On May 24, 2020, The New York Times dedicated the newspaper’s front page to those who have died from COVID-19. Including no other information than first and last name, age, and city of the deceased, the newspaper offered a somber representation of the staggering loss from corona virus seen in the United States since the early days of March. While unable to publish an exhaustive list, The Times’ intent was to reflect the milestone of 100,000 deaths in the U.S. due to the virus.

Months have passed since The Times’ article was published. The numbers continue to rise at an alarming rate. On May 24, I read each of those names. I knew, while they were strangers to me, they were someone’s mother, teacher, school bus driver, friend, coworker, grandmother, and/or child. Each person on that list had a story and a family. While those narratives of love and loss in the time of corona are not mine to tell, I wanted to contribute what I could during this unprecedented time. What exactly that would become is still making its way through my keyboard.

As I watched the world move forward in the attempt at economic recovery and establishing a new normalcy, I also listened to the stories of real love and loss around me. This includes a collection of personal experiences from two nurses who share little relation except a cross-country dedication to service at all cost as well as the narrative of a man whose connection to COVID equates to the loss of a father. I braid these intimate stories together.

I do so thinking of this quote, “People don’t listen to statistics; they listen to stories.” I hope that people will listen to real tales of love and loss, worries and warnings, and make the choice to protect themselves and their neighbors not just because it is policy but because it is the right thing to do. Much continues to be clarified in the months of requisite change to how and where we live our daily lives. Yet the veritable truth is the days of living solely for oneself are over.

While two thousand miles apart, nurses Kristen Pérez and Jennifer Terry told similar stories in regard to the gradual but marked shifts occurring in their hospitals in the early days of COVID-19. A Los Angeles-based nurse, Terry described those early days in her hospital. In early March, it “slowly changed from ‘this is only happening in China’ to ‘ok, maybe it’s not just China’ to ‘maybe it’s everywhere” to ‘we’re not prepared for a pandemic and don’t have enough PPE to handle it’.” She explained, “It went from, ‘this isn’t my problem’, to being ‘this is a problem worldwide’.”

The inability for medical professionals to anticipate the virulence of the virus was not isolated to the West Coast. As a nurse in Chicago, Kristen Pérez explained that the full shift from pre-COVID to COVID-occupancy occurred when her hospital’s administration dedicated the entire seventh wing as the COVID floor. “At the worst,” Pérez said, “we saw 75-100 patients a day. That included the seventh wing, the 6th floor ICU, and we ended up closing down and taking over the pediatric ICU to use for additional adult COVID patient overflow.”

The rapid increase in patients was not only overwhelming but unnerving as many nurses and aides began to fear for their own safety. Some hospitals quickly implemented policies to protect the nurses; others did not. Pérez said, One day, we had a meeting, and the unit manager said, ‘I don’t want to see anyone wearing a mask’.” At that time, mask-wearing was a violation of hospital policy, but the Nurses’ Union in Chicago fought to get nurses protective gear.

In a matter of weeks, Pérez’s hospital policy shifted from, “Do not wear a mask even in the hallway” to “You should just wear a surgical mask when you are taking care of COVID patients” to “All people in the hospital would be provided a surgical mask.” By mid-April, Pérez explained, “All people in the hospital were provided a surgical mask and all patients were required to wear it while the nurse was in their room performing care.”

While hospitals started shifting policies to protect their employees and patients, many healthcare professionals were left to make challenging personal decisions. “One nurse had to send her two- or three-year-old daughter to live with her grandfather,” said Pérez. Others, like her, had to separate from family and friends after exposure to COVID patients.

With the deluge of patients and extended care that continues to tax the system, many healthcare professionals don’t even have time to process or grieve the loss of their coworkers. “As of [June, 11, 2020] two nurses, a surgical tech, and one nurse’s husband have died, and several hundred have contracted the virus from my hospital alone,” Pérez explained.

Words cannot capture the pain each practitioner has witnessed, but Pérez spoke of her first experience with a COVID patient. “I could see the fatigue of her opening her eyes and turning her head to look at me. Her voice was so weak, she could only produce a whisper. It looked tortuous and awful. It scared me to see her look and feel so bad.”

Stories like those told by Kristen and Jennifer serve as both a reminder that, while the young and physically fit may feel like this virus won’t reach them, as critically acclaimed writer and renowned director, Nelson George, states, “This virus is no joke.” Recently, Nelson wrote an article for Medium about his father. In our conversation, he explained the experience of watching his father, Elmer George, die due to COVID-related health complications.

As Nelson described, his father used to take his “Cadillac” motorized cart to the shop. One day, after making a trip the Bronx, Elmer came home and collapsed. After he was found alone in his apartment, Elmer was rushed to the hospital. When Mount Sinai admitted him, they diagnosed Elmer with COVID-19. As he also had diabetes, Elmer’s family knew, “This was going to be a problem.” Elmer eventually stabilized and was moved to a rehabilitation facility, but, when his blood sugar spiked, Nelson said, “The effort to stabilize him with COVID and the diabetes was too much.”

When the doctors didn’t believe Elmer’s health would improve, they allowed Nelson to visit his father in the rehabilitation facility. That afternoon, Nelson watched his father struggle “with air in his nostrils, but, despite the air, every breath was an incredible battle. He was fighting, fighting, fighting for every breath.” That evening, on April 25, 2020, Elmer George died from complications related to COVID-19 infection.

This corona virus has taken a toll on our most intimate relationships. It has ended businesses. And its effects have touched every sector of economics, politics, and health care. It has shown Americans the fissures and fractures in our healthcare system.

It has also clarified our ability to relate to and empathize with people we do not know personally. As we define the moral compass of this nation, this era has required us to reevaluate self-centeredness against collectivist tendencies. As Pérez explained, this is our “opportunity to give something of yourself to your fellow human. If everyone did something, when you pay your good deed forward, that can expand way more rapidly than Corona virus.”

The caveat is that, “Everyone has to participate.” Nelson seconded the sentiment as he stated, “This isn’t about your civil liberties; it is about being a part of society where people look out for each other. It’s not about you; it’s about being a responsible citizen.”

While these personal accounts are iterations of a collectively challenging and heartbreaking era, the time of corona is also the time of confused and confusing information. From conflicting news briefings from the executive branch to the sometimes aligned, sometimes splintered recommendations from the World Health Organization and the CDC, the volume of news circulating in regard to best health and safety practices is not exhaustive but exhausting.

Thus, where does the private citizen go for trustworthy information? Backing science over opinion, Pérez explained, “People are looking for things that agree with their own personal opinion, but science looks at things and removes personal opinion.”

“We all have preconceived notions in regard to how we think the world works. But scientific research teaches you to look at the world without your biases. You have researchers, doctors, and nurses who have dedicated their whole lives to the study and practice of science, and we are not making it up. Nurses are in the rooms with patients with COVID-19 and are watching them suffer. And they are watching their coworkers suffer and die. And that is not fake.”

To those who think COVID-19 isn’t real, I implore you to reach out to the healthcare professionals in your community. Listen to the stories of those who have seen the pain and suffering the corona virus has produced firsthand, and seek out empirically-based scientific research.

Pérez was asked what she would say to those who continue to think COVID-19 is either a hoax or won’t affect them. She replied that, while they risk their lives every day they go into work, if someone comes into the hospital because they are sick, “We are still going to help you. We are still going to try to save your life. We will still bring you whatever kind of juice you like that makes you feel better, and we will still give you a phone charger so you can call your mom.”

It seems the moral compass of our nation has become a topic of debate. In the time of corona it has largely, but not exclusively, hinged on binaries like economics or public health, getting things back to “normal” as quickly as possible or taking prudent, patient precautions to ensure the health and safety for all citizens. Yet the future of our nation depends on what we do now, how we treat each other, and how and how often we vote.

While science-driven data is a crucial component to making well-informed decisions for our children, parents and partners, neighbors, strangers, and ourselves, I have learned data doesn’t move the heart. Stories do.

Thus, in an era of corona virus, in an era of love and staggering loss, each of us can read the names on The New York Times’ front page. We may even individually or collectively mourn so much loss. We can also take personal responsibility to live nonviolently.

The tenets seem simple – wash your hands, wear a face mask, and stand six feet apart. But, as with yoga asana, philosophy, or meditation, the work is not in the teachings. It is – and always has been – firmly rooted in the practice.

Marja Lankinen

Marja Lankinen is a poet, prospective scholar, and former professional dancer (Beyonce, Oprah, The Billboard Awards). Recently, she graduated from Harvard University with an ALM degree in the field of English and is currently an independent researcher and freelance writer. Marja has been a staff writer at LA YOGA Magazine since 2017.

www.yogafordancers.com

The post Love and Loss in the Time of Corona appeared first on LA Yoga Magazine - Ayurveda & Health.

Meg Harper and Davalois Fearon in If the Dancer Dances (Monument Releasing)

Exploring Artistic Investigation in If the Dancer Dances

The heart of dance – just as is with all tumultuous and symphonic forms of artistic expression – is a pas de deux between love and conflict. No better reflection of such coupling exists than the documentary, If the Dancer Dances.

The film is directed by Maia Wechsler and curated by former Merce Cunningham dancer, Lise Friedman. As this duo captures the intimate and electric world of one choreographer’s aim to re-stage Merce Cunningham’s work on a company other than Cunningham’s own, we see the memories of Merce’s dancers. Through them, we see Merce himself. As his dancers etch Cunningham choreography onto new bodies, the transmission of idea begins, and exposed is the true nature of dance history. Neither lived in museum nor textbook. Dance exists – purely and most profoundly – when it is lived in and breathed by the bloodline of dance. Through this transmission, Cunningham’s work can and ever will live beyond the Merce’s own final bow.

Stephen Petronio, director and choreographer known for his movement with no punctuation, embarked upon the task of setting Merce Cunningham’s piece, RainForest, on his titular company. Cunningham, as Petronio remarks, was, “the bedrock of artistic investigation in the dance world.” After Merce passed and when Petronio’s own mentor, Trisha Brown, got sick, Petronio said, “the adult world as I know it cracked,” and he questioned how to keep their work alive. Petronio’s answer was, “to continue.”

Thus, Stephen paired former Cunningham dancers with his own Stephen Petronio Dance Company dancers to set Cunningham’s abstract and Andy Warhol-infused work, RainForest. Few tasks could have been taller for Petronio and his company members as Cunningham technique is a far pendulum swing from Petronio’s quintessential kinetic movement. Cunningham choreography is known for pure, un-stylized movement without intention and yet intentionally rebellious against dancing in tandem with music. This paired with Petronio-trained dancers sounds like madness. Or magic. As former Cunningham dancer, Gus Solomon’s Jr. states, “the very fast-ness and very slow-ness approach impossibility. And that is exciting.”

If the Dancer Dances, Everything is There

We see the technical prowess of Petronio’s dancers at odds with that of what Cunningham’s work requires. As Petronio company member and RainForest dancer, Nick Sciscione, states, “I’m afraid it’s going to be wrong. It’s gonna always be wrong.” Yet, if there is a wrong 99% of the time, a dancer will stay until the brutal end for the 1% yes. Through their tribulations with translating such work, we see Petronio’s dancers learn to initiate differently, to bend their abilities and move from different origins. We see them reach for the branch unknown and dance with the electricity of impossibility.

