in my old dog that passed last year…lost weight, some of the diseases went away. It was just incredible! …So, I just want to educate people like myself…that some of the stuff we’re giving them is just dangerous and it’s killing our dogs. So, you really need to figure out what you’re putting in [your dog’s body] and that’s why I trust Natural Balance…and then I have a show coming out in October called “The 90’s House”.
Photo by Jennifer K. Hugus for The Los Angeles Beat
Oh that’s right. I read about that.
It’s hilarious… I [also] have a restaurant on Sunset Blvd. I’m a big foodie. [It’s] an Italian place…called Estrella right across from Tower Records… Estrella’s been open for two years but we just came in and partnered with them to change it up. So, we turned it Italian and we have this amazing chef that we took from the Four Seasons – totally stole [actually]… But then on Sundays starting in October it’s going to be my day at the restaurant; so, I’m bringing in a brunch day–it’s just brunch… Sunset Blvd., live music, but I want you to feel like you’re in New Orleans [with] an all Cajun and Southern brunch and it’s all my recipes!
And that’s where you’re from, correct?
Yes.
And are you part Italian at all?
No, not at all. The Italian was my partner’s idea. ‘Cause I would have done a southern place. But that’s when he was like, “You know what? On Sunday you get to change the whole menu,” I’m like “Yaaay!” We’re gonna have like amazing [musicians] come in like Bonnie Raitt… It’s gonna be fun… [And] you’re going to love this. Especially if you love Southern Food! ‘Cause if you like Buttermilk Biscuits… (copping magical southern accent) it’s ‘gon’ be good!’ … I’ve already developed my biscuit benedict…you [also] get to…build your own: whatever topping, filling [you want] you get to create your own amazing biscuit!
Wow! From dog food to human food! Interesting projects!
[Yes!] You have these passions that you love and you get to the point where you start chasing those passions…and food and dogs are my passions so I get to work in both areas!
For more information regarding Natural Balance and their enterprising array of foods and ingredients, please visit:
https://www.naturalbalanceinc.com/
Photo by Jennifer K. Hugus for The Los Angeles Beat
