School is out!  Travel plans are coming together!  Like you, some of your teachers have some “goin” to do, which will affect our class schedule.  I am off for my (so far!) Trip of a Lifetime…three weeks in France!  Those of you who know me, and my “foodie” tendencies, can imagine what plans I have for the vacation.

Kevin has rescheduled his European-and-elsewhere teaching tour that had to be cancelled last year.  He has even added a brand new stop, or two.  Internationally famous, our quiet Kevin!

Here are the temporary changes:

Wednesday 9:30 am classes COMBINED all of June

Wednesday 12-1 pm classes CANCELLED all of June

Wednesday 5:45 pm classes COMBINED June 19-26

Friday 9:15-10:45 Vinyasa classes CANCELLED all of June

Saturday 9-10:30 Movement Limited classes CANCELLED June 15-August 3

Wednesday 5:45-7:15 classes COMBINED June 19-June 26

This photo appeared in THE DENVER POST today with an article by Kyle Wagner. Read her story here.  Kyle  rode her bike in the Leadville 100 last year, and has practiced yoga at various locations, so she fit right into our class. I invited her to come after reading a column she wrote about a visit to a Corepower class, suggesting she might like to see and experience something closer to the real roots of yoga, as opposed to “yoga calisthenics.” Iyengar instructors TEACH classes more than LEAD them. We talked for some time after class, while Nancy did her inversions, because she wanted to make sure she got them in that day. In return, I drew her in to the photo sequence.  I think her Virabhadrasana III is quite elegant (she likes that word and so do I).

A friend forwarded a link to a” New York Times” article entitled “The First Lady Of Yoga.”  Had to be about Geeta Iyengar, right?

But—no; it was about a famous/infamous yoga teacher’s wife-the one he married after they both divorced their then-spouses.  Don’t you feel, sometimes, that even the “yoga world” is looking more and more like an episode of DR. PHIL, JERSEY-LICIOUS, or THE REAL HOUSEWIVES OF ATLANTA? (Honest-I’ve only seen the first one.)  I’ll not argue that yogis are human, and therefore have human foibles, but it seems that, currently, yoga is frequently just something that is done on a mat, and is not being incorporated into the lives of some of  its (many well-known) practitioners.  Financial scandals, lawsuits, sexual accusations-will the next new yoga magazine be put out by “The Enquirer?”

It pains me enough that the word YOGA has been corrupted by being applied to franchised aerobics classes that capitalize on the fact that , for some people, SAYING “I do yoga” is way more important than truly doing it.  The key word, ASANA, in Sanskrit means “to sit,” which is why it has been Americanized to POSE.  Hmmm.  The definition of “poseur” is “a person who pretends to be what he or she is not: an affected or insincere person”.

In one of Prashant Iyengar’s classes, he exhorted us to stop adjusting in our twists and to be still, saying that people who constantly adjust are insincere.

Here’s a great quote of Prashant’s I found on this website:

“We cannot expect that millions are practicing real yoga just because millions of people claim to be doing yoga all over the globe. What has spread all over the world is not yoga. It is not even non-yoga; it is un-yoga.” The undue emphasis, particularly in the West, on asana as the crux of Yoga dilutes the essence of the spiritual practice and its ultimate goal of moksha”.

from a 2005 interview with Prashant Iyengar, son of B.K.S. Iyengar, published in Namarupa magazine.

It seems like this practice that is supposed to be about “going inward” has commonly taken a 180 degree turn.  Let’s reverse that where we can.  Start some conversations.