For the Stephen Petronio Company to premier Merce Cunningham’s work, RainForest, at the Joyce Theater in New York City was a gamble. And yet, whether reckless or responsible, as Merce himself had said, “if the dancer dances, everything is there.” The struggle, the attempt, the mess, the symphony, and the glory, it is all within the bloodline of bodies in love, in conflict, and forever in process. To spend one’s life perfecting a fleeting moment is the way, and, as Cunningham dancer, Meg Harper remarks, “the real beauty of the transmission takes place after we’ve left.”

Marja Lankinen

Marja Lankinen is a poet, prospective scholar, and former professional dancer (Beyonce, Oprah, The Billboard Awards). Recently, she graduated from Harvard University with an ALM degree in the field of English and is currently an independent researcher and freelance writer. Marja has been a staff writer at LA YOGA Magazine since 2017.

www.yogafordancers.com

The post The Artistic Transmission of Dance Comes Alive in If the Dancer Dances appeared first on LA Yoga Magazine - Ayurveda & Health.

Unplug Meditation Photo by David Young-Wolff

For former fashion and makeover mogul Suze Yalof Schwartz, opening Unplug Meditation was a feat of feeling. “I run this business based on feeling,” says Suze. And while people warned against intuition-based business practices, Unplug Meditation is booming. Unplug Meditation includes the founding Santa Monica studio, the newly minted second location in West Hollywood, and a world famous Unplug Meditation smartphone app that reaches 60+ countries.

You can see Suze’s keen eye for style in every part of the design of the Unplug Meditation studios. You’ll also notice it while perusing Unplug’s floor-to-ceiling bookshelves heralding titles by New York Times best-selling authors and visionaries of the meditation and personal development worlds, many of whom have visited or spoken at Unplug. Every item in the perfectly curated cache of mugs and playing cards, books and glittered jars is a reflection of Suze’s taste. If she would read it, buy it, use it, or love it herself, an item makes its way into the collection.

Photo of Unplug boutique area by David Young-Wolff

Suze’s twenty years in the fashion industry have primed this makeover guru’s ability to be in front of a trend. As the Associate Accessories Editor for Vogue and Executive Fashion Editor at Large for Glamour, she covered the Oscars’ red carpet for Access Hollywood and did makeovers on Good Morning America and The Today Show.

When she searched for her second Unplug studio location, Suze found what was famously named, “The ugliest building in all of Los Angeles.” Suze states, “I saw what it could be.” That same ugly duckling edifice among its couture shop neighbors is now the “It” place on Melrose Avenue.

Unplug Mindfully Plans Classes

When designing her class roster, Suze says, “I think about my husband—who is in the financial world and not interested in the woo woo and I ask myself, ‘Would Marc sit through this class?’ And if he wouldn’t, we’re not doing it. Although we do broaden our offerings on Friday nights to include just about anything. So no matter whether you are super spiritual or just looking to destress, you will have as profound an experience as the person next to you.” The mindfully simple language allows everyone, from avid practitioners to new meditators, to access their own experience.

Making Over the Meditation Studio Experience

The bottom line for Unplug is for each person to leave feeling one hundred times better than when he or she came. For a makeover guru who has dressed the who’s who in fashion, celebrity, and entertainment, Suze Yalof Schwartz has now made over the meditation world. Her vision for the first drop-in meditation studio was born from a solitary idea of what is possible. Unplug has certainly changed the landscape. And because of Suze’s eye for transformation, her ripple will be felt for generations to come.

Visit Unplug Meditation in WeHo

Unplug Meditation WeHo, 8500 Melrose Ave #201, West Hollywood
Learn more about the studios and app at: unplug.com

Marja Lankinen

Marja Lankinen is a poet, prospective scholar, and former professional dancer (Beyonce, Oprah, The Billboard Awards). Recently, she graduated from Harvard University with an ALM degree in the field of English and is currently an independent researcher and freelance writer. Marja has been a staff writer at LA YOGA Magazine since 2017.

www.yogafordancers.com

The post Unplug Meditation in West Hollywood Has Classes for Everyone appeared first on LA Yoga Magazine - Ayurveda & Health.

Sister and brother duo Susan and Nick Marrufo recently opened their brick-and-mortar-dream-come-true studio in Echo Park. They combined their desire to create a safe space for self-inquiry with the reach of their imagination. Samarasa Center offers yoga, Pilates, meditation, study groups, and community gatherings – all influenced by Susan’s teacher, Sri Prem Baba. A humanitarian and spiritual master, “Baba is the pillar of this place.” He personally blessed the newest yoga and Pilates studio to hit LA’s East Side, as Samarasa will serve to be a center for Baba’s teachings.

Upcoming Workshops at Samarasa Center

Samarasa has an impressive line-up of world-renowned teachers in the upcoming workshop and training schedule. For example, author and Tantrik scholar Christopher Hareesh Wallis offers intellectual discourse in June. Tibetan Buddhist teacher, Emmy-award-winning composer and musician (also a Krishna Das band member) David Nichtern will lead a mindfulness meditation teacher training this summer. And Jovinna Chan graces Samarasa in July to teach meditative movement and dance. Later this year, Samarasa co-owner Susan Marrufo offers her six-week course on Yoga, Sex, and Death, a deep dive into the tapestry of intimacy with Self.

Transformation and the Multi-Dimensional Self

Students can visit Samarasa Center to take group or private Pilates sessions or yoga classes, as well as specialty workshops or meditation teacher trainings. Samarasa offers physical, mental, and spiritual practices for the multi-dimensional self. Susan says that the center is a space “to drop the mask and do the deep work” of self-realization and transformation. “We have it all,” says Susan, “and it’s all done well.”

For More Information on Samarasa Center

Samarasa Center
1030 N Alvarado St, LA
1.833.4AWAKEN
samarasacenter.com

Marja Lankinen

Marja Lankinen is a poet, prospective scholar, and former professional dancer (Beyonce, Oprah, The Billboard Awards). Recently, she graduated from Harvard University with an ALM degree in the field of English and is currently an independent researcher and freelance writer. Marja has been a staff writer at LA YOGA Magazine since 2017.

www.yogafordancers.com

The post Samarasa Center in Echo Park appeared first on LA Yoga Magazine - Ayurveda & Health.

Photo of Rudy-Mirkovich and Karen Russell from Yoga NoHo by Hello June Films

North Hollywood is currently living a renaissance of revitalization and reinvention. New restaurants, food trucks, vegan pop-ups, and juice bars crop up daily in this walkable section of a driving-centric city. While Yoga NoHo is not new to the neighborhood, this bustling indoor smorgasbord of wellness is under new management. In Fall 2017, former professional dancers Michelle Rudy-Mirkovich and Karen Russell took on the task of revitalizing the Yoga NoHo holistic wellness center and yoga studio.

Yoga NoHo and Community Building

Michelle found her modus operandi was authentic community building. “I’ve been to a million studios in Los Angeles, and I was always looking for community. A lot of studios would talk about that, but I would be there for a year and the teacher didn’t know my name or people would take class and leave right away. When this opportunity [to take on ownership] came my way, the students were talking to me, and the teachers knew my name. I thought ‘Oh, this is what I’m looking for.’ This is what the previous owner had built.”

Yoga NoHo and Collaboration

At Yoga NoHo, Michelle is collaborating with her friend and fellow dancer of 30 years, Karen Russell. The two of them met on their first Broadway audition. Since then they’ve lived the rock ’n roll life and made the transition to yoga. In the entertainment world, Michelle’s credits include A Chorus Line The Movie, The Big Lebowski, The Bodyguard, and touring with Cher. Karen has danced with legends including Madonna, Bette Midler, Michael Jackson, and Alice Cooper.

The Throughline is Kindness

The two of them intend to create a safe space without the frills, bells, and whistles of branding. With teachers from Anusara, Vinyasa Flow, fitness, Yin, and Restorative backgrounds, the throughline is kindness. “All of our teachers are so different. All are so loving,” says Karen. With Yoga NoHo’s intentionally small class sizes, students receive a personalized experience with their teacher and a community that they craft together.

Yoga NoHo and Wellness

In addition to yoga, Yoga NoHo features an in-house chiropractor, hypnotherapist, naturopath, and massage therapist. Studio members receive discounts on Yoga NoHo’s menu of services. With offers like $30 for two weeks and $59 for one month, Karen remarks, “We have the best prices in town!” For a studio that offers a personalized approach to health and wellness, that is more than one good deal.

Where to Find Yoga NoHo

Yoga NoHo
5257 Vineland Ave, North Hollywood
yoganoho.com

Marja Lankinen

Marja Lankinen is a poet, prospective scholar, and former professional dancer (Beyonce, Oprah, The Billboard Awards). Recently, she graduated from Harvard University with an ALM degree in the field of English and is currently an independent researcher and freelance writer. Marja has been a staff writer at LA YOGA Magazine since 2017.

www.yogafordancers.com

The post Yoga NoHo and the North Hollywood Reinvention appeared first on LA Yoga Magazine - Ayurveda & Health.

Photo of Jasmine Rausch and Andrea Marcum by Jeff Skeirik. Clothing by K-Deer. Jewelry by Gogh Jewelry Design. Hair and Makeup by Monica Simone. Location: Goorus Yoga Studio in Pacific Palisades.

When I began a career teaching yoga, I knew it would be a lifelong pursuit. I devoured teacher training programs, workshops, assistantships, online courses, and continuing education courses. The further I went, the more clearly I saw how far I had to go. Ongoing yoga teachers continuing education is an essential component of striving for excellence as a teacher.

My 200-hour training inducted me into the field. Then my in-class experience as a teacher allowed me to study students’ bodies, temperaments, and learning styles. Continuing education, under the tutelage of trusted teachers, has challenged me to outgrow old frameworks and press on to new levels of comprehension. My teachers showed me the necessity of holding space for physical, emotional, spiritual, and intellectual evolution. I have the deepest reverence for my teachers and for the practice itself. That is why I believe that pursuing further knowledge is a non-negotiable aspect of being a credible, ethical, professional yoga teacher.

As professionals, we are refining ourselves in a rapidly evolving industry. Our teachers and our teachers’ teachers pioneered yoga in the West. Those teaching today have the opportunity to shape the profession. Most licensed vocations (including physical therapy, psychology, and the like) require that people complete continuing education to maintain licensure. The emergence of this requirement is an active area of development in our nascent yet growing community. For example, teacher trainer and program director Larry Payne PhD C-IAYT requires graduates from Yoga Therapy Rx™ and Prime of Life Yoga™ to continue their education and accrue credits for their ongoing certifications. Yoga Alliance requires RYTs to complete yoga-related training in order to maintain their registration. Some of these hours must be contact hours, which means that they take place in person with a teacher. Others can be non-contact hours, completed online or remotely.

The Purpose of Continuing Education

As Dr. Larry Payne says, teachers should continue to take classes and trainings in order to maintain high standards. Continuing education serves a number of important purposes. These can include profession-wide conversations around safe teaching, informed practices, and integration of current research in physiology and body mechanics. Ongoing training helps us deepen our understanding of the ancient texts. It is vital for the ethics and integrity of our community, profession, and future. It can also expand our understanding of our role in holding space for students who come to yoga from a variety of experiences, ages, injuries, life conditions, or after experiencing trauma.

Photo of Andrea Marcum by Jeff Skeirik. Clothing by K-Deer. Jewelry by Gogh Jewelry Design. Hair and Makeup by Monica Simone. Location: Goorus Yoga in Pacific Palisades.

Yoga Teachers Continuing Education

When it comes to the historical context for this type of long-term training, Close to Om author Andrea Marcum (global master teacher and former studio owner) explains, “I thought that we just continued our education.” Andrea is a teacher who trained, as she put it, long before there were 200, and 500 hour, or other programs. Andrea has a clear personal philosophy that is often reflected by other long-time teachers, “I’m forever a student. And I think, especially if we are teachers, we have to be.”

