I'm taking a trip to Japan for 3 weeks starting at the end of this month. When I return the ongoing Saturday class will resume and a *new* beginner's course will be scheduled for some time after my return.
Here are the new dates:
Last class, June 20th
No classes, June 27th, July 4th & July 11th
Class resumes, July 18th
On another note: I'm still sorting out dates for the beginner's course. Any feedback on day, time and seasonal preferences would be appreciated, ie evenings, saturday mornings, 2 classes p/week, just one class p/week, scheduled for asap or early spring??
The ARC in Wellington St has the following classes, fyi. I've not had a chance to attend their classes yet, but I hear they're good.
Monday evening at 6.30pm - Gentle Flow Yoga with Carrie
Wednesday evening at 5.30pm - Dynamic Flow Yoga with Monika
Saturday morning at 10.30am - Flow Yoga with David
June 12, 2009
June 10, 2009
Stompin @ Australia Dance Awards
As the weeks pass, I'm falling in love with the space that hosts the new yoga classes.Stompin is a world class youth dance company and I'm so pleased to be getting comfy with my fantasitc group of yogis on Stompin's well trodden floor boards. As I type, Sarah (Stompin GM) is with some of the dancers preparing to perform @ the Australian Dance Awards in Sydney. The company has also been nominated for an award. This company is an asset to Tassie's youth and the community in general. They have a stellar new Artistic Director too. Stompin: on the move! Please Support!!
May 20, 2009
Class Update: May 2009
Hi,
Class started only a few weeks ago @ the new location and time-slot. The class culture has evolved very quickly. This post is a wee report on what the class has become: content, style, current level and future vision of practice. If you've stopped by this blog to get info about the class, this post will give you a good impression of what the ongoing Saturday morning practice has to offer you. There are more classes planned for the near future so please drop me a line if you'd like to go on my contact list for class info updates: moveoften@gmail.com :)
***
When a new series of classes begin, I can never foresee in advance what kind of practice will evolve. Y'see, I'm not a purist in my teaching. I really believe that to teach yoga down here in a small regional Aussie town, where there isn't a strong and prolific yoga culture/community and history, there's a need to create content for the group based on what the individuals bring with them, rather than set the participants a rigid yoga template to squeeze themselves into. Having said that, there's a really important place for a more didactic approach to teaching and learning especially in the case of this old tried and tested form that I respect immensely. If I'd been asked for a breakdown of what might be expected from this class 4 weeks ago, I'm not sure what my reply would have been. Perhaps: "...as the group grows, I'll know more, but I hope it's a physically strong, internally challenging and a socially easy class."
I've not taught many morning sessions in the past, and this variable on my teaching methods is a relative challenge to me. Morning practice requires a different approach to instruction and practice than evening practice. I'm far more experienced and better aligned toward evening teaching. I'm enjoying the challenge and see my own learning process in the group as somewhat nascent. I'm grateful for the group's faith.
I see the class very much as a place to come and practice as a group to ready ourselves for the weekend's rest and recreational character. Every participant comes with an existing yoga practice. It seems to have already evolved away from beginner's group.
We've agreed to learn the Ashtanga Primary Series together, at the groups pace. We come, work quite hard, focus on postural techniques, have a giggle and take away something learned or remembered. This is not a very passive, therapeutic class. I see it as a pool for learning that participants, me included, dive into with the intention to take something away for development in personal practice. I'm advocating this goal/method at the moment, yet don't expect that personal/home practice has become habitual, YET.
K (a group member) and I were chatting after class last week about her sense that there is a logic to the Primary Series sequence that the body seems to understand and know inherently. I fully agree with her. In a nut shell, the ongoing Saturday morning class is for those who see that corporeal logic, understand it on some level, and intend to study it's potential further within a small group of like-mind/bodied people.
To elaborate personally on K and my quick chat about yoga body-logic: in my experience this topic is the core purpose for developing a strong & regular practice. This logic doesn't exist without good reason OR on it's own. With practice (again in my experience) a story comes from the logic, a body narrative. It's the story told to the practitioner via the body's narrative that holds all the reasons for me to continue with my journey into learning yoga, because it keeps and makes me brightly faced toward life, with faith. I feel that I'm at the tip of this lesson's iceberg.
