It’s great fun to interview Mark Robberds because he is so chilled and as much as surfer dude as he is an Ashtangi. We get to talk about his twin passions and how he works on his strength, lessons he has learnt himself from other teachers as well as techniques he incorporates into his practice. I even managed to get him to demo stuff right there in the interview, not fair I know but hey he is still young and virile.
It was such a pleasure to be able to practice with John Scott recently and to do this interview at Purple Valley in Goa. John’s energy and enthusiasm radiates from him and inspires all those lucky enough to be in the shala. I took this opportunity to delve into some of the things that are at the core of John’s teachings, such as the vinyasa count, and the embodiment of the posture’s essence (my words not his).
Laruga Glaser is an authorized level 2 Ashtanga yoga teacher whose practice at times seems to defy gravity. If you watch a video of Laruga in action (such as the brilliant one by Alessandro Sigismondi: The Impossible ) it is obvious that her small frame is immensely strong but what impresses me even more is the fluidity and femininity of her practice. In this interview I get to ask Laruga about how she works on these qualities of her practice, her own battle with periods of severely low energy, adjusting and much more.
Alexander Medin is now into the second year of his ‘Back In The Ring’ project, which aims to help people suffering from drug addiction (mostly heroin) to stay clean through the use of Ashtanga Yoga and the selfless helping of others. The mission statement is: Strength, clarity and transformation through helping others.
When I heard about Josefin being in a Swedish prison, i thought that can’t be right, not our sweet bollywood dancing energy power house. Then I found out more and it all made sense, Josefin is taking yoga to the prisoners. I love to see yoga used in these inspiring ways and I had to ask her to tell us about it.
Vinyasa Flow teacher Julie Martin is director of Brahmani Yoga and leads workshops and trainings around the world. In this interview we talk about the importance of sequencing, non linear movement and how her own teaching practices have changed over the years to reflect new understandings of human anatomy and injury.
I met Josefin a few years ago and was taken by her joy of life and enthusiasm for using dance and yoga to help people in unfortunate circumstances. With my new column up and running I thought it was a great opportunity to share with you some of the inspirational work that is happening. India has been Josefin’s second home for the past 20 years where she has dedicated her time to learn yoga and dance her passions in life. She discovered the happiness and freedom in the practice, seeing the effects from yoga in people from all different paths of life she decided to start teaching in 2005.
It was great to be able to catch up with Louisa Sear at her new retreat center, ‘The Shala Bali’. Louisa started running yoga teacher trainings over 20 years ago, back in the day when they lasted 9 months. One of the things we talk about in this interview is the key facets that have remained as the trend has been for shorter and shorter courses. The development of a personal practice is one of the things that Louisa feels is important for creating awareness and we delve into how to promote this and the pitfalls to look out for.
It’s great to have the opportunity to talk to teachers that have been with the Ashtanga practice for so many years. Mark explains the things he emphasizes in his teaching, breaking patterns, bandhas and more.
In this interview with Michael I got to ask him about how he started his journey into yoga, and especially his rather unorthodox approach to teaching and his own practice. Using music! (yes you read right). And of course much more!