Continuing Education and Trauma Sensitivity

One of the ways Andrea is pursuing her personal continuing education is through her enrollment in Hala Khouri’s Trauma-Informed Yoga course. At the time of our discussion, she said, “I’m about to go to Las Vegas to teach a class for lululemon for first responders and employees of the Mandalay Bay Hotel in the aftermath of the shooting. It feels like a heavy assignment. As Hala says, ‘Trauma is all around us’.”

Essential tools for teachers include the use of language, touch, and even perception. Andrea says, “The more we know the language, the more we can speak to the people in the room with maturity, grace, and kindness.” Teaching yoga today necessitates a sensitivity to trauma.

From the Physical to the Spiritual

While in Las Vegas performing for Cirque du Soleil, teacher Ivorie Jenkins finished her first 200-hour teacher training at Vegas Hot. She says, “After that first training, I knew I still needed more, then I found Annie Carpenter. That’s when yoga moved from the physical to the spiritual for me. It moved the level of consciousness higher.”

Ivorie has dedicated herself to pursuing advanced-level training through a host of Annie Carpenter courses, a 300 hour training with Noah Maze, a prenatal training, three-and-a-half months of travel and study in India, and a 10-day Vipassana course. She is currently enrolled in the Loyola Marymount University Yoga Therapy Rx™ program and is committed to completing all four levels to earn her C-IAYT with 1,000 + hours of study.

Photo of Andrea Marcum and Jasmine Rausch by Jeff Skeirik. Clothing by K-Deer. Hair and makeup by Monica Simone. Jewelry by Gogh Jewelry Design. Location Goorus Yoga in Pacific Palisades.

Yoga Teaching and Continuing Education are Lifelong Paths

Like Andrea, she believes yoga teaching is a lifelong path. Ivorie reflects, “There is always a chant that I’ve never heard or a part of the body to learn more about. The more you know, the more you know that you don’t know. Distill all the knowledge and let it sit with you, then watch what you’re learning as you relay it to your students to see if it’s actually working.”

One of the studios where Ivorie teaches is the Tantris Center for Yogic Science, which offers an innovative Continuing Education Program. The teachers gather for a few hours every week to discuss yogic texts and topics, listen to speakers, or learn from in-house masters. “It is nice to have a studio facilitate the continuing education for their teachers,” says Ivorie.

Biomechanics and Continuing Education

Yoga Physics founder and continuing education provider Alex Crow emphasizes the importance of continuing education both for a sensitivity to safety and an integration of a modern understanding of biomechanics.

“After [the first] 200 hours, despite having many years of information-seeking textual and physical practice, I knew that teaching other people with the skill I would expect from myself wasn’t going to happen with only that initial training.”

Alex was a longtime Ashtanga yoga practitioner. After experiencing a laundry list of injuries, she began further investigation into anatomy and sequencing. “I knew there was something missing in the yoga application of certain pieces of information. That missing gap was creating these outcomes that were outside of what people signed up for. As soon as I realized that certain components of the asana practice were not functioning in a sustainable way or in a way that minimized injury, I decided to spend time researching in the medical realm.”

She dug into kinesiology and biomechanics. That journey took her to her current work. She describes that work to “debunk and deconstruct much of what is taught currently [in yoga] so it can be rebuilt in a more sustainable way.” Structural differences among bodies are noteworthy even when the variables are slight. Yet, those differences were not always taken into account where she was practicing. How a student’s “perception of pain or the concept of how the nervous system regulates itself up and down, and how that affects range of motion” were not conversations she heard in her yoga classes.

When it comes to education, Run Forward

“I think it’s terribly narrow to have such reverence for certain things as if they are finite moments in time that we must keep exactly as they were, because that negates that this is always evolving. To not evolve something is to be quite blind. The best teachers want [evolution] to happen.” Alex says, “The [elder yogis] didn’t have a lot of this knowledge when the postures were created. They didn’t have MRI machines. We do now and can take that information and change the way the things are done.” As Alex suggests to the community at large, “Run forward.”

In her own pursuit of running forward, Jules Mitchell says that she took “practically every workshop from every teacher,” yet she still had unanswered questions. “I believed each principle, and would turn around and teach them.” She found that the information she received from one training was contradictory to the next, so she researched hundreds of articles in the fields of orthopedic and sports science professionals.

Jules says, “I realized that I was asking the wrong questions.” The more appropriate the questions became, the more she could reconcile conflicting principles. From there, she could figure out the best approach for each body. “Not every yoga teacher needs to have a master’s degree in biomechanics. Not every style requires it. Part of continuing your education is to pick a path and focus on something.”

Continuing Education Online and On Demand

“I think continuing education is essential. It is your responsibility to stay informed as things evolve. If you’re not finding ways to stay curious and excited, it’s easy to get bored—and be boring. Bottom line,” says teacher’s teacher Annie Carpenter.

Even with 40 years of practice, study, and teaching, Annie’s bottom line involves consistently propelling her education forward. In addition to in-person classes, Annie has recently gone online both as a student and a teacher. She’s studying Buddhism via an online course by Tricycle Magazine. Annie’s developed her own online continuing education unit with her SmartFlow training through Yogaglo.

“I had resisted online training. As a teacher, I have been fed by questions and trying to figure out what people need in the learning process. Certainly, there needs to be interaction. There needs to be community. But I travel a lot, and when I’m on the road it’s nice to have something that is continuing my education.”

There is also value to repetition; the format of online courses can allow you to experience material over and over again. This is important because as Annie says, learning is also about revisiting the same rich material over years and decades. “What do you learn the fifth time around? What do you learn the hundredth time around? My job as a teacher is to keep that interesting, even when the content seems to be already known.”

Jasmine Rausch and Andrea Marcum photographed by Jeff Skeirik. Clothing by K-Deer. Jewelry by Gogh Jewelry Design. Hair and Makeup by Monica Simone. Location: Goorus Yoga in Pacific Palisades.

Continuing Education from the Comfort of Home

“I’m a lifelong seeker of knowledge,” says Amy Wheeler. Amy began her yoga studies in the 1990s; she has a PhD in psychology, taught kinesiology at Cal State San Bernardino for 21 years, is a longtime yoga therapist, and is a member of the board of directors of IAYT (International Association of Yoga Therapists).

“I have always done continuing education.” Amy sees it as a means of self-care. Learning can be a sweet experience when it happens in the comfort of your own home. “As yoga teachers, we drive around enough and we’re away from home so much, it is nice to find top-level teachers that are doing this online. I completed a course on my deck sitting with my dog while looking out at the fall leaves. There was soup on the stove, and I was doing laundry while getting a world-class education from a Tantric philosopher.”

In addition to pursuing courses online as a student, Amy also offers fee-based as well as free trainings via the internet as a provider. “Yoga teachers often spend as much learning yoga as we do making money. I gave a free one-hour Facebook Live talk “How Yoga Therapy Works,” and already 2,500 people have watched it. I want to encourage all of us in the field that are offering continuing education to do it at an affordable price when possible and/or for free as an offering to our community.”

Online: To go or not to go

Online study can be a great option for people in a variety of situations. One of the benefits is that it can make it easier to keep up studies while traveling. Remote study also provides options for people who have limited or no access to trainings in their home community. On-demand trainings allow people with busy schedules to fit education in when and where they can create space. While the flexibility is one of the benefits of this method of study, there are also pitfalls and challenges. These include the temptation to multi-task while watching something online, or limited interaction from teachers checking in on the progression of a student’s understanding of concepts and practical application. These challenges can be reduced through creating optimal home conditions for focus, finding a practice partner, and looking for programs that offer additional in-person community engagement and student accountability.

Photo of Andrea Marcum and Jasmine Rausch by Jeff Skeirik. Clothing by K-Deer. Yoga mat by Jade Yoga. Jewelry by Gogh Jewelry Design. Hair and Makeup by Monica Simone. Location: Goorus Yoga Studio in Pacific Palisades.

Social Media Fluency as a Topic of Study

When it comes to being a yoga professional in the 21st century, some relevant topics may come from places other than the yogic texts. For continuing education junkie and yoga teacher Bianca Pratt, studying social media, branding, and monetization are also parts of her professional growth.

“We are in a social media world,” says Bianca. “If you don’t participate, you’re going to get left behind. I have worked at studios with mandatory social media presence, and we [as teachers] had to meet weekly quotas.” Some studios, she explained, even check on teachers’ accounts. The ability to skillfully navigate social media can contribute to teachers building classes, keeping their regular slots, developing multiple streams of income, and finding opportunities on larger stages.

Photo of Jasmine Rausch by Jeff Skeirik. Clothing by K-Deer. Jewelry by Gogh Jewelry Design. Hair and Makeup by Monica Simone. Location: Goorus Yoga in Pacific Palisades.

How to Choose Teachers and Trainings

Jasmine Rausch is a certified yoga therapist through the International Association of Yoga Therapists (IAYT) and a graduate of the Yoga Therapy Rx™ Program at Loyola Marymount University. She says, “Like most, I began teaching soon after completing my initial teacher training. I noticed that most (if not all) of the students I was working with were coming in with a variety of challenges and questions.” She developed the foundational knowledge she needed through advanced training as a yoga therapist and through ongoing education.

When it comes to finding the teachers to guide you through the process of lifelong learning, Jasmine says, “I believe mentors and teachers can come from anywhere. In yoga, the importance of the teacher/student relationship cannot be minimized. The direct transmission of knowledge from teacher to student allows this ancient practice to thrive with consistency and without misinterpretation. It is this strong tradition that enables the core of the practice to be preserved, while simultaneously progressing. Whom you study with will directly influence your teaching, and knowing your lineage is important.”

Being a student is more than simply sitting in a class. Jasmine points out, “Being a student also includes how we integrate the teachings into our everyday lives.”

Considerations for Pursuit of Continuing Education

Jasmine offers the following pieces of advice when it comes to pursuing continuing education:

1. Study with someone you resonate with, who speaks your language. This can help establish connection, respect, and deep trust.
2. Do your research. There are so many teachers, workshops, and programs out there that it can be challenging to find the right fit. Scope out the programs or teachers and reach out to them directly. Speak to other students and teachers. Ask yourself, does this person or program align with your goals and needs?
3. Trust your intuition. Yoga is an intuitive practice just as much as a physical practice. Listen to your heart.

Do Your Work

As someone committed to my own excellence as a teacher, I’ve chosen my most rewarding trainings after exploring topics and looking for mentors who offer skills I lack. I have taken trainings from teachers with whom I have longtime relationships, as well as teachers I have found online and then researched their backgrounds. Continuing my education has allowed me to ask the questions necessary to pursue the path of mastery. It has also deepened my reverence for the craft of teaching and reinforced the humility to keep studying. Whatever the form, continuing education is an integral part of uplifting our community, industry, and profession. As one of my Yoga Therapy Rx teachers Dr. Eden Goldman said, “Study and do your work, because when you graduate, you are going to be my peer … and I want to be proud of you.”

Photo of Jasmine Rausch and Andrea Marcum by Jeff Skeirik. Clothing by K-Deer. Jewelry by Gogh Jewelry Design. Hair and makeup by Monica Simone. Location: Goorus Yoga in Pacific Palisades.

