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| Upcoming Workshops |
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Alexander Technique & Yoga: 6-Week Series Our bodies are designed to move with ease, yet we lack the knowledge to truly allow them to do so. Instead we fall into our habitual patterns that tighten, narrow, and compress. Over time, even the tiniest of habits can result in injury or chronic pain. The Alexander Technique teaches us how to create a dialogue with the body. One in which we respect it, listen to it, and learn to recognize our bodies’ habits. From there we can make a conscious choice--a different choice--to not fall into the same old pattern, but instead choose the path that will lead the body back to its dynamic alignment. When using the Alexander Technique as the basis of a yoga practice, it quickly brings you into the deeper, more subtle aspects of asana and promotes an attention and sensitivity coming from the collaboration of body and mind. In this 6-week series we will apply the principles of the Alexander Technique to Yoga. Using asana as a framework, we will examine how we use our bodies, and how our thinking affects how we use our bodies. Through verbal direction and gentle touch you will be helped in identifying your own patterns of mis-use and then guided to a new experience of freedom and ease. Each week will build upon the previous one, laying out the Alexander Technique in a methodical and easy to practice manner. Kristen Davis is the owner and director of Yogasana Center. She had her first Alexander Technique lesson and her first yoga class in the same week in 1993. For the past 20 years she never practiced one without the other. Kristen has been teaching yoga since 1996, and Alexander Technique since 1999. She completed a post-graduate Alexander training in the Art of Breathing with Jessica Wolf in 2006, and is currently in an advanced studies program with her yoga teacher and mentor, Donald Moyer. Mondays, April 16 - May 21, 6-8PM, $95 Call 718-789-7255 or send email to info@yogasanacenter.com |
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Yamuna Bodyrolling: Upper Thoracic & Cervical Spine
This workshop will focus on the spine starting mid-scapula and continuing upwards to the skull. Beginning by lifting the sternum, we will organize the thoracic curve solidly upon the lumbar spine. Next we will unlock the shoulders from the rib-cage and establish balance in the shoulder joints, front to back. Working our way up each side of the spine, we will then release the trapezius muscle and lengthen the sides of the neck. (Who doesn’t need that?) We will finish aligning the cervical spine by releasing the muscles of the front of the neck. Freeing the neck from all sides will facilitate mobility and ease throughout the entire spine. So to put it all together, we will finish by lengthening the spine from tailbone to skull—aahh, that feels good. Eli McAfee is an ACE certified personal trainer and an accomplished modern dancer, having performed with David Gordon, Pilobolus, Big Apple Circus, and Elizabeth Streb, among other choreographers and dance companies. Drawing on his dance background, Eli provides individualized program design with a deep understanding of form and function. Eli earned his Bachelor of Fine Arts in Theater from the Illinois Wesleyan University and a Masters of Arts in Dance from the Ohio State University. He is a certified Yamuna Body Rolling instructor, having completed both phase 1 and phase 2 certifications. Saturday, May 19, 2012, 1:30-3:30PM, $45
Pay in advance to reserve your spot. |
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Developing Your Own Yoga Practice: 4-Week Series Yoga classes offer us direct teachings and guidance from knowledgeable instructors. They give a sense of community, of being together on the same path. Both of these are essential elements in supporting and developing an understanding of the fundamental self as taught by Yoga. The missing piece is personal practice, where yoga becomes a necessary component of your self-care, and a tool for slowing down and connecting to your inner wisdom. The time you spend on your mat at home becomes a time of play and discovery where you can work at your own pace, explore your own interests and take care of your own needs. This will only further your experience of class--heightening your ability to adapt the teacher’s instructions to your body, and aiding you in staying connect to yourself when relating to others. In this series we will explore the specifics of how to establish and develop a home practice. We will delve into the theories behind effective sequencing--how to determine what to practice when. Now we know that a regular home practice is