Workshop with Mark Stephens: The Aesthetics of Yoga

Agenda

• Día 1
• Día 2
• Día 3
• Día 4
• 2 June 2022

• 19:00 Masterclass19:00 - 20:30Masterclass

• 3 June 2022

• 9:30 Taking the Seat of the Teacher & Essential Elements of Asana Practice9:30 - 13:30Lecture and conversation about what it means to teach yoga, with a focus on the role of the teacher, ethics, and essential elements of asana, including how we breathe, move, stabilize, gaze, persist, detach, align, energize, modify, support, touch, listen, and love. Related topics might be fear, amusement, courage, compassion, wonder, and calmness. Standing, hand & arm support and backbending asanas Part 1

• 15:00 Standing, hand & arm support and backbending asanas Part 215:00 - 17:00Standing, hand & arm support and backbending asanas Part 2

• 17:30 Masterclass17:30 - 19:00Masterclass

• 4 June 2022

• 10:00 Surya Namaskar Remix and Refinement10:00 - 14:00It might sound blasphemous or pretentious, but after 100 years we can improve the basic Sun Salutations created in the early 1920s by the Krishnamacharya and Sivananda gurus. With our 100 years of accumulated experience and the insights of human sciences, there a few simple remixes and several principles rooted in biomechanics and neuroscience that can make these precious gems of yoga better for all – safer, more accessible, more sustainable, and more beneficial. In exploring the new methods and techniques for practicing and guiding Surya Namaskara A/B and Classical Surya Namaskara, we will also consider how best to guide them as students and teachers.

• 15:30 Waking Up to Energetic Balance and Sustained Joy15:30 - 17:00First, we will simply sit and tune in. Second, we will go very slowly in gradually expanding, balancing, and refining how we breathe, exploring a variety of pranayama techniques, with just a little bit of movement. Third, will sit and play with a few ways of cultivating simpler yet more expansive consciousness and joyful awareness.

• 17:30 Masterclass17:30 - 19:00Masterclass

• 5 June 2022

• 10:00 Masterclass10:00 - 11:30Masterclass

• 12:00 Guru-Free Satsang: Gathering Together for Truth12:00 - 14:00The English term "conversation" is rooted in Latin, conversari, "to keep company with" and "to turn." It implies an exchange of ideas, some of which might be contrary, but there's a friendly mood, "to enjoy oneself," "to have a good time." At a time of great conflict among friends, family, villages, regions and nations, we and need more conversations. In the spirit of the Sanskrit satya, "truth," we will gather to converse about a variety of topics that matter in practicing and teaching yoga, such as the nature of fascia, the vagus nerve, the brain's default mode and salience networks, yoga therapy, psychedelics, science, mysticism, mythology, and whatever interests you in relation to yoga

• 15:30 Farewell Class15:30 - 18:00This mixed-level class flows like a three-act play: First, we will sit and breathe, explore several pranayama techniques and an initial meditation practice, then visualize our intentions more clearly. (45 min.) Second, we will explore a gradually deepening array of interwoven asanas from each asana family (standing, core, arm support, backbends, twists, seated and supine forward bends and hip openers, and inversions), with many options for different conditions and intentions. (60 min.) Third, we will rest, then breathe to simplify everything, and then sit in deeper contemplation. If there’s interest, we’ll sing. (45 min.)