Yoga Teachers Continuing Education Photo Credits and More Information

Yoginis: Jasmine Rausch C-IAYT, ROOT Yoga Therapy: rootyogatherapy.com
Andrea Marcum (author of Close to Om): andreamarcum.com

Clothing by K-Deer: k-deer.com
Jewelry by Gogh Jewelry Design: goghjewelrydesign.com
Yoga mat by Jade Yoga: jadeyoga.com
Hair and Makeup by Monica Simone: monicasimonecreative.com
All photos shoot at Goorus Yoga in Pacific Palisades: goor.us

Marja Lankinen

Marja Lankinen is a poet, prospective scholar, and former professional dancer (Beyonce, Oprah, The Billboard Awards). Recently, she graduated from Harvard University with an ALM degree in the field of English and is currently an independent researcher and freelance writer. Marja has been a staff writer at LA YOGA Magazine since 2017.

www.yogafordancers.com

The post The Importance of Yoga Teachers Continuing Education appeared first on LA Yoga Magazine - Ayurveda & Health.

Soul Hum Meditation in Sherman Oaks

Soul Hum is the latest Zen enclave to open in the Valley. It offers elegant, inviting, and stress-to-bliss transformation in under 30 minutes. Soul Hum studio owner Natalie Kiwi says that the studio’s name is a derivative of the yogic contemplative mantra “so hum.” Soul Hum’s intention is to leave your soul humming. That it did when I took Raegan Loston’s BreathWork Meditation class. I laughed. I cried. And I felt like I could release stress, rule to world, and return again any time I needed to bask in their bevy of mindfulness and guided meditations or Sound Bath, Yoga Nidra, crystal or astrology workshops.

Soul Hum Meditation Owner Natalie Kiwi & her Inspiration

As a former recruiter in biopharmaceuticals and entertainment consumer products, Natalie found herself at 40 depleted, and tired. When she was diagnosed with autoimmune issues and chronic fatigue, Natalie’s Western doctors didn’t have many answers. Her Eastern practitioners had their own advice, “You can cleanse as much as you want. You can take as many supplements as you want, but if you don’t learn how to properly deal with stress, you’re not going to learn how to be well.” Natalie took heed and enrolled in meditation classes around the city. While stuck in traffic one day, the idea to create her own space in the Valley hit. With the help of longtime practitioner and teacher Megan Monahan, Natalie crafted a studio, schedule, and teaching roster. Soul Hum offers the practices and tools that had taught Natalie how to reset, recharge, and take back her health.

Soul Hum Meditation for Families

In addition to the classes Soul Hum offers for adults, Natalie added weekly meditation and emotional intelligence classes for middle and high school students. “I wanted my sons to know this exists,” says Natalie. Class are tailored to the stressors particular to each stage of life. As someone with three boys, a successful yet taxing career, and chronic fatigue, Natalie found a way to gift herself health and well-being through a meditation practice. “In modern life, it is a necessity not just to be well but to stay well.” That is the gift to self, family, and community that Natalie keeps on giving through Soul Hum.

More information about Soul Hum Meditation in Sherman Oaks

Soul Hum
13721 Ventura Blvd, 1st Floor, Sherman Oaks
818-616-2728
soulhumstudios.com

Marja Lankinen

Marja Lankinen is a poet, prospective scholar, and former professional dancer (Beyonce, Oprah, The Billboard Awards). Recently, she graduated from Harvard University with an ALM degree in the field of English and is currently an independent researcher and freelance writer. Marja has been a staff writer at LA YOGA Magazine since 2017.

www.yogafordancers.com

The post Soul Hum Meditation in Sherman Oaks appeared first on LA Yoga Magazine - Ayurveda & Health.

Locally owned and homegrown, Yoga Vibe WeHo is the sister studio to Yoga Vibe Los Feliz and Black Dog Yoga in Sherman Oaks. It is the quintessential neighborhood West Hollywood yoga studio. “We strive to be the kind of studio that is embedded in the community,” says co-owner Larry Santiago.

Yoga Vibe West Hollywood Yoga Studio

Yoga Vibe is heralded as a non-corporate and indie option.  The studio is not about the frills or pageantry but pure, simple practice. When I walked into the reception space, I felt as though I had traversed Los Angeles to loop back to my living room. The simple elegance of this yoga space is calming in and of itself. In addition to the airy entryway, the studio also features a spacious main room as well as a smaller practice room for trainings or private sessions. And while Yoga Vibe WeHo is in the midst of a bustling area, it definitely fulfills what Santiago describes as a “peaceful and calm oasis in the city.”

Classes at Yoga Vibe

Each one of the Yoga Vibe studios have a distinct character and charm. Each of the teachers is afforded the opportunity to brand their own classes with the freedom to personalize their offerings, “showcasing their strengths and personality.”

Classes such as Morning Vibes, Chill Vibes, or Mixed Level Flow (offered at WeHo) differ from teacher to teacher and studio to studio. Santiago says, “Los Feliz is more Vinyasa Flow for all levels and Black Dog is more well-rounded.” Yoga Vibe West Hollywood is the latest addition to the family. It opened in June, 2017. Classes include Brunch Vibes, Relaxed Vibes, Vin/Yin, and more. In addition, the WeHo schedule offers $10 Lunch Flow from 12:15-1:15pm Monday through Friday.

These proud parents (Larry and Amy Santiago and Sigrid Matthews) of independently operated yoga spaces are listening to the community. The team is meeting the needs of the students, one pose and one kind smile at a time.

Where to Find Yoga Vibe West Hollywood Yoga Studio

Yoga Vibe
7327 Santa Monica Blvd, West Hollywood, CA 90046
323.498.5333
yogavibela.com

Check out the new student special! One month of classes for $40. You just might join the Yoga Vibe family!

Marja Lankinen

Marja Lankinen is a poet, prospective scholar, and former professional dancer (Beyonce, Oprah, The Billboard Awards). Recently, she graduated from Harvard University with an ALM degree in the field of English and is currently an independent researcher and freelance writer. Marja has been a staff writer at LA YOGA Magazine since 2017.

www.yogafordancers.com

The post Yoga Vibe West Hollywood Yoga Studio appeared first on LA Yoga Magazine - Ayurveda & Health.

LOCALI is the deli-style restaurant where you can take your vegan first date, meat-loving grandmother, and fast food addicted coworker alike. Their concept is a combo deli/natural foods market plus convenience store with nutritious, thoughtful, organic offerings. Their newest LA outpost in West Hollywood is conveniently located on Santa Monica Boulevard between San Vicente and La Cienega.

LOCALI West Hollywood Provides Healthy Options

The team at this healthy and tasty restaurant pioneered conscious food for Los Angelenos from Venice to Hollywood to DTLA. Their downtown Localita & the Badasserie is completely vegan. On the other hand, Venice, Hollywood, and their WeHo location offer chicken, turkey, and tuna sandwich options. If you’re plant-based, do not despair! They offer carefully crafted their vegan analogues.

Any meal on their delectable menu can be made meat-friendly or free, paleo, vegan, and vegetarian without losing any of the original flavor profile. When it comes to grains, if you labored with Shakespeare on “To gluten or not to gluten,” you can question no further. All options are on the deli table. I tried the vegan chili and shamrock shake. I enjoyed what may very well be my favorite meal of the year.

LOCALI treat its customers like family. They maintain an egalitarian environment among employees. “Our staff is our first customer,” says co-founder Melissa Rosen. “That love and respect with our staff is reflected with the customers. The relationships we have with our customers touches our hearts.” Weekly, daily, and multi-day regulars frequent LOCALI because the food is delicious, the ambiance is delightful. In a city of millions, here everyone knows your name.

WeHo Grand Opening

Join LOCALI WeHo for their official grand opening November 16, 5:00-8:00pm. The first 100 guests will receive free food and free swag bags.

Where to Find LOCALI West Hollywood

LOCALI
8730 Santa Monica Blvd. Unit D
West Hollywood
localiyours.com

Marja Lankinen

Marja Lankinen is a poet, prospective scholar, and former professional dancer (Beyonce, Oprah, The Billboard Awards). Recently, she graduated from Harvard University with an ALM degree in the field of English and is currently an independent researcher and freelance writer. Marja has been a staff writer at LA YOGA Magazine since 2017.

www.yogafordancers.com

The post LOCALI Brings a Healthy Deli to West Hollywood appeared first on LA Yoga Magazine - Ayurveda & Health.

About Love Yoga East

Love Yoga East is the 2.0 of Love Yoga Venice. While the neighborhood has changed, Love’s signature blue floors, light colored rooms, and quirky accents are the same. Their Venice class offerings and methodology also cross pollinate with East.
 
Co-owner Sian Gordon remarks, “We wanted to spread our method to the east side.” While Love has a bevy of teachers trained in the Iyengar and Jivamukti traditions, it is the only yoga studio in Los Angeles that offers Katonah Yoga.
 
“Katonah is a Chinese method of yoga that includes Daoism, Chinese medicine, and metaphor to flush the glands,” says Sian. “We don’t consider the body the temple; we mess up the house and then know how to clean it.”
 
For those versed in other lineages of yoga, the asana may be the same at Love Yoga East but the language and intention around them are distinctly different.
 
While the dust has just settled from Love Yoga East’s grand opening, Sian and Kyle already have big plans on the horizon. Teacher trainings, mentorships, and retreats are on the books for the coming year.
 
If students wish to take their practice from the lush blue floors of the studios’ urban oasis to surfing and sunbathing in Costa Rica, safaris in Africa, and downdogging in the south of France, Love Yoga East provides ample opportunity to adventure.
 

Contact Love Yoga East

2110 Sunset Boulevard, Suite O, Los Angeles
loveyogaspace.com
323-673-8934
 

Marja Lankinen

Marja Lankinen is a poet, prospective scholar, and former professional dancer (Beyonce, Oprah, The Billboard Awards). Recently, she graduated from Harvard University with an ALM degree in the field of English and is currently an independent researcher and freelance writer. Marja has been a staff writer at LA YOGA Magazine since 2017.

www.yogafordancers.com

The post Open Doors: Love Yoga East appeared first on LA Yoga Magazine - Ayurveda & Health.

The studio is founded on seven pillars: health, eco-consciousness, accessibility, community, outreach, peace, and perpetual personal growth.

Welcome to Modo Yoga

The decor in the lobby includes reclaimed, naturally-fallen Sequoia trees turned into expansive benches. This homage to California flora is paired with a DTLA industrial vibe using cast iron doors graffiti-ed by SoCal street artists. Each of the Modo Yoga locations is a microcosm of the surrounding neighborhood.
 
Philanthropy is a mainstay at the studio, even in the retail space. For example, Modo Yoga LA plants a tree for each and every upcycled t-shirt and canvas tote bag sold. Modo East Co-Founder Alice Toyonaga says, “Part of our core is sustainable practice.” She says Modo is intentional about using the heat to create more peace, the postures to support all bodies, the practice to not be taken too seriously, and the carbon footprint to be lowered or offset.
 

Modo Yoga LA plants a tree for each and every upcycled t-shirt and canvas tote bag sold.

The Classes

Each studio’s “karma classes” are donation-based with proceeds benefiting local charities and support the studio’s pillar of accessibility. In five years, Modo Yoga LA alone has raised half a million dollars that has funneled back into the community. Modo Yoga East founders Alice Toyonaga and Deena Robertson are committed to the studio’s mission to encourage ways to be good to the ecosystem and each other through environmental and social activism.
 

Plan Your Visit!

