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May 31, 2004
Anusara?
I decided to get up this morning and do the morning practice at the club... though I had taken the sub teacher's class before and hated it, I thought I would try it again and give her a second chance. I disliked the class even more today. She started off the class saying "Since almost all of you are women, we need to do some stretching first." HUH? Since when did we need to stretch before a practice just because we are women? We then proceeded to do regular sun salutations.... and then the practice ended up going into something I will describe as a cross between a phys. ed class and yoga. Before Padangusthasana we did this sorta squatting thing, then grