Recent Chuck Miller Workshop Video plus Chuck Miller in Japan interview

Chuck Miller has always been one of my 'Ashtanga heroes', that almost scary focus and intensity he has in all those 1980's, Jois led Yogaworks videos.



 I was just told about this recent video from a workshop held at Babylon Yoga, in Vancouver, from last week I think so pretty current. Bit of music for the first minute or two then that cuts out and you get a taste of Chuck's teaching.

Here's a link to Chuck and Maty's website
http://www.chuckandmaty.com/bios.htm

And here's another link to a post from last year that has an earlier Chuck Miller Workshop video from Babylon Yoga  plus some Maty videos.
http://grimmly2007.blogspot.co.uk/2011/08/great-ashtanga-day-chuck-and-maty.html

--------------------------------

Chuck Miller interview in Japan 2009

I was looking around for a recent interview with Chuck Miller (trying to find a great quote of his I came across a while back) but came across this interview from a couple of years ago following a workshop in Tokyo. I know I have a few readers from Japan and I imagine it can be 難しい finding that much Ashtanga directly relating to your country, thought you might enjoy this if you haven't seen it already.

November 30th, 2009
Interview: Chuck Miller, Teacher of Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga, Talks about Traveling and Teaching Yoga in Japan
Interview by Dylan Robertson.

This is an interview with Chuck Miller held after his five-day workshop series hosted by Prana Power Yoga Studio in Ebisu, Tokyo from October 30 to November 2, 2009.

Chuck Miller has been practicing yoga since 1971, and he learned Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga from Sri K. Pattabhi Jois. Teaching since 1988, Chuck was co-owner of the original Yoga Works in Santa Monica, California, for seventeen years. He now travels the world teaching yoga workshops with his wife, Maty Ezraty.

This time Chuck visited us by himself while Maty was in an extended Vipassana Meditation retreat.

----------------------------

I understand this is your fifth visit to Japan. What was it like coming here for the first time?

Maty and I first visited Japan in 2004. On that first trip, we spent a month traveling around Japan and four days teaching in Tokyo.
I really wanted to find the lost, old Japan. I was inspired by a book written by an English guy by the name of Alan Booth, who actually walked from one end of Japan to the other. We went from one great onsen ryokan (traditional Japanese inn with natural hot spring baths) to another. We made our way through Kamisuwa-onsen, Matsumoto, Hida Takayama, Shirakawago, Kanazawa, and then down to Kyoto.

I was initially reluctant to go to Kyoto, thinking it would just be a tourist trap. But when I got there, I realized it would have been a mistake to skip it because so much of what I wanted to see was being preserved there.

From Kyoto, we went to Yamaguchi, Yufuin in Kyushu, and Shikoku, where we took slow trains through the countryside and got to see the mountains and beautiful river valleys. We ended up in Kochi, where we experienced our third or fourth typhoon.

From there, we made our way back to Tokyo for the first Yoga Fest. Ken Harakuma of IYC had invited us to give the keynote address.

After Yoga Fest, we travelled out to Izu for an onsen and came back to Tokyo to teach for a week at IYC. We had a great response with sixty students doing Ashtanga.

You’ve taught Ashtanga Yoga all over the world. Is it different teaching in Japan?

The similarities are really striking. The tendencies of the human body and mind transcend culture and geography to a large extent. As an Ashtanga Yoga teacher, I encounter the same patterns in students in Japan as I do in Helsinki, Oslo, Berlin, Paris, Tel Aviv, Los Angeles, or San Francisco. Of course, there are little differences.
I think Japanese students, at least outwardly, show a really high level of respect towards teachers. In places like Norway, they’re more casual and not as likely to put a teacher up on a pedestal. In Japan, there’s a bit of a tendency to do that. I actually hope that it doesn’t run deep in their psyche, and that it’s just a formality.

As a teacher, the kind of treatment I receive in Japan is very gratifying of course, but it’s not really what I’m looking for. What’s much more interesting to me is that students become empowered. Having people learning to think for themselves is much more interesting to me than having people just follow other people.

The interview continues HERE (with pictures)
http://www.helloyoga.com/2009/11/30/chuck-miller-ashtanga-vinyasa-yoga-teaching-japan/


....back to my packing, no easy way to get a manduka in a backpack.