Posts Tagged ‘teacher’

Iconic Bay Area Yoga Teacher Dies

March 2nd, 2011 levis25

larry schultz.pngLarry Schultz, founder of It’s Yoga studio and developer of the signature practice known as Rocket Yoga, has died. He was 60.

Schultz founded It’s Yoga in San Francisco in 1987, creating a vibrant hub for a growing yoga community in the San Francisco Bay Area. Known as one of the foremost Ashtanga Yoga teachers in the West, he also taught thousands of classes across the U.S. and abroad and shepherded more than 1,000 Ashtanga Vinyasa students through his rigorous 200-hour teacher training course. In the 1980s, Schultz traveled with and taught yoga to the band the Grateful Dead.

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What’s Happened to Yoga?

October 20th, 2010 levis25

Fame. Fortune. Commercialization. Is this where’s modern yoga headed? Or what it’s already become? This is the big question tackled by a Boston article called What’s Happened to Yoga?

The article opens with a scene from a yoga class, where two students are busy texting away to the dismay of their teacher, Natasha Rizopoulos. Then it touches on the serious issues keeping modern yogis up at night–mainly monetization and commercialization.

For this reason, among others, Rizopoulos is aligning herself with some of the country’s foremost yoga teachers who are trying to take back yoga from the masses who they believe are running afoul of the traditions of a 5,000-year-old spiritual, intellectual, and physical discipline.

The underlying idea of this “movement” is a studio called Down Under Yoga, which held a summit last weekend to discuss modern yoga, including ways yogis can stay aligned with yoga’s roots in modern times.

We want to know:

Is modern yoga too big to generalize about?
What aspects of modern yoga enhance the practice?

And what aspects diminish it?

Nora Isaacs is a Bay Area-based health writer and editor.

Read the whole story on:http://blogs.yogajournal.com/yogabuzz/

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When Yoga Teachers Turn to Lifestyle Preachers

August 23rd, 2010 wynona

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Yoga teachers often feel the need to inspire others to live consciously. Depending on their intentions and methods, they may or may not be successful. As students, we come to class to feel refreshed, renewed and challenged. Again, depending on our mental state du jour, we may or may not feel much shift.

A teacher of mine once said that once the student is advanced enough he or she is able to find that every class is the perfect class. No matter how preachy the teacher, how off-putting the music, or how sweaty the neighbor, an advanced student adeptly extracts the lesson from each situation.

But what about those of us just getting in to yoga? There are clearly some teachers who take advantage of their position of power (a roomful of open ears for 90 minutes) to climb onto a soap box and impose their views. Is this ok? As a student, do you find your zen or protest the violation of your space?

As Neal Pollack (author of the new book Stretch: The Unlikely Making of

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SoCal Solstice Celebration

June 24th, 2010 levis25

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by Kathryn Budig

I was so excited when Elena Brower, Goddess of yoga, invited me to demo at the maha event–Yoga in Central Park–but once I added up my financial sum for taking off, my numbers were looking dangerously high. Dismayed, but happy to stay off of a plane and knowing all is as it should be, I decided to watch the live stream from the genius boys at Yogaglo.

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BrokeAsana Yoga

February 10th, 2010 wynona

piggy.jpgI loved this post from Chicagonow.com’s BrokeAss Blog about how to get your yoga in without emptying your wallet. Of course, the suggestions are specifically for the Chicago area, but I think we can take their ideas and make them work no matter where you live. Yoga is expensive if you’re willing to pay the fancy studio prices, but if you’re a little creative you can get all (or at least most) of the studio benefits for a fraction of the cost.

1. Take advantage of new student specials. If you live in an urban area with a lot of health clubs and gyms, you can get your yoga on for free for a LONG time by simply trying out something new and taking advantage of the introductory offers. Many studios and teachers offer their first class for free or reduced rates, and gyms sometimes offer free weeklong passes for anyone who wants to give them a try. Does this compromiseyour comittment to asteya, non-stealing? I think not! Teachers, studios, and health clubs offer free trials to get you through the door and they know you might not come back.

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