Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Happy New Year

Well we packed The Love Shack, that is for sure. We made room for 40 people to practice and what fun it was. We had folks from all different traditions and studios and it was a really great way to say good-bye to 2008 and welcome in 2009. I had RSVPs from about 20 people so it was a wonderful surprise to find that twice that many people came. Really, the group was amazingly friendly, capable and fun-loving and the space was fantastic and welcoming. I led the practice vinyasa-style and we played with some fun handstand variations and got into drop backs. Basically, it was good sweaty fun.

A few scenes from our practice. I didn't take a lot of pictures so any of you who have some, email them to me and I will post them also.


Pre-practice gathering and Dale being silly. And the question on everyone mind is, "Dude where do you get those pants?"
And here is the lovely Lauran Janes welcoming us to The Love Shack and sharing her vision for the space. And really, its a great vision- A co-op where each teacher is their own studio. Teachers can rent the space and pay a reasonable fee to support and sustain the facility and after that, the class fees collected go directly to the teacher.

Here Kristen is going up into handstand from urdhva prasarita eka padasana. Kristen is getting ready to take a 3-month sailing adventure so I was pretty psyched that she was able to amke it to practice again before she takes off. Three times now we have said good-bye but I think this time was really it. But she will be back in the spring, probably with LOTS of great stories.

Here is Anne assisting Lauren. Although Lauran has a fantastic free-standing handstand and so does Anne but they partnered up in the spirit of things. (And as a commercial here- Anne leads a practice at Clear Spring Studio on Friday afternoons at 3:30. They use an Iyengar sequence and this would be a great place to hone in on your inversion practice. Anyway, link to her blog from mine and you can get details about that.)

Here is Jesse and Ron working together. Love the precision in action.

Here is me and Anne. We are working here on pressing up to handstand from ardha baddha padmottanasana and then working on padmasana in handstand.
Again...
Ustrasana...

again...

Here is Karuna demonstrating urdhva danruasana. Prior to this shot, she was showing how to plug your arm bones into the shoulder sockets.
Karuna, making it look easy.
Here is the group in urdhva. Pretty nice sight, really. 40 people all up inthe pose. Now that is a great percentage!


Again...
Working on drop backs.

So again, this is only kind of a glimpse at the practice. Lots of people were doing great poses. At least half the folks in attendnace are yoga teachers. At the end we introduced outselves and I had people who teach share where we could find them around town. It was an amazing group of teachers, "yoga junkies", bodyworkers and friends. That I think was really the inspiring part of the practice to me- that we could all just come together to share the love of practice and to support Lauran's vision which is really a vision for all of us. Thanks to everyone who came and to all of you who donated money so generously. It is a great momentum for The Love Shack to start off with.
For those of you who are interested in the sequence here it is- I had planned a few things more and a bit differently but this worked out pretty well nonetheless.
Childs pose
AMS
uttanasana
surya namaskar A 5X

First Flow: Do complete flow 2X on each side

  • crescent
  • standing back arch
  • uttanasana
  • step back with left leg to a right leg lunge with knee down and big Inner Spiral in the back leg then the front leg then the back leg then step
  • wild thing with right leg high and then step forward with right leg to
  • anjaneyasana with a big back bend.
  • vinyasa
  • repeat from the beginning only step back with right leg for the lunge

Second Flow- Do complete flow 2X

  • utkatasana deep sits- 5X(Don't ask, too hard to describe)
  • one-legged down dog to knee to shoulder flow-5X
  • wild thing
  • vira One
  • Revolved Vira 2
  • Reverse Revolved Vira 2
  • revolved lunge
  • deep lunge with forearms to the floor
  • revolved lunge with quadricep stretch
  • repeat from beginning but do second side

Third Flow- Do complete flow 2X

  • garudasana
  • standing baby cradle
  • eka pada galavasana to eka pada bakasana- to bakasana to chataranga
  • anjaneyasana
  • anjaneyasana with back leg in bhekasana
  • vira one
  • revolved parsvakonasana
  • eka pada koundinyasana
  • wild thing
  • parsvottansana
  • parivritta trikonasana
  • parivritta ardha chandrasana
  • parivritta ardh chandr chapasana
  • urdhva prasarita eka padasana
  • repeat on other side

handstand from urdhva prasarita eka padasana

Fourth Flow- complete flow 2X

  • utthita hasta padangusthasana
  • parsva utthita hasta padangusthasana
  • ardha baddha padmottanasana
  • hop back to down dog with foot in lotus
  • vasisthasana 1, 2
  • parsvakonasana clasped
  • trikonasana
  • wild thing
  • repeat on second side

Handstand press from half lotus

Fifth Flow: do 2X

  • ustrasana
  • waving ustrasanana
  • ustrasana
  • jump through
  • setu bandhasana
  • urdhva danurasana
  • navasansa
  • work on drop backs

Sixth Flow: do 2X

  • down dog
  • Right leg forward to eka pada rajakapotasansa prep with forward bend
  • bring back leg around to agnisthambasana
  • twist over top knee in agnisthambasana
  • krouncasana variation (Keepy bottom leg as though in agni)
  • surya yantrasana variation
  • ardha baddha padma pascimottanasana
  • pascimottasansa
  • vinyasa and repeat on second side

Seventh Flow: 2X

  • supta padangusthasana 1, 2
  • supta padmasana
  • matsyasana
  • urdhva mukha pascimottanasana
  • jathara partivarttonasana
  • repeat second side

Savasana

ENJOY

5 comments:

Anne-Marie Schultz said...

It was great fun, great flow, great space.

Happy New Year Everyone.

Anne

Josie Houpt said...

My good friend and I went through your listed practice today, wow! Thank you soooo much for the sequencing, it rawks!! You are such a gifted teacher, I thank you for continuous inspiration...

Much love,

Josie, Toronto, ON

Dale said...

Actually, that's just the amusing combination of my Tourette's and an itchy nose that I refused to pick at that time :-). But I'm glad that it turned out funny...

So in return for publishing embarrasing pics of me, I'm hijacking your blog....

That was a great practice!!! The sequence was so well designed that I even managed to protect my blown psoas - things proceeded by small enough steps that I was able to warm up & stretch this old body gradually, & I had alot of time to feel my way into the gradually more open poses until I came gently to my limit. I love this practice :-).

You know, I am really enthusiastic about the yoga coop concept! I really enjoyed the part of the New year practice that was hanging out & doing yoga with friends. The hangin-wit-my-homies aspect of yoga is very powerfully nurturing for me.

So I'm thinking of yoga parties :-). Have you even heard Madeline say that what she would really like in a yoga class isn't so much someone to lead the class, as a DJ ?

And I'd like to do a whole pile of various self-led things that would work best for me with other yogis around. Like - I'd like ideas on things that I can add into the Ashtanga Primary series to spice it up a bit. And I'd like to practice some poses with assists from my peers. Or maybe work thru the Eye of the Tiger. The list goes on, but mainly, I remember some open practices in the past - yoga, sweat, laughter, freely interacting with my buds, helping each other, listening to each other's favorite yoga grooves.

If we play at the Love Shack, the cost will be minimal, maybe $5 per person - we can play for cheap and maybe even be able to bless the co-op with something extra :-).

I'm thinking Sat lunchish or early afternoon, or maybe Sun after Zoe's class. We could rock the shack for a couple hours or until we get tired :-).

My urge is to bring my mat, some rockin yoga rhythms (yeah, a little Aerosmith jet fuels my vinyasa :-), and an intention to have fnu, and see what happens. Or we could decide on a more-or-less theme or sequence, or whatever.

Sooooo - please contribute your thoughts & let's see if there is any enthusiasm for a yoga party:

1) Interested?

2) What format/activity/sequence would you like? My thinking is a basically unled practice, but that does not preclude having a group intention to do Eye of the Tiger or Third Series or 5 Tibetans or 13 1/2 weeks or whatever :-).

3) What time slot works best for you?

4) Would you like an official teacher to be there - someone to be continuously available to individually assist & guide you? If so, are you willing to kick in some cash to bribe her not to practice with the rest of us :-) ?

5) Other thoughts, ideas, whatever?

Thanks!!!! Dale

ps. The pants are from Kohls. They are modified men's jammies. If anyone is interested, I can tell or show you how to mod them to preserve your modesty & remove annoying excess fabric like pockets.

Dale said...

Actually, that's just the amusing combination of my Tourette's and an itchy nose that I refused to pick at that time :-). But I'm glad that it turned out funny...

So in return for publishing embarrasing pics of me, I'm hijacking your blog....

That was a great practice!!! The sequence was so well designed that I even managed to protect my blown psoas - things proceeded by small enough steps that I was able to warm up & stretch this old body gradually, & I had alot of time to feel my way into the gradually more open poses until I came gently to my limit. I love this practice :-).

You know, I am really enthusiastic about the yoga coop concept! I really enjoyed the part of the New year practice that was hanging out & doing yoga with friends. The hangin-wit-my-homies aspect of yoga is very powerfully nurturing for me.

So I'm thinking of yoga parties :-). Have you even heard Madeline say that what she would really like in a yoga class isn't so much someone to lead the class, as a DJ ?

And I'd like to do a whole pile of various self-led things that would work best for me with other yogis around. Like - I'd like ideas on things that I can add into the Ashtanga Primary series to spice it up a bit. And I'd like to practice some poses with assists from my peers. Or maybe work thru the Eye of the Tiger. The list goes on, but mainly, I remember some open practices in the past - yoga, sweat, laughter, freely interacting with my buds, helping each other, listening to each other's favorite yoga grooves.

If we play at the Love Shack, the cost will be minimal, maybe $5 per person - we can play for cheap and maybe even be able to bless the co-op with something extra :-).

I'm thinking Sat lunchish or early afternoon, or maybe Sun after Zoe's class. We could rock the shack for a couple hours or until we get tired :-).

My urge is to bring my mat, some rockin yoga rhythms (yeah, a little Aerosmith jet fuels my vinyasa :-), and an intention to have fnu, and see what happens. Or we could decide on a more-or-less theme or sequence, or whatever.

Sooooo - please contribute your thoughts & let's see if there is any enthusiasm for a yoga party:

1) Interested?

2) What format/activity/sequence would you like? My thinking is a basically unled practice, but that does not preclude having a group intention to do Eye of the Tiger or Third Series or 5 Tibetans or 13 1/2 weeks or whatever :-).

3) What time slot works best for you?

4) Would you like an official teacher to be there - someone to be continuously available to individually assist & guide you? If so, are you willing to kick in some cash to bribe her not to practice with the rest of us :-) ?

5) Other thoughts, ideas, whatever?

Thanks!!!! Dale

ps. The pants are from Kohls. They are modified men's jammies. If anyone is interested, I can tell or show you how to mod them to preserve your modesty & remove annoying excess fabric like pockets.

Dale said...

please remove the second copy of my post. It looks like I am somehow reposting my comments by using the Back button on Netscape. Sorry.