Modo Yoga East
1755 Glendale Blvd, LA
323-407-6321
 

Marja Lankinen

Marja Lankinen is a poet, prospective scholar, and former professional dancer (Beyonce, Oprah, The Billboard Awards). Recently, she graduated from Harvard University with an ALM degree in the field of English and is currently an independent researcher and freelance writer. Marja has been a staff writer at LA YOGA Magazine since 2017.

www.yogafordancers.com

The post Open Doors: Modo Yoga East, Echo Park appeared first on LA Yoga Magazine - Ayurveda & Health.

Photo of Nicole Sciacca Wearing Uintah Collection by Jeff Skeirik

The arc of a life is not a perpetual upward trajectory. As director Baz Luhrmann said, “The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that never crossed your worried mind. The kind that blindside you at 4 PM on some idle Tuesday.” Listening to Nicole Sciacca, Chief Yoga Officer of Playlist Yoga, unfurl her tale from the professional dance world to injury, divorce, and starting over, I witnessed a woman honestly narrate what it means to be human. Her story is one of struggle, gumption, and the grit propelling her to get back up again. Her wisdom sees the troubles that blindside us can teach us, and Nicole is living testament to lessons well earned.

In 2003, at the age of 24, Nicole was in living in Los Angeles immersed in a thriving professional dance career. During an 11pm rehearsal, she herniated three discs in her back, putting her on a month-long bedrest. “I couldn’t walk. I didn’t have family here. I was alone in an apartment in Santa Monica trying to crawl from my bedroom to the kitchen.” For a professional artist who requires a strong, healthy body for both passion and paycheck, an injury can upend identity and unsettle mental and emotional stability.

Around this time is when she found yoga. Nicole says that her first yoga class was simply a sweat and a workout while she was looking for a way to move again after the injury. It was a two hour level 2/3 music flow class at Harmony Yoga in Redondo Beach with Chappell (Chappy) Foote. Nicole says, “I had no clue what I was doing and I left with completely pruned fingers. I loved it because it felt familiar in a way that reminded me of dancing but foreign because I really had no understanding of the language, postures, or breath. One of my dancer girlfriends liked to go ‘for the workout and challenge’ and I figured if I can dance through bloody feet and missing toenails, how hard can yoga be?” She found out.

Eventually, Nicole’s back injury healed and she returned to her life and livelihood dancing in feature films, commercials, TV shows, and on stage in live performances. Some of her noteworthy credits include Glee, How I Met your Mother, Austin Powers in Goldmember, Rent, The Haunted Mansion, Walk Hard, Get Him to the Greek, and campaigns with the likes of Nike, Harley Davidson, Pepsi, and Nationwide Insurance with MC Hammer. Over time, her professional dance career intersected with fitness and yoga instruction. (Nicole still dances professionally, including a recent appearance on the Netflix show Disjointed). She got married and had a child (Beau) and then got divorced. She opened and then closed a business (Hustle & Flow Fitness on Abbot Kinney). She suffered injury again. “I was doing deadlifts and I did basically the same thing as before. I was on bedrest again for over a week. I don’t know where I went mentally but it was unhealthy.” Nicole relived some of the same fears, sense of isolation, and disappointment that she experienced in 2003, yet this time, her circumstances were different. “I am a single mom with a four-year-old. I can’t lie in bed for a week and cry to myself and watch Netflix. That wasn’t an option.” Years of making her practice a priority helped her see what is temporary and to walk toward the light at the end of the tunnel.

Nicole Sciacca Wearing Uintah Collection. Photo by Jeff Skeirik

Throughout her challenges, Nicole asks herself, “What’s the lesson?” Her practice has taught her to sit in the unknown with curiosity rather than fear and she has discovered meaning in a quote she found that says, “Every obstacle introduces a person to themselves.” Nicole says, “As a dancer I spent a lot of time avoiding obstacles, trying to be perfect and being a people pleaser. You don’t learn without obstacles. You don’t learn without failure. My adult life has been a testament to that because I’ve failed at a lot of things but I’ve learned and made better choices the second go-around. I spent my young adult life trying not to fail, and then it was series of failure after failure.” According to Nicole, this particular tunnel led her to gratitude.

In reference to the first yoga class she took after her most recent injury, Nicole remarked, “I was in such a place of gratitude for coming around the injury. My sense of gratitude for my body and for the practice is overwhelming. I’m just thrilled to be here, to do a forward fold.” Injuries and failures stalling her forward momentum have become her most patient teachers. She’s been willing to look directly at the road closures and has rerouted destinations as a route to personal development, bolstered by the depth and wisdom honed through humility and practice.

Nicole Sciacca wearing Uintah Collection. Photo by Jeff Skeirik

Nicole’s formal yoga training emphasized discipline; she studied with luminaries such as James Brown, Alexandra Crow, Maria Villella, and Maty Ezraty. “James was my first yoga teacher; I completed his Yoga Poser teacher training at Equinox. In one two-hour practice, we only did down dog and child’s pose. All of our arms were shaking. He laid the foundation for me for hard work and authentic understanding of the practice. I fell in love with it and attribute that to his diligence. I understood the responsibility of what this was.”

As Chief Yoga Officer at Playlist, Nicole appreciates her teacher James’ words, “We have a responsibility to take care of the people that walk into our room and inform them, to give them space.” She’s doing this in the context of group vinyasa classes in a studio with concert-style sound systems blaring Tupac and Beyonce. “Music is so powerful. I’ve gone back and forth on what I like best [music and silence] and at this point I appreciate the value in both options. Breath becomes a soundtrack all its own and really helps settle and streamline the busy mind, however, I probably wouldn’t have been drawn to yoga without the ‘gateway’ of a music-based flow. As a dancer, that made sense to me. Now I specifically curate my playlists to create an arc, a musical ride that accompanies the movement.”

Playlist is “A doorway for folks who may have never stepped onto a yoga mat.” Nicole says, “There is value in what we are doing, and people are changed for the better. I try to be as responsible with their bodies and the yoga as I can be.”

Nicole Sciacca wearing Uintah Collection. Photographed at Playlist Yoga by Jeff Skeirik. Hair and Makeup by JJ Jeffries.

For a woman who says her personal hashtag is “surrender in progress,” Nicole Sciacca embodies bravery, honesty, and compassion. She sees the lessons in all things and finds gratitude in the simplicity of moments like a soft savasana. “I feel so grateful to be able to make choices with a clearer vision and a more honest heart. I think all the things that got me to Playlist and that help me navigate being a single mom were all lessons that I needed. I’m a stubborn girl. Sometimes, it takes many, many times for me to hear the truth.”

Nicole’s arc might not look like perpetual upward trajectory but a life honestly narrated and boldly told seldom does. Her honesty is testimony to a practitioner living and breathing the journey. The light at the end of the tunnel is not the end of Nicole’s journey. She is in progress, under construction, and in transit, and for Nicole, her moment has just begun.

Nicole Sciacca can be found at: nicolesciaccayoga.com
She teaches at Playlist Yoga in West Hollywood: playlistyoga.com

Photos by Jeff Skeirik/Rawtographer: rawtographer.com
Hair and makeup by JJ Jeffries
All clothing by Uintah Collection: uintahcollection.com

Marja Lankinen

Marja Lankinen is a poet, prospective scholar, and former professional dancer (Beyonce, Oprah, The Billboard Awards). Recently, she graduated from Harvard University with an ALM degree in the field of English and is currently an independent researcher and freelance writer. Marja has been a staff writer at LA YOGA Magazine since 2017.

www.yogafordancers.com

The post Teacher profile Nicole Sciacca — Perseverance and Play appeared first on LA Yoga Magazine - Ayurveda & Health.

Photos of Yoga for Dancers at Gigi Torres’ Establish Your Empire (establishyourempire.com) in Downtown LA. IG @eyeexperience. Photographer: Karen Marie Photography (karenmarie.co) IG: karenmarieco

Yoga teachers step into a profession that comes with a lifelong trajectory of learning, inquiry, and continued education. The first few years—or decades—of a new teacher’s career are vital in planting the seeds for long-term success. While a yoga teacher training program or certification course may offer a starting point for leading classes, the true depth of understanding of the nuances of practice and how to teach only come with time. Having a mentor to guide and refine one’s skills is imperative to the growth process post-teacher training. It is also a recognition that to be a good teacher means making a commitment to being a lifelong student. This feels especially important in the yoga community today. After all, now more people are practicing yoga than ever before, teacher training programs are expanding, and ethical issues are at the forefront of the conversation.

The relationship between mentor/teacher and student is one that can be both intimate and profoundly transformative. For most of yoga’s history, this has been the primary mode in which people have studied to become a teacher. With the proliferation of more structured teacher training programs and classes that count hours, this has shifted. There is an importance to the mentorship model that is being recognized by senior teachers in different traditions.

Many teachers who offer 200, 300, 500 hour, and even longer teacher training programs emphasize or have added a mentorship or practicum aspects of their training. Teachers may also enter into one-on-one mentor/mentee agreements with students who are seeking the level of attention available through mentorship. There are even a growing number of training programs specifically geared toward graduate teachers who offer the opportunity to receive ongoing attention and mentorship. This comes with the benefit of greater opportunities for empowerment for teachers at all stages of their practice.

One example of a program geared toward graduate teachers is the mentorship program at Yoga Daya in Culver City. They have begun offering programs designed for teachers who are looking for what’s next beyond workshops and continuing education. According to Yoga Daya owner, founder, and mentor Tulsi Laher, “Two hundred and three hundred yoga teacher training programs provide the foundation. In order to be a successful yoga teacher, expanding one’s knowledge of the ancient science of yoga and the nuances of teaching is essential. Demonstrating patience, a mentor shares his or her experience as well personal secrets of the trade learned over the years to aid aspiring teachers to refine their skills for long-term growth and success and to expand their own knowledge to help others.”

Tulsi’s descriptions reveal something of the benefit of this interaction. Another description of the benefit of this relationship comes from my own teacher and mentor, Annie Carpenter. Annie has participated in a slew of scenarios within the mentorship dynamic. She says, “When I lived in Los Angeles and taught ten to eleven classes a week, I had traditional mentorships wherein folks would assist me once a week. We would have biweekly meetings which included assignments, reviewing hands-on adjustments, answering anything about their own practice, topical readings where they had to write essays on some of the great texts. I’ve had some people do just six months. Some do a year, and I’ve had at least two people do a year-and-a-half,”

The benefit of mentoring under a teacher like Annie is that a student is exposed to the language around asana, the nuances of working with deeply varied bodies, and the psychology of holding space for people through every event and stage of their lives. Annie describes her perspective on the relationship, “As we all know, five hundred hours is really introductory level teacher training. Beyond that is where I get to know the teachers more personally, and I can guide them in the direction of what I feel they need to work on, including their own practice and their ability to be interactive with students.”

Linda Lack holds space for an expanded understanding and practice of serving as a mentor. The quintessential seasoned teacher, Linda has an advanced degree combined with forty years of dedicated practice and teaching in the movement arts and has developed and integrative modality called The Thinking Body-The Feeling Mind. Linda teaches her brick-and-mortar space (Two Snakes Studios on La Cienega in Los Angeles), at the Yoga Therapy RX Program at Loyola Marymount University, and in workshops worldwide. While she mentors newbies and seasoned teachers alike, her perspective on mentorship is broad and inclusive. Everyone who walks through the door receives the benefits of her individualized attention. “I actually go in with an intention to mentor anybody who comes to see me,” says Linda. “I mentor people to live in the body and find possibility. I see people from a 10-year-old who cracked a lower limb doing soccer to 98-year-old people who are still able to get down on the mat.”