I'm going to Japan in a month for a few weeks, so no new classes are on the cards for the short term. I'm planning a beginners evening course, open to all levels, in August some time. Beyond that point, I'll be encouraging the Saturday group to attend a beginner's class as a drop-in option. As the beginner's group/s develop they will be invited to the Saturday session as their private practice evolves. I'd like to aim towards bringing beginners and more experienced students together, but only when their practice has a clear independence from the instructor (moi).
Guruji: RIP, passed away May 18th 2009
Class started only a few weeks ago @ the new location and time-slot. The class culture has evolved very quickly. This post is a wee report on what the class has become: content, style, current level and future vision of practice. If you've stopped by this blog to get info about the class, this post will give you a good impression of what the ongoing Saturday morning practice has to offer you. There are more classes planned for the near future so please drop me a line if you'd like to go on my contact list for class info updates: moveoften@gmail.com :)
***
When a new series of classes begin, I can never foresee in advance what kind of practice will evolve. Y'see, I'm not a purist in my teaching. I really believe that to teach yoga down here in a small regional Aussie town, where there isn't a strong and prolific yoga culture/community and history, there's a need to create content for the group based on what the individuals bring with them, rather than set the participants a rigid yoga template to squeeze themselves into. Having said that, there's a really important place for a more didactic approach to teaching and learning especially in the case of this old tried and tested form that I respect immensely. If I'd been asked for a breakdown of what might be expected from this class 4 weeks ago, I'm not sure what my reply would have been. Perhaps: "...as the group grows, I'll know more, but I hope it's a physically strong, internally challenging and a socially easy class."
I've not taught many morning sessions in the past, and this variable on my teaching methods is a relative challenge to me. Morning practice requires a different approach to instruction and practice than evening practice. I'm far more experienced and better aligned toward evening teaching. I'm enjoying the challenge and see my own learning process in the group as somewhat nascent. I'm grateful for the group's faith.
I see the class very much as a place to come and practice as a group to ready ourselves for the weekend's rest and recreational character. Every participant comes with an existing yoga practice. It seems to have already evolved away from beginner's group.
We've agreed to learn the Ashtanga Primary Series together, at the groups pace. We come, work quite hard, focus on postural techniques, have a giggle and take away something learned or remembered. This is not a very passive, therapeutic class. I see it as a pool for learning that participants, me included, dive into with the intention to take something away for development in personal practice. I'm advocating this goal/method at the moment, yet don't expect that personal/home practice has become habitual, YET.
K (a group member) and I were chatting after class last week about her sense that there is a logic to the Primary Series sequence that the body seems to understand and know inherently. I fully agree with her. In a nut shell, the ongoing Saturday morning class is for those who see that corporeal logic, understand it on some level, and intend to study it's potential further within a small group of like-mind/bodied people.
To elaborate personally on K and my quick chat about yoga body-logic: in my experience this topic is the core purpose for developing a strong & regular practice. This logic doesn't exist without good reason OR on it's own. With practice (again in my experience) a story comes from the logic, a body narrative. It's the story told to the practitioner via the body's narrative that holds all the reasons for me to continue with my journey into learning yoga, because it keeps and makes me brightly faced toward life, with faith. I feel that I'm at the tip of this lesson's iceberg.
I'm going to Japan in a month for a few weeks, so no new classes are on the cards for the short term. I'm planning a beginners evening course, open to all levels, in August some time. Beyond that point, I'll be encouraging the Saturday group to attend a beginner's class as a drop-in option. As the beginner's group/s develop they will be invited to the Saturday session as their private practice evolves. I'd like to aim towards bringing beginners and more experienced students together, but only when their practice has a clear independence from the instructor (moi).
Guruji: RIP, passed away May 18th 2009
May 12, 2009
How To: suryanamaskara A
I love requests and dedications. This one's for you, Mandi. There are thousands of these clips on the net. Most are horrid. This one I chose for a number of reasons: his shorts are funny, he holds a stick (weird), he's clearly a bit obsessive and mostly I love that the mic operator let the tip of the mic in the frame a few times. This version of suryanamaskara A is a tad 'cheese', a splotch 'shmults' and quite a good tool for learning the first small part of the Primary Series. Enjoy!
