Wow! I never published this blog! 2023, when virtual YogaWorks changed their platform.
During this final week of my teaching for YogaWorks, I may be a bit nostalgic. There are so many luminaries in these photos and many more that I am finding hidden on my computer.
It was 2007, we held a teacher training intensive in Santa Monica. YogaWorks had partnered with Allen Finger and Be Yoga in New York City. Chuck and Maty had moved to Hawaii.
I was tasked with merging the material between the YW and the Ishta trainings. While the essence of the YogaWorks method derived from the legacy of Krishnamacharya, Allen Finger’s method integrated Tantra and subtle body practices. It was a daunting and inspiring task to respectfully integrate them. One of the first things I did was to visit the New York studios to teach and introduce the YogaWorks method while taking a few classes in “Ishta” yoga, Finger’s signature style. Such memories!
I had just returned from a month in India, studying with Guruji Iyengar. My sweetheart (future husband) and I agreed to celebrate my 50th bday by staying at the Taj Mahal Hotel. I was somewhat disturbed to spend $30 on a Thali (traditional Indian meal) when I had been spending 30 cents in local restaurants. So I insisted that we visit a local place. In all my trips to India I have only been sick to my stomach twice, and that visit was a bad one! I ended up on heavy anti-biotics and pain killers while the hotel delivered a dozen roses and a doctor! Upon my return to LA I immediately boarded a plane to New York. I was so sick during that visit!
The training intensive was fabulous! One unexpected boon to the “commercialization” of yoga, is that, with YogaWorks, there was a professional business behind the teacher trainings. They would handle marketing, formatting manuals, registration, all of the business issues that support an effective program.
Teachers from New York joined us. You may recognize Natasha Rizopoulos, Julie Kleinman-Woods, Jenny Arthur, James Brown, Jasmine Lieb, Malachi Melville, Vinnie Marino, John Gaydos, Birgitte Kristen, Sonya Cottle, Thomas Taubman, Rasha!, Casey Coda, Russ Pfieffer (shout out, check out his FB group Psychology of Anatomy), Jessica Smith, Amy LaFond, Jesse Schein, Kim Haegele, Carmen Fitzgibbon, Nona Chiang, Anna Zorzo, Catherine Munro, Mia Togo, Jody Rufty from NY along with Kara Secular, Sara Bell, Chrissy Carter, oh Jee whiz, what an amazing ride it has been. Many of these fabulous teachers now own their own studios, or have written books, or travel the world disseminating the art of yoga. We are forever the essence of YogaWorks. May your and our journey continue to thrive, to nourish and to shed light into the hearts of many. THANK YOU everyone, now and always!