Linda supports people across generations, backgrounds, professions, and body politic, from those who are trying to avoid surgery to those who have had surgery and are in the process of healing, to those in wheelchairs to high performance athletes. Beyond the “who” of who is in the room, Linda says, “I’m interested in people creating a contemplative self-inquiry, whether you’re somebody who’s never done yoga before or you’re like many of the teachers who study with me and have been teaching for 30 years.” This could describe the work of many a dedicated yoga and movement therapist, and it is indeed this experience that draws even experienced teachers to seek out Linda as a mentor. One of Linda’s mentees says of her, “You tell the truth fast.” The trained eye of a body reader takes time to develop and it takes time and connections to share that knowledge with those eager to learn the skill.

Choosing a mentor comes with a sense of responsibility as well as discernment. The student who admires Linda’s ability to hone in with laser-sharp focus on the truth also comments on her mentor’s ability to lead by example and to create safe space in the practice room as well as in the relationship itself. There is also an acknowledgement of the seriousness of this level of inquiry.

After all, as Annie Carpenter points out, “The difference between what could be defined as a typical student-teacher relationship and that of a mentorship is the level of commitment and the depth of the intimacy.” When it comes to choosing a mentor, Annie says, “Frankly, one should be invited! The level of commitment that a student shows creates the condition for mentor/mentee relationship. But there is no harm in asking your teacher.” The chemistry is important. Tulsi Laher’s advice is to “Choose a mentor that you can connect with, and one whom is willing to give their time to help you.”

Willingness is part of the mentorship program at Yoga Daya for teachers who have already completed 200 or 300 hour certifications. People who are interested can enroll in a three-month mentorship program with Yoga Daya’s senior teachers. In this model, the mentees refine their teaching skills while being observed and supported by teachers in sequencing, knowledge of the asana, confidence in delivery, and ability to hold space. “For me, carrying on the tradition and the integrity of that learning was the inception of the mentorship group. Our slogan is ‘refine your skills for success’ because a lot of the time, when you go to teach, you’re thinking about how you really want to shine at your audition or you’re thinking about how you can build on your teaching to get more opportunities. The program is benefits students the way an internship provides benefit prior to going out there teaching. With the mentorship, we provide that avenue through coaching and feedback on your skills so you have the best opportunity in teaching.” Tulsi believes deeply in the power of building relationship with someone who you can ask questions and help navigate a career in teaching.

Even though each senior teacher’s methodology varies, the consensus is that mentorship is about relationship. “There is an intimacy that we need to have with students and that is not something you can really do in a large group setting,” says Annie. “Part of it is me knowing the teacher as a practitioner and as a teacher, and that just takes time.” Annie guides her students to look at the triggers, the areas they cannot see and those they are avoiding, and, in doing so, invites her mentees to develop a contemplative practice. She encouraged them to cultivate an ever-growing awareness that becomes vital when holding space for others.

Linda reflects the same necessity of relationship between a young teacher and a trusted advisor. “When you have somebody who can be a truth-teller, there’s a sense of where are the places we can deceive ourselves in a process of self-inquiry and where is the place where we get stuck,” says Linda. “Once you’re qualified and trained to do what it is you do to teach yoga, even yoga therapy, part of talk time is a support system. There are issues and things that happen in classes, and people need support. They need more experienced people like me to say, ‘This is what happened, here’s what I see’.”

While the 200, 300, and even 1000 hour teacher trainings build a strong foundation for the current and subsequent generations within our yoga community, the opportunity to be in relationship with a senior teacher is a profound experience. Yoga is not static, so it is important for any teacher’s education, maturation, and inquiry to be dynamic. To walk that path of scary, illuminating, and honest work with a trusted teacher who truly sees you and is patient and kind in the process is one of the greatest gifts we can give our futures. The trajectory of a teacher includes coming back to the source to refine a practice, receive answers to questions, and then leave with even more questions to grapple with for years to come. Whether someone is a first-year teacher or a person decades in, this is the process of yoga, and, as Annie so aptly states, “It cannot be rushed.”

Photos of Yoga for Dancers at Gigi Torres’ Establish Your Empire (establishyourempire.com) in Downtown LA. IG @eyeexperience. Photographer: Karen Marie Photography (karenmarie.co) IG: karenmarieco

Linda Lack, The Thinking Body-The Feeling Mind and Two Snakes Studio can be found at: lindalack.com

Tulsi Laher and the team at Yoga Daya can be found at: yogadaya.com

Annie Carpenter and the SmartFlow Yoga Community can be found at: anniecarpenter.com

Photos of Yoga for Dancers at Gigi Torres’ Establish Your Empire (establishyourempire.com) in Downtown LA. IG @eyeexperience. Photographer: Karen Marie Photography (karenmarie.co) IG: karenmarieco

Marja Lankinen

Marja Lankinen is a poet, prospective scholar, and former professional dancer (Beyonce, Oprah, The Billboard Awards). Recently, she graduated from Harvard University with an ALM degree in the field of English and is currently an independent researcher and freelance writer. Marja has been a staff writer at LA YOGA Magazine since 2017.

www.yogafordancers.com

The post Mentors Empower Success for Yoga Teachers appeared first on LA Yoga Magazine - Ayurveda & Health.

Photo of Ebony Williams by Nikita Alba .

Beyonce has, purely and simply, changed the entire game. From what it means to be a performer, an artist, a woman, a voice of and for our generation, this woman has written history with her lyricism, and watching Beyonce in motion is bearing witness to what future generations will say: This is how being a mogul, a mother, and one bad mamma jam boss is done. Beyonce is a force of nature in her own right, but her dancers are the sound and the fury behind her message, supporting her, and thriving in their own right as women of a new age. One of her dancers is Ebony Williams and Ebony is just that: a powerful woman, an icon, a “Single Lady,” a sincere, mature, big dreaming, bigger doing, and beyond rooted, grounded, and real deal kind soul.

By the grace of good timing, I had the opportunity to sit with Ebony in a Brooklyn warehouse while she was between rehearsals for Beyonce’s historic “Formation” world tour. She told me the story of her life, her dreams, and her legacy.

Ebony’s story begins as a child raised by a single mother. “I was always the kid in front of the television mimicking whatever videos or artists were on the screen. A friend of mine, a neighbor, went to a local dance school and would come home and teach me what she learned because my mom couldn’t afford to pay for me to go at the time. Eventually, my mom decided she would do whatever she had to do to get me into a dance school because, clearly, I loved it that much.” Ebony began her formal training in elementary school when Boston Ballet School (the official training program of the Boston Ballet) started a program for inner city kids called City Dance.

Her talent was evident and her work ethic allowed her to excel, but by the time she reached high school, Ebony’s full-time immersion in dance became overwhelming. She says, “I just wanted to be a normal kid for a second. Do all the wrong things. Chase after boys. Become a cheerleader. So I did.” After she finished high school, she began studying to become a physical therapist and quickly realized that this was not her career path. Meanwhile, one of Ebony’s former teachers from Boston Arts Academy’s after school dance group (Ebony was in the dance group but not part of the school as an academic student), Fernadina Chan, reached out when she heard that this talented young lady had halted her dance training. “Fernadina was the reason why I even auditioned for the Boston Conservatory at all. I had no prior info about the school without her knowledge,” said Ebony. Ebony landed the audition with the Boston Conservatory and made her return to dance.

Photo of Ebony Williams by Casey Brooks. Styled by Martin Tordby.

Still, it wasn’t all easy. “I got into the school (Boston Conservatory). I started at the lowest ballet level because I hadn’t trained. The second semester, I got into the highest ballet level, and by the end of those four years, I was the first black girl to get a ballet award.” Knowing that she wanted to explore where dance could take her, Ebony Williams began researching ballet companies worldwide, and Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet captured her heart. Though she didn’t pass the audition, the company director liked Ebony and invited her to take class with them, but she realized that financially it was impossible.

Eventually, Ebony traveled to Montreal to participate in Springboard Danse Montreal, a program founded by The Juilliard School faculty member Alexandra Wells that brings in choreographers from around the globe to work with young dancers. There, Ebony Williams was selected to dance in Ballets Jazz de Montreal’s final piece. As fate would have it, one of Cedar Lake’s dancers was also at Springboard and called her director to say, “That girl you liked in New York is here in Montreal.” What happened next is the stuff of destiny made visible. The Cedar Lake Artistic Director Benoit-Swan Pouffer flew to Montreal and after a brief audition, he told Ebony that he had come to offer her an apprenticeship, but after seeing her dance, he would offer her a full contract. Ebony had just made it into her dream company.

Ebony is living proof of the validity of following and fighting for your dreams. She states, “It’s waiting for you. You have to be open and willing to receive it, but it’s already destined. There’s no need to rush it.” Ebony’s story is evidence of how her words ring true. While dancing with Cedar Lake, Ebony would sweat and dance through eight hour rehearsal days, then at the end of the night, she would jump into a hip hop class at Broadway Dance Center in New York City—seeking the balance between her beloved contemporary ballet and the hip hop and commercial dance worlds that she grew up emulating.

One of her friends in class told Ebony about a workshop held by legendary choreographer, Laurieann Gibson (whose credits include choreographing for Michael Jackson, Alicia Keys, Lady Gaga, and Beyonce.) It turned out not to be a workshop at all, but an audition. Ebony stayed, and showed the commercial world that this ballet dancer could be risky and funky. In the middle of Ebony’s audition freestyle, Laurieann stopped the music to ask, “Who are you and where have you been?” The rest is exquisite history as Ebony went on to do pointe work for Rihanna in bamboo earrings and shades, book Beyonce’s “Single Ladies” music video, and was called in for both of Beyonce’s “Made in America” and “Formation” world tours.

As a strong proponent of giving back, it is clear Ebony’s excellence goes beyond her dance and into the world. “I love working with young people,” said Ebony. “I mentor young girls – some that are going off to college. They remind you that you can’t be complacent because you are exactly where they want to be but you want to tell them and teach them how to be better than you.” For Ebony being a mentor is about more than an individual dancer, it is part of her contribution to the contemporary legacy of the art of dance. She says, “The legacy is bigger than just me. It’s about our art as a whole. It’s a culture, and I believe that we are all related in dance because I feel like that’s what runs through my veins is movement. For that reason, you’re my sister and so many other people are my brothers.” Ebony Williams is also expanding her artistry into design. She is launching a clothing line, Ebony Skin, and wants to start a foundation that works with animals.

Photo of Ebony Williams by Casey Brooks. Styled by Martin Tordby.

Amidst all of this, Ebony is adamant about the importance of staying “connected to what’s true to me which is Ebony Williams, the dancer who wants to keep it evolving and fresh and new.” Ebony, a consummate creative artist, technical elite dancer, commercial superstar, and savvy businesswoman, is also one down-to -earth, kind, and heartfelt human. “Being real and human is also what makes you great as an artist.” Ebony’s humble, generous, and kind demeanor is disarming. Her charisma and wisdom are divine. Ebony often says, “I didn’t choose dance. Dance chose me,” and for anyone witnessing Ebony’s trajectory, it is easy to see. Ebony is living and breathing her jaw-dropping brilliant and bright destiny.

Marja Lankinen

Marja Lankinen is a poet, prospective scholar, and former professional dancer (Beyonce, Oprah, The Billboard Awards). Recently, she graduated from Harvard University with an ALM degree in the field of English and is currently an independent researcher and freelance writer. Marja has been a staff writer at LA YOGA Magazine since 2017.

www.yogafordancers.com

The post Ebony Williams Dedicated Dancer appeared first on LA Yoga Magazine - Ayurveda & Health.

