The effort of schlepping all the way into London felt, on the first day, slightly over-keen. The sessions were relaxed and rather wonderful, but a big adjustment. Angela's style is very relaxed and flowing. Sessions evolve organically from the train of Angela and Victor's discussions, and any urges that seem to occur to them at the time.
On the first day we practised perhaps 10 postures in 6 hours. This was a big adjustment for me; when I normally do about that number of postures in my 20 min morning yoga session.
My big aha of day one was reconnecting to my inner voice... I also discovered the ability to practice Nadi Sodhana (alternative nostril breathing) without the need to physically block my nostrils (which felt pretty amazing). By the end of the day I had spent so much time paying attention to my breath that I could feel subtle changes in my nostrils and breathing when my yoga partner for the day wiggled my toes in turn.
Day two followed in much the same manner. Lots of free discussion and spontaneous poses. In the afternoon discussion trailed to everyone's experience of yoga. Both Angela and Victor were taught by Iyangar so have a unique point of view on the yoga teachings of today. Furthermore there were lots of yoga students in the room that had done much and travelled much. It was the most fascinating and thought provoking discussion I have perhaps ever experienced on the subject of yoga.
It is so easy to get caught up into the view that yoga has been around for hundreds of years, and with that we make certain assumptions; 1) yoga is always safe and 2) the methods of yoga taught are complete and pure, 'as if they were written on tablets by the gods'. What we forget is that this is not the case. In fact most of popular yoga today derives from a few of Krishnamacharya's followers; Patthabi Jois, Iyangar and Indra Devi. It is not, in it's current form, very old at all.
"You may never have heard of him but Tirumalai Krishnamacharya influenced or perhaps even invented your yoga. Whether you practice the dynamic series of Pattabhi Jois, the refined alignments of B.K.S. Iyengar, the classical postures of Indra Devi, or the customized vinyasa of Viniyoga, your practice stems from one source: a five-foot, two-inch Brahmin born more than one hundred years ago in a small South Indian village."
So much of yoga today is so fixed and formed into neat, discrete postures. You must do this then this then this. The truth is many yoga teachers of today teach yoga in a way so structured it is almost stilted and forceful. But historically yoga is a rainbow of colours rather than a neat palette, there are a million postures, and a million practices that can be (and should be) completely different dependant on the subject.
Today's yoga is also very masculine, historically there were female yogis 'yoginis' but they taught one-on-one; never writing anything down. It seems sad that this yoga has been lost to time, and is not available to use. Perhaps Angela in her classes, and even myself by really feeling yoga rather than forcing it to fit a mold, can rediscover the true and feminine way of yoga.
Highly recommended, especially to my fellow girlies.
> Visit Angela and Victor's site
> Article from Yoga Journal
