I really have no idea of how to begin writing about the workshop I just gave at Yoga Centuro Victoria
http://www.centrovictoria.com in Leon, Spain. Perhaps a photo overview to begin with then look a little more closely at certain parts of the workshop in future posts.
For me, this being my first, it was the perfect opportunity, Oscar is a friend, he's had Vinyasa Krama lessons with me as well as with Ramaswami, I'd recently seen a video of him teaching a Vinyasa Krama class although the gym calls it integral. Everyone on the course was warm and generous, trying everything I threw at them, and also were very forgiving. I'm sure I'd approach the whole thing differently in any future workshop, try and tidy parts up, nail things down, try harder to make things easier for everyone to understand. I spoke too fast, got too excited, carried away at times.... I could go on, but we muddled through.
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| Arriving at the studio |
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| The beautiful practice space in the centre of Leon |
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| Wonderful batik of Krishnamacharya |
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| Claudia's book....nest to David Swenson's : ) |
Friday lecture on Krishnamacharya. As everyone came in there was a slideshow of pictures from the recent transformations yoga exhibition to give context to the stories and 'yoga superheroes' Krishnamacharya grew up with. Followed this with the 1938 video of Krishnamacharya.
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| Krishnamacharya 1938 |
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| followed by a Q and A that went on for an hour and a half or so, thank you everyone for all the questions |
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| Questions on jumping back already |
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| Loved how everyone helped lay out the mats for the following morning. |
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| 33 mats +1 |
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| my mat |
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| Saturday morning session was to look at the approach to Ashtanga Primary postures in Krishnamacharya's Yoga Makaranda |
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| but first some Vinyasa krama movements to introduce Krishnamacharya's slow breathing |
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| ...and Kumbhaka's (breath retention) |
Next we looked at krishnamacharya's treatment of the movements that make up the sun salutation, the long stays in each posture
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| Tadasana |
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| the 'puraka kumbaka' after the inhalation and straightening of the back in uttanasana |
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| Long'ish stay in chatauranga dandasana |
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| Puraka kumbhaka again in Urdhvamukhasvanasana |
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| Long stay in Adhomukhasvanasana and a chance to look at bandhas |
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| bandha work in maha mudra |
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| mini savasana |
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| Jump back work, straight leg option |
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| jump through workshop |
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| Jump back in stages |
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| End of the first session, pranayama. nice shot of the one of the excellent t-shirt pilar designed and gave to me, Thank you so much Pilar, I love them |
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| Surya Bheda pranayama no kumbhaka |
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| chandra bheda |
After lunch together sitting on blankets in the middle of the studio ( does anyone have a picture they can pass me through fb perhaps?
Second session, Vinyasa krama. We began with tadasana sequence focussing on the backbend arm movements before moving on to part of Bow sequence.
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| 'Modelling' Bow sequence while Oscar described my movements |
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| Vajrasana. this was followed by a look at getting the hips forward for back bending, ustrasana |
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| part of Asymmetric sequence, a look at using the whole body to bind |
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| Marichiyasana D |
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| Akarna dhanurasana |
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| badha padmasana |
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| binding badha padmasana |
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| Inversions demonstration |
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| trying out the leg movements in headstand, same as those in the 1938 krishnamacharya movie |
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| Shoulderstand demo and the other Krishnamacharya t-shirt Pilar designed |
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| Wonderful walking around and seeing everyone trying out these movements with slow, slow breathing that Ramaswami taught to me. |
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| Savasana |
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| Questions before Pranayama, nadi shodana with pranayama mantra on kumbhaka ( anyone have pictures?) |
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| Pratyahara- Shanmukhamudra |
Below, savasana with Ramaswami chanting
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| Q and A went on for a couple of hours, people leaving, small group pictures with those of us left at the end |
More to come on this I'm sure
Thank you again to Oscar for inviting me and doing all the hard work of translating, to Oscar's beautiful wife Maria for taking care of me, Martine and Vilma for putting the whole thing in perspective and to everyone who attended the workshop and were so kind and forgiving in this my first attempt at trying something like this.
I hope to come back again someday and do it all again or even better, as I know many of you would like, persuade Ramaswami to come next time and share so much more. I only scratch at the surface of Krishnamacharya's teaching. Ramaswami of course would say that so does he.
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See yesterdays post for news of the Yoga rainbow festival that I'll be teaching at in the first week of May next year.
12 comments:
Personally, the best post have read, of course It's beautiful feelings together I'll never forget. Thank you so so much. All miss you, I miss you but now you have touch my heart.
I have been one of those present at your workshop in León. Only a few words to thank you your dedication, enthusiasm and knowledge. Hope to see you again soon here and I wish you the best.
Wow that's a decent sized group you've got there - nice job El Guru, here's to more workshops! :)
This looks wonderful Anthony, what a rounded, well done class. Everyone seems to be enjoying it. I am loving watching all the photos...
And thanks for taking that pix... I am proud and humbled and excited...
Thank you for making it possible Oscar, wonderful experience for me.
Thank you Maite and thank you for coming, it was a pleasure to be with you all
Thanks D, yes, big group, 33. Yes, would be nice to do some more occasionally.
It seemed to work Ok Claudia, we only got through half the Yoga Makaranda Primary but the principles carried on into the Vinyasa krama session and we covered the rest of the postures there.... and I guess that was kind of the point of the exercise, showing that connection. Was very excited when I saw your book sitting there : )
Beautiful photos..
I'm practicing bow series from Sunday, I'm begining to improve the back bends, I think in two weeks I'll add the meditative series.
I remember you said when you went to job on bicycle you sang a mantra, What's this mantra?Where do I find?
Thank you for your teachings.
Jose Luis.
How wonderful! I love the first shot of you demoing a jump back beside a student (both with your legs crossed in front), makes me think of how this blog started, you alone, trying to figure out how to do a jump back, puzzling it out. And now you're teaching them! Beautiful pictures. Well done.
Hi Jose, good too meet you on the course sorry we didn't get to spend more time discussing backbends and more besides. Bow is excellent really, i was doing it before my recent experiments with trying to grab my heels after dropping back.
re the mantra, I think it was the pranayama mantra, Ramaswami has a tutorial on his page
http://vinyasakrama.com/Chants
the other one was learn ganesha prayer and learn patanjali prayer, same page. the print out for the pranayama mantra is on my pranayama page at the top of the blog along with it's translation.
Was so funny, i was asked about jumping back almost as soon as i got in the door, was still in my jeans for the lecture, did feel I had gone full circle.
Workshop was great fun to do, a wonderful experience, would like to do more of them, not too often but one or two a year would be great.
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