Photo by Molly + Co Photography

Sitting with Kelsey Patel in her penthouse loft in downtown Los Angeles, it is easy to see why this teacher, coach, and businesswoman is sought out by CEOs, entrepreneurs, artists, and celebrities for private sessions that include Reiki, Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT or tapping), meditation, and other modalities. With an approachable manner, ability to translate spiritual principles, and a willingness to explore the full spectrum of love and pain, Kelsey bridges the divide between being your best friend and your spiritual sensei. Kelsey has the transcendental ability to master cleanse your life, love, and career, and send you on your way with a renewed manifesto. As she says, “You are matter, value, and worth.”

Kelsey Patel by Molly + Co Photography

Growing up in North Dakota, Kelsey experienced her share of challenges including witnessing her mother’s struggles with depression. She also had to learn how to navigate her own innate ability for empathy and ability to feel people’s energies and emotions. Years later, through her own journey and formal training, Kelsey integrates this empathy in her work with groups and individuals.

As an adult, Kelsey’s professional life saw her working in a significantly stressful environments, as she served in a number of high pressure roles from legislative correspondent to deputy press secretary to state liaison and scheduler for events in a United State senator’s office in Washington DC. At the same time, Kelsey was processing her mom’s trips in and out of treatment for depression and dealing with her own experience of significant back pain. “I hadn’t been exposed to how your physical being can relate to your mental and spiritual being.”

During some of the toughest times, “I was constantly not relaxed, not in the present moment,” Kelsey recalls. “It was always do more, be more, be more successful.” She found herself taking Advil all the time to try to quiet the back pain. While she was at work one day, her mom called from the psychiatric ward, and as Kelsey says, “I had to pretend like shit wasn’t falling apart around me.”

“My mother was in treatment three different times when I was in my twenties. She is thriving now, and has even learned Reiki and is practicing it in North Dakota, where she still works and lives with my father. Depression is real, and I can only hope that we as a society start to talk about it and allow people the space and opportunity to receive the help they need. It was tough at times, but my supportive family was able to get through it together. I don’t know where I would be without my entire family’s love, dedication and support.”

In retrospect, Kelsey feels that her chronic pain was a conduit for her own transformation. “My back pain was right behind my heart,” she reflects. “That pain was where my journey to self-love and exploration started.” Kelsey was teaching dance and dancing in a company in DC, working as a bartender, and babysitting, all while juggling the long hours and stress of working in the Capitol. “I don’t know how I slept,” she admits. At the same time, she was in a toxic relationship with a boyfriend. As Kelsey describes the situation, “He didn’t value me because at the time I didn’t value myself.” As she sat on her couch crying from yet another fight with her then-boyfriend, one of Kelsey’s friends invited her to join her on a cross-country sojourn to Los Angeles. “That was when I said, ‘Fuck it’, and said yes,” remembers Kelsey.

With a U-Haul full of belongings and uncertain employment prospects, Kelsey landed in LA. She reached out to a contact from her DC life and landed a position in communications and PR at a Fortune 500 company. Even though she traded the Beltway political 24/7 pressure cooker for the promise of LA, she merely swapped one stressful situation for another. Kelsey continued to not feel well in her body, experiencing chronic back pain and discomfort while traveling for work and feeling the increasing buildup of the negative effects of stress.

Kelsey Patel Photo by Molly + Co Photography

A friend recommended yoga. After her first class, Kelsey felt significantly different. She describes the experience, “I could feel like my heart was being shaken awake.” Yoga began to help her back pain. Then, Kelsey found Pure Barre and fell in love; as a former dancer, the movement and technique made her body feel good again.

Eventually, Kelsey began teaching and, encouraged by her husband, Kelsey started her own Pure Barre studio. Opening a brick and mortar business came with its own set of demands, and she again found herself experiencing back pain. “My back pain was bad, and my yoga was off and on. I still wasn’t valuing myself. At this time, I met a woman who practiced Reiki.” Kelsey had a session. “I couldn’t understand what was happening. I just knew that I felt better.”

Inspired by her experience, Kelsey immersed herself, earning her certification as a Reiki Master. In addition, she completed the teacher training at Liberation Yoga and pursued other trainings, including Shiva Rea’s Trance Dance Teacher Training. Kelsey began a private practice and taught workshops that combined Reiki with the process of acknowledging each person as a valued and valuable human being full of life, purpose, and potential. “That’s when everything changed.”

Kelsey Patel by Molly + Co Photography

Today, Kelsey has a thriving private practice and teaches workshops and weekly classes, including at her Pure Barre Beverly Hills Studio and a weekly Reiki Healing Circle Class at the Den Meditation in Hollywood (Mondays 11:45am-12:30pm). “All of my experiences make sense to me: why I worked in public service, why I worked in the private sector, and why I was an entrepreneur. Everything has led to this place where I can relate to people in all stages of life, with different types of jobs and stresses and families.”

Her own back pain has subsided, without surgery or medication, but with continual practice and commitment. In moments when her pain does return, Kelsey has learned, as she says, “There can be love behind it and awareness and opportunity for me to grow.”

Kelsey believes the heart has an immeasurable capacity for love and allows herself to feel all the feelings, honor herself, and be in relationship with others. She emphasizes that feelings are the conduit to the wealth of your own heart. “Feelings don’t define you,” says Kelsey, “they guide you.”

When I spent time with Kelsey, I observed that she is a living manifesto of what she teaches. You could say she walks the talk—and you could also say that she feels her feelings and then uses her gifts of empathy and understanding to encourage others. “Everything is waiting for you to tap into it, to explore it, to connect to it from a place of love and humility and appreciation for the journey,” she says.

Kelsey Patel by Molly + Co Photography

Her purpose is to inspire people to find their magic and their life-given value and worth. Kelsey’s coaching practice draws upon her multi-faceted range of experience, including her work as a public servant, a corporate professional, a dance teacher, a barre teacher, a multi-unit entrepreneur, a boss, a Reiki master, a yoga instructor, a meditation teacher, a wife, a step-mom, and a human.

In our final moments together, Kelsey touched me when she said, “The rain is beautiful. The darkness is beautiful. I believe that there is beauty in the wholeness of the journey. It isn’t always fun to be in the dark, but we wouldn’t have it if it wasn’t intended to be explored.” Our hope is built in a willingness to participate in it all. Kelsey is living proof that, from heartbreak and back pain, love will meet you. Keep doing the work. Love is always on the other side.

Learn more about Kelsey Patel, her coaching, her teaching and her work as the co-founder of iamVibes (an activewear/yoga apparel brand focused on empowering, uplifting, and honoring the divine feminine energy)at: kelseyjpatel.com (Instagram @kelseyjpatel)

Molly + Co Photography can be found on Instagram at @mollycophoto

Marja Lankinen

Marja Lankinen is a poet, prospective scholar, and former professional dancer (Beyonce, Oprah, The Billboard Awards). Recently, she graduated from Harvard University with an ALM degree in the field of English and is currently an independent researcher and freelance writer. Marja has been a staff writer at LA YOGA Magazine since 2017.

www.yogafordancers.com

The post Kelsey Patel on the Heart’s Capacity for Love appeared first on LA Yoga Magazine - Ayurveda & Health.

Of all of the yoga studios I have experienced in the City of Angels, Hot 8 Yoga has always felt like coming home. Since I’ve been teaching at Hot 8 Beverly Hills since its inception, I thought my bias contributed to my rose-colored perspective. Hot 8 Yoga began from a desire by owners Vincent and Linda Nicoletta to have a small hot yoga studio in LA where they could practice together. In 2010, Linda, an LA native and Vincent, a businessman from New York City, created Hot 8 Santa Monica. Two years later, they opened the second Beverly Hills location, and Hot 8 Yoga was voted the #1 Hot Yoga Studio in Los Angeles in 2013 and again in 2014. In 2016 Manhattan Beach and Pasadena hail as the third and fourth extensions of the Hot 8 Yoga community. While the sky is the limit as to where Hot 8 will expand next (although look for a new location in Sherman Oaks), Brit Middleton, Hot 8 Yoga Regional manager attested to the fact that Hot 8 will stay loyal to the high-quality product it has offered since day one.

All of the Hot 8 studios feature a clean, spa-like aesthetic as well as intentionally designed studios, and a dedication to constant innovation and community growth. To meet the wants and needs of the community, Brit and her team craft studio schedules particular to the communities they serve. For example, Manhattan Beach, with a penchant for high octane fitness, has a schedule ripe with Yoga Barre and Yoga Vibe – a soulful candlelit class created by Hot 8 Yoga teacher and fitness celebrity Omar Lopez. The Pasadena studio, on the other hand, accommodates a community that tends toward quieter introspection, so the schedules sees a greater offering of Yin and meditation. What all of the studios in this growing family share in common is an attention to and celebration of the individual.

For more information about Hot 8 Studios, visit www.hot8yoga.com 

Marja Lankinen

Marja Lankinen is a poet, prospective scholar, and former professional dancer (Beyonce, Oprah, The Billboard Awards). Recently, she graduated from Harvard University with an ALM degree in the field of English and is currently an independent researcher and freelance writer. Marja has been a staff writer at LA YOGA Magazine since 2017.

www.yogafordancers.com

The post Hot 8 Yoga in Pasadena and Manhattan Beach appeared first on LA Yoga Magazine - Ayurveda & Health.

Samadi Yoga in Koreatown. Photo by Jodye Alcon Photography.

Nestled in the heart of Koreatown, Samadi Yoga is an urban oasis of serenity. One may be surprised to find such a sanctuary sandwiched between the hustle and bustle of the Metro Vermont stop and the continuous whir of Wilshire traffic, but herein lies the magic of Los Angeles. These tucked-away gems are treasures too good to be kept secret for long.

Samadi Yoga’s Koreatown location is the second rendition of founder Mahnaz Jahangiri’s brainchild to bring the lineages of Sri T Krishnamacharya and Bishnu Charan Ghosh into one space. While her first studio in Westlake Village continues to boom after eight years with a dedicated clientele of longtime students, Mahnaz along with her experienced staff and faculty, are experts in welcoming and embracing beginning practitioners and new students. In both locations, Mahnaz’s establishment of high teaching standards with precise cues and clear instructions make Samadi Yoga a must-experience for any yogi.

What touched me the most from my experience taking a class at Samadi was the level of connection Mahnaz had with every student. “I want my teachers to know their students’ first and last names and their injuries,” says Jahangiri. While every person in my class had some form of bump or bruise, Mahnaz was attentive to each of us. She created an open space for every student to explore the practice in a safe and guided way, while acknowledging postural modifications for the injuries and practice level particular to the students in the room. This level of personal attention allows students to develop a long-term practice that is ever-evolving and forever intriguing.
“Yoga is the universal language,” said Mahnaz. Her newest studio in the center of bustling energy of Koreatown is the place to find quiet reflection and listen to the language of subtlety; it is a true gem for anyone looking for a sacred space in the urban metropolis of Los Angeles.

Samadi Yoga, 3150 Wilshire Blvd, Suite 200, Los Angeles
Contact: 213-736-1805 For more information, visit: samadiyoga.com

Marja Lankinen

Marja Lankinen is a poet, prospective scholar, and former professional dancer (Beyonce, Oprah, The Billboard Awards). Recently, she graduated from Harvard University with an ALM degree in the field of English and is currently an independent researcher and freelance writer. Marja has been a staff writer at LA YOGA Magazine since 2017.

www.yogafordancers.com

The post Samadi Yoga in Koreatown appeared first on LA Yoga Magazine - Ayurveda & Health.