... and this clip is for good measure. The teacher in this class is Sri K. Pattabhi. He's the 'dude' of Ashtanga yoga. Again, enjoy!
... and this clip is for good measure. The teacher in this class is Sri K. Pattabhi. He's the 'dude' of Ashtanga yoga. Again, enjoy!
May 10, 2009
May 8, 2009
More Inspirational Yoga Pics
For inspiration:Pics © Govindakai (click for pics) of the Ashtanga Intermediate series in Mysore India, the home of Ashtanga Yoga.
April 25, 2009
Dance: Contact Improvisation
Contact Improvisation is a form that I know little about. I've always been a little bit too afraid to go to a jam but I feel a love for it all the same. The little that I have done has had a peeling away effect on me. Letting go and moving with trust and intimacy along with another person's trust and intimacy is confronting, to say the least. But with all confrontations that the movement arts offer us the reward can be a pathway towards a better place to be.
I really enjoyed this wee flick.
Link to more contact improvisation, by Slightly Moving Productions @ his youtube channel
I'm going to cast a wish to have a contact improv work shop down here on the island: shh don't tell anyone.
D
I really enjoyed this wee flick.
Link to more contact improvisation, by Slightly Moving Productions @ his youtube channel
I'm going to cast a wish to have a contact improv work shop down here on the island: shh don't tell anyone.
D
April 21, 2009
It's All About the Space
The search for a new space to take yoga classes in this year has been a wee trial. The Tasdance space of last year was a special thing indeed, especially with that glassed garden view. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to secure the same times for the entire year in advance. I'd noticed that quite a few people like the option to attend in a drop-in class. At least half of the group likes the commitment of pay-in-advance style. Continuing at Tasdance made drop-in attendance impossible.
With that phase over, we enter a new one in a new space and it's a doozie. Here t'is:
I promised myself last year that if I couldn't find a good space that was free for the full year long, I'd not teach at all. Reason being is that the space is all-important; it's all about the space!
The new studio has bags of character and is home to Launceston's precious Stompin youth contemporary dance company. Sarah, the company's GM, has been super easy going and open about our making ourselves at home in her company's space. The facilities are perfect: loo, great audio system, hot drinks, beautiful floor, lots of light & a couch and table corner for a cuppa after class.
I've just returned from Melbourne where I did an Ashtanga Primary Series class with a teacher I've not met before. He was a hard-liner; bags of rules, looked like a small army man, take-no-shit attitude, rules rules rules. I loved him! What a goose! He doesn't like yoga tourists and asked those on tour to leave. Officially he could have been speaking to me, but I like small hard Irishmen, so I took the risk and stood there pretending to be a hard-core Ashtanga yoga head.
At one moment he came over and made an adjustment on me in Virabhadrasana A and the way he held and spoke, in that briefest of moments, was no mean Irish task master. It was a gentle souled, open man. Something happens each time I do yoga. Something inside me tells me something that feels good and right to hear. A good teacher, no matter what theire teaching method is, can make it easier and safer for us to stand and wait and listen for the important stuff.
The class smelt horrid. People were sweating like hairy monsters. As I always do, standing is a horror posture, I questioned what draws me to this room with these people, why do I continue? I'm not sure exctly why, but it has something to do with love. Perhaps it's as simples as just loving yoga. But it stinks and the people are mostly a tad ... kind of odd, to me, but I dig them and what we're all trying to learn. I'm unsure what it is, but I'm in for life.
Here's a vid about Ashtanga Yoga
Here's a link to more inspirational Ashtanga yoga photos on Flickr by
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nat_sf_05/sets/990381/ Nathalie Mullen-Briquet
ENJOY!
D
With that phase over, we enter a new one in a new space and it's a doozie. Here t'is:
I promised myself last year that if I couldn't find a good space that was free for the full year long, I'd not teach at all. Reason being is that the space is all-important; it's all about the space!