easier said than done. No worries, we will address the common obstacles of not having enough time, not having space, not knowing what to do, not being sure if you’re doing it correctly, along with any inner conflicts that inevitably arise. We will offer you daily support and mentoring, and with baby-steps get you practicing on your own everyday. Kristen Davis and Witold Fitz-Simon share a teaching style that is slow-paced, yet bouyant and light-hearted. Rooted in Iyengar Yoga and Alexander Technique they explore how mindful asana practice can uncover the universal truths of the body and mind. Meeting weekly for practice over the last 8 years, Witold and Kristen feel strongly about the importance of personal practice but also struggle with its inherent challenges. Their work on Developing your own Yoga Practice has sprung out of teaching and mentoring two teacher training groups, establishing first each student’s inner wisdom in teaching themselves before teaching others. Mondays, 6:30-8:15PM, June 4, 11, 18, 25, $100 |
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Developmental Movement In this three hour developmental movement workshop we will look at how as adults we can use the developmental poses to strengthen our own movement and create ease and fluidity in our day to day lives. We will explore our relationship to gravity, finding our yield to give us the support we need to move with ease and levity, and a sense of knowing our ground from which to begin to move. We will look at ways to develop our flexor tone. By balancing flexion and extension we will observe how moving inside/finding self (flexion) and moving out into the world/stimulation (extension) can give us the ability to find our inner awareness and support from which we can move out into the world with a clear sense of self. From these explorations we will play with rolling in various ways, from different ideas and stimuli. We will find support and sensory awareness for our movement that we can then utilize in our asana practice and throughout our daily activities. Rachel Lynch-John is certified as an Infant Developmental Movement Educator (IDME), and in Embodied Developmental Movement and Yoga (EDMY), and Embodied Anatomy and Yoga (EAY) through the School for Body-Mind Centering®. She has assisted Bonnie Bainbridge-Cohen (founder of the School Body-Mind Centering®) and taught in the EAY and EDMY yoga teacher training programs in NYC and Berkeley California. Rachel teaches pre and postnatal yoga classes, and has taught children of all ages, creative movement and yoga in and around NYC. She grew up around lenty of children, as her mother ran a preschool out of their home. Rachel began practicing Iyengar yoga in 1990, and has assisted her teacher, Genny Kapuler since 2001. She originally trained as a dancer in London, England and in 1999 she was the recipient of a “Bessie” (NY dance and performance award). Mondays, 6:30-8:15PM, June 4, 11, 18, 25, $100
Pay in advance to reserve your spot. |
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Yogasana Summer Intensive Our 6-day intensive offers a unique opportunity to embrace your practice in a profound and challenging way. With our combination of Iyengar-style Yoga and the Alexander Technique, we bring a keen sensitivity to the interplay of mind and body. This allows us to quickly dive deep into the subtlety of alignment. With creativity and light heartedness, we look to uncover the universal truths of how we function as a whole. Through this lens, we’ll be addressing your individual needs and issues, and refining the asanas to facilitate fluidity and ease. We will alternate teaching, Witold teaching the first three mornings while Kristen teaches the first three afternoons, and then swapping. The morning classes will be more vigorous, focusing on standing poses, variations in inversions, backbends and arm balances. The afternoons will have a slower pace with gentler, quieter poses, such as forward bends and hip-openers, along with restoratives and pranayama. A solid week of devoted, intelligent yoga training can be transformative. Your yoga practice will flourish. You’ll be left with new information, fresh inspiration, and a renewed commitment to yoga. Kristen Davis and Witold Fitz-Simon have each been studying and teaching yoga for nearly two decades.They have trained two gifted groups of teachers, bringing them each through a two year, 700+ hour program. Kristen and Witold share a teaching style that is slow-paced and focused, yet bouyant and light-hearted. Rooted in Iyengar Yoga and Alexander Technique they explore how mindful asana practice can uncover the universal truths of the body and mind. Sunday July 15 - Friday July 20 Pay in advance to reserve your spot. |