Nestled on a rare quiet corner along the major Fairfax thoroughfare, Hyperslow is a refuge for those looking to experience life at a slower pace. Offering yoga, meditation, and a cafe stocked with locally grown, organic, and simple fare, this community studio is a one-stop-shop to enjoy a day of reflection, community, and kindness.

Born from a dream, Hyperslow is the collaborative effort of partners Emily Davenport and Asher Luzzatto. From his experience at Burning Man’s Center Camp — a throwback to the communal sacred spaces of churches and community centers — Asher felt a desire to create a space where people could congregate, interact, and most importantly, connect. A student can come to the cafe, enjoy simple foods like fresh avocado, meet friends, and take yoga or meditation. After class, they can float out, lounge on any one of Hypeslow’s eclectic repurposed couches or sit at the decadently long communal dining table to enjoy art, work, and/or great conversation.

Not only does the Hyperslow studio in Hollywood have a café, yoga and meditation studio, they also offer an R&D space for entrepreneurs and artists to work in-house with a gallery space to feature their wares. “We hope to incubate a space for health and wellness companies as well as a place where creatives can connect and collaborate,” says Asher. Pop-up gallery shows, movie and documentary screenings, and live acoustic blues concerts are just a few of the events on Hyperslow’s recent calendar.

“You give the world a blank slate and they fill it in,” says Asher. “We’re happy painting the background.”

A dreamer’s delight and a free spirit’s urban oasis, Hyperslow is a breath of long, fresh, and luxurious air. “If we spend as much time slowing down as we do speeding up, we will achieve the beauty we seek.” Yes, indeed. For more information, visit hyperslow.com.

487 South Fairfax
Los Angeles, CA
310-775-5962
hyperslow.com

Marja Lankinen

Marja Lankinen is a poet, prospective scholar, and former professional dancer (Beyonce, Oprah, The Billboard Awards). Recently, she graduated from Harvard University with an ALM degree in the field of English and is currently an independent researcher and freelance writer. Marja has been a staff writer at LA YOGA Magazine since 2017.

www.yogafordancers.com

The post Hyperslow Studio in Hollywood appeared first on LA Yoga Magazine - Ayurveda & Health.

Set and Flow Yoga, founded by Seth Manheimer, a man with a Master’s degree in Film Directing, tells his version of the age-old “this is my story” through this brick and mortar monolith where yoga meets fitness meets club vibe. Located just a stone’s throw from the Hollywood Walk of Fame at the corner of La Brea and Hollywood Boulevards,, every aspect of Set and Flow exudes the elements of a successful film, from the soundtrack, to the lighting (candles for mood in the Hot Yoga space with state of the art LED color therapy lighting in the other rooms), to cultivating rapport with the audience—or in this case—with the students.

“We believe that yoga is not just something you do but something that can be practiced across all movement disciplines.”

The self-proclaimed “Chris Farley of Yoga,” Seth set out to craft a studio to welcome a diverse group of urban yogis — truly accessible for beginners and challenging enough to test the metal of even the most robust Los Angeleno. According to the studio’s mission statement, “We believe that yoga is not just something you do but something that can be practiced across all movement disciplines.”

Set and Flow Yoga offers a workout for every temperament, mood, and musical styling, with a full-scale schedule packed with nearly 100 classes per week (and growing!) including Barefoot Bootcamp, Cannonball Yoga Sculpt, Kettlebells, Battle Ropes Express, TRX, Pilates, Yin, Hot Barre, and Hot Flow. Every Tuesday night, Seth channels his former nightclub DJ self for his signature “Seth and Flow;” it is a Hot Power Flow class set to music sure to make you move.

The studio offers yogis, fitness aficionados, and movement enthusiasts not only a great sweat, but also a dose of yoga philosophy. “Yoga is not just Warrior I and Warrior II,” says Seth; he includes the Yamas and Niyamas while playing Deep House. This studio, like any great Cheers episode where everybody knows your name, invites you to come have an experience, sit at the bar, order kombucha on tap, and promises that you’ll always be glad you came.

Set and Flow Yoga

1619 N La Brea Ave

Los Angeles, CA 90028

323-464-3569

setandflowyoga.com

Marja Lankinen

Marja Lankinen is a poet, prospective scholar, and former professional dancer (Beyonce, Oprah, The Billboard Awards). Recently, she graduated from Harvard University with an ALM degree in the field of English and is currently an independent researcher and freelance writer. Marja has been a staff writer at LA YOGA Magazine since 2017.

www.yogafordancers.com

The post Set and Flow Yoga Studio appeared first on LA Yoga Magazine - Ayurveda & Health.

At one point in Ben Allen’s career, he was a back up dancer for drag queens. Now, he is the founder of one of the hottest movements (or as he calls it, a GROOV3MENT) in the dance and fitness communities: GROOV3.

According to dancer and choreographer Allen, “GROOV3 is a one hour, high-energy, dance ’til you drop, cardio funk class with a mission to inspire change and build a global community through the power of dance. Simple combinations accommodate all fitness levels, and classes are set to the beat of a live DJ or feature the hottest mixes around.” While an infectious beat gets most of us moving, following a routine can sometimes be intimidating and can be a barrier to walking into a studio space. This is where GROOV3 comes in. Ben’s mission, “I want to create an environment outside of the gym where anyone is welcome, that has affordable class prices and accessible choreography.” GROOV3 grooves at the intersection between professional dance and the dance fitness industry.

Why dance? While dance is fun and fitness, there is something more found in GROOV3. Ben sees movement literally as a movement. He says, “We are in a crucial time in our history and if more people don’t open up their hearts to care about one another and our planet, we’re going to be in big trouble. I hope, with GROOV3, to build a global community of dancers that will also inspire more consciousness to change the world. Drop beats not bombs. If everybody danced together, maybe we would live in a more peaceful place.”

Where does this begin? Ben says, “Find what inspires and moves you and put that action back in your life. Lead with that.”

When it comes to leading with passion, Ben’s own steps to founding GROOV3 reflect following your own passion in life. Ben fell in love with dance in college, specifically influenced by an instructor at the Arizona State University Rec Center who started a coalition for anybody who wanted to dance, preaching that dance was for body, mind, and soul. The soulful connection is evident in any GROOV3 class or event and is an essential part of the movement.

After graduating from ASU with a business degree, Ben moved to LA. He came to dance—and dance he did. While teaching at Gold’s Gym, he had the opportunity to see firsthand how much people are looking for an opportunity to just dance, not for any purpose, not to be a pro, or even to lose weight. “They just wanted to come for the social component, the wellness component, and the mind-body connection.”

Finding a way to connect fueled the creation of the GROOV3 community. Where did the name come from? Ben says, “When thinking about the style of the movement, the best way we could describe the movement was groovy! A little bit of pop, little bit of funk, little bit of soul, but in general feel good movement that anyone could do.  We knew we couldn’t just call it groove, the word is too generic. Then as we were brainstorming more about the class, three words kept popping up.” These three magic words were dance, sweat, live. They became the motto for the movement, and the inspiration to flip the “E” in the word “groove” for GROOV3.

“With GROOV3, you are learning and building, the movement is fun, yet effective, and you can take it outside of the classroom.” The majority of people at GROOV3 classes or events used to dance or want to learn how to dance. Ben said, “We are reigniting a passion that, for most, was lost in high school or college, and now they are getting that chance to get back on the dance floor.” This is meaningful practice that impacts the rest of a person’s day. “I think connecting to a passion like dance and making time for it translates to everything else that you do.”

Ben exemplifies the passion for dance and movement. One of the people he models his career after is Richard Simmons, whose infectious enthusiasm for having fun while keeping fit changed the way we work out. “When I first started this, I said – and I still do – that I want to be the next Richard Simmons. He played such an important role in so many people’s lives. He was a motivational coach, and he spread so much joy and love in everything that he did and affected so many people. Translating that to this decade and doing something similar would be such an honor.”

He maintains a commitment to personal practice and continues to take classes that expand his repertoire and move him out of his comfort zone. Ben finds himself drawn to teachers who have an obvious enthusiasm and passion for what they do—who love the opportunity to inspire. I’ve often seen Ben in my classes at Hot 8 Yoga. In addition to yoga in a studio, Ben appreciates trying new modalities like aerial yoga and indoor sandbox fitness classes. He says, “I want to keep expanding my vocabulary as a movement artist and professional because it helps me stay creative when I choreograph.”

Sitting with Ben at Earth Bar in West Hollywood, I see that he is on that path and can make it happen. Ben is a consummate dancer and business pro whose passion for dance and connecting people has led to collaborations with Robin Anton of the Pussycat Dolls, The Sweat Spot, Equinox, Weight Watchers, and Nike. GROOV3 collaborated with Yoga for Dancers and Yogazilla to host a rooftop dance party to celebrate Beyonce’s birthday at the Montalban Theater. Not only is he elevating the Los Angeles dance and fitness community to fit-excellence, but Ben has his sights on a worldwide movement of taking GROOV3 and this powerful, purposeful, fun, accessible, and inspiring GROOV3MENT to set the globe aflame.

Classes in Southern California with Benjamin Allen and other teachers are held at locations including Beat Box LA in Culver City, Your Neighborhood Studio in Culver City, Life Arts Los Angeles, Gateway to Health in Torrance, Blackbird Dance Company, Movement Lifestyle, Edge Performing Arts Center, Basement of Noho, Meraki Barre in Costa Mesa and other locations. Learn more at: GROOV3.com  

Marja Lankinen

Marja Lankinen is a poet, prospective scholar, and former professional dancer (Beyonce, Oprah, The Billboard Awards). Recently, she graduated from Harvard University with an ALM degree in the field of English and is currently an independent researcher and freelance writer. Marja has been a staff writer at LA YOGA Magazine since 2017.

www.yogafordancers.com

The post Teacher Profile: Benjamin Allen appeared first on LA Yoga Magazine - Ayurveda & Health.

It’s no surprise since this hip hop-inspired yoga studio is owned by two New Yorkers-turned-LA-West Siders. The words “A Tribe Called Sweat” grace the walls as a welcome call for newcomers;”Can I kick it?” “Yes, you can,” is the feeling you get from this studio’s vibe.

Y7 prides itself on its infrared heating system, which provides “a spa-like heat” according to studio manager, Lauren Abramson. The system creates an internal heat that allows practitioners to build a bumpin’ sweat and work from the inside out. I can personally attest to the fact that I got my sassy sweat on in class. I am admittedly not sure if it was due to the infrared heating system or the fact that the teacher themed her entire class on Beyonce’s discography. The music— perfection. The flow—fantastic. The candlelit vibe with no mirrors—pure “Beyonce Live in Concert” bliss. When “Formation” came on, I chaturanga-ed my Beyonce-loving soul out.

For anyone looking for their yoga and their Erykah sprinkled with some Chance the Rapper and a hefty helping of Kendrick, you have come to the right place. Prayer hands meet you at the front window; “I’m not a player, but I crush a lot” meets you in the back. This studio is New York, is raw, is real, is hip hop, is definitely fitness. Yoga, you have never looked so fly.

Y7 Studio

8270 Melrose Ave Los Angeles, CA 90046

y7-studio.com

Marja Lankinen

Marja Lankinen is a poet, prospective scholar, and former professional dancer (Beyonce, Oprah, The Billboard Awards). Recently, she graduated from Harvard University with an ALM degree in the field of English and is currently an independent researcher and freelance writer. Marja has been a staff writer at LA YOGA Magazine since 2017.

www.yogafordancers.com

The post Y7 Melrose appeared first on LA Yoga Magazine - Ayurveda & Health.