The new studio has bags of character and is home to Launceston's precious Stompin youth contemporary dance company. Sarah, the company's GM, has been super easy going and open about our making ourselves at home in her company's space. The facilities are perfect: loo, great audio system, hot drinks, beautiful floor, lots of light & a couch and table corner for a cuppa after class.
I've just returned from Melbourne where I did an Ashtanga Primary Series class with a teacher I've not met before. He was a hard-liner; bags of rules, looked like a small army man, take-no-shit attitude, rules rules rules. I loved him! What a goose! He doesn't like yoga tourists and asked those on tour to leave. Officially he could have been speaking to me, but I like small hard Irishmen, so I took the risk and stood there pretending to be a hard-core Ashtanga yoga head.
At one moment he came over and made an adjustment on me in Virabhadrasana A and the way he held and spoke, in that briefest of moments, was no mean Irish task master. It was a gentle souled, open man. Something happens each time I do yoga. Something inside me tells me something that feels good and right to hear. A good teacher, no matter what theire teaching method is, can make it easier and safer for us to stand and wait and listen for the important stuff.
The class smelt horrid. People were sweating like hairy monsters. As I always do, standing is a horror posture, I questioned what draws me to this room with these people, why do I continue? I'm not sure exctly why, but it has something to do with love. Perhaps it's as simples as just loving yoga. But it stinks and the people are mostly a tad ... kind of odd, to me, but I dig them and what we're all trying to learn. I'm unsure what it is, but I'm in for life.
Here's a vid about Ashtanga Yoga
Here's a link to more inspirational Ashtanga yoga photos on Flickr by
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nat_sf_05/sets/990381/ Nathalie Mullen-Briquet
ENJOY!
D
April 8, 2009
March 16, 2009
CLASS NEWS: new class scheduled
YOGA with D
@ Stompin Studio, CBD
Every Saturday Morning
@ 8:30 till 10:00 am
Starts April 25th
LEVEL & STYLE:>
All levels welcome
Class pace is progressive
Style is general, yet strong
CLASS COST:>
Pay as you Go $12.00
Pay in Advance x 4 classes $40.00/half price for current Stompin dancers
BYO mat | or available for $20.00
VENUE:>
Stompin Studio
Dicky Whites Lane, Quadrant Mall
Launceston, Tasmania
AUSTRALIA
CONTACT:>
I'm all ears
T. 6343 2209
E. moveoften{at}gmail{dot}com
W. www.moveoften.com
7 things about D:>
* She believes that good physical and mental health cannot exist independently of each other
* She advocates good life/heart/soul/body through varied and appropriate yoga practices taught in a way that's accessible to everyone
* Mixing and crossing physical/mental disciplines is of particular interest to her
* Her base teaching principal is that students inform the class content, rather than the more traditional teacher/student dynamic
* She focuses guiding practitioners toward independent inquiry and development
* All classes address balancing and increasing levels of strength, flexibility and body awareness
* Her teaching style is informative, practical and fun
@ Stompin Studio, CBD
Every Saturday Morning
@ 8:30 till 10:00 am
Starts April 25th
LEVEL & STYLE:>
All levels welcome
Class pace is progressive
Style is general, yet strong
CLASS COST:>
Pay as you Go $12.00
Pay in Advance x 4 classes $40.00/half price for current Stompin dancers
BYO mat | or available for $20.00
VENUE:>
Stompin Studio
Dicky Whites Lane, Quadrant Mall
Launceston, Tasmania
AUSTRALIA
CONTACT:>
I'm all ears
T. 6343 2209
E. moveoften{at}gmail{dot}com
W. www.moveoften.com
7 things about D:>
* She believes that good physical and mental health cannot exist independently of each other
* She advocates good life/heart/soul/body through varied and appropriate yoga practices taught in a way that's accessible to everyone
* Mixing and crossing physical/mental disciplines is of particular interest to her
* Her base teaching principal is that students inform the class content, rather than the more traditional teacher/student dynamic
* She focuses guiding practitioners toward independent inquiry and development
* All classes address balancing and increasing levels of strength, flexibility and body awareness
* Her teaching style is informative, practical and fun
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