Manuso lead this morning’s asana class of forward bends. His style of teaching seems better suited to me (than Lois’s). He’s methodically and repetitive. I love the way he has us do the pose, gives us one instruction, and then repeats it over, and over, and over, and over layering another and another and another instruction to the pose each
Friday night we had a yummy dinner at India House, north of the hotel far enough to give me a blister on the back of my right heel. This was part of the dinner circle program arranged by the conference. Seven of us ate really good food in a loud, busy, bustling space. Chicago is a vibrant place with lots
Fatigue starts to set in for me after about six hours of asana. I know this from past weekend workshops and this weekend was no different. The afternoon asana was entitled Making Friends with Forward Bends. Forward bends and I are not friends, so what better time to extend an invitation for friendship. The teacher, Faith Russell from Madison, got
The mornings theme was backbends. Were here with just mats and blankets no chairs so it was urdhva danurasana the classic way. The preps was brutal. Lois Steinberg started with twists (Marichyasana 3, Bharadvajasana 1 and 2, and Ardha Matsyandrasana) followed by a series of down dog, jumping to charuranga dandasana, up dog, down dog, uttanasana, urdhva vastasana
Patricia Walden led the morning pranayama. We did Viloma 1 and 2, two of my favorites. What I enjoyed more, thought, was Patricia. She is clear, has a great demonstration and is quite a lovely soul. She spent time at the beginning of class talking about the sutras for the day and incorporated the ideas of the gunas through the
The group is broken up into seven groups and the rooms share walls. One class inevitably gets started before the one next door and gets to the three ohms and invocation before the other group. Depending on when the room next door gets started, it can almost sound like a round. And the singers in all the classes Ive been
The conference is well run/well organized. There are more things to do than we have time for. Id like to go to the movie house, a museum, shopping but theres just enough time to eat, rest, change and get back to the next session. In a big city like Chicago, everything takes longer (walking to/fro, getting the elevator, going to
The afternoon session I chose to attend was on inversions. We started with head down poses: downward facing dog, uttanasana, and a prasarita padottanasana that felt like it lasted 10 minutes. The concentration in this session was the focus on the forearms pressing and circularizing. Gem of the day, a way to place the forearms in preparation for sirsasana.
Laurie Blakeney was my teacher for the first asana class. Ironic, since I can take class in Ann Arbor with her any day of the week. Reality is I dont. So, it was good to learn from her again. The session was standing poses and she started us with downward facing dog learning to roll the abdomen with a
Based on our level of experience at registration, the conference organizers have divided us into groups. There are seven tracks, each having about 60 people or so in them. Dean Lerner taught the pranayama class I was in and hes quite calming, serene, and specific. Id not ever taken a class from him before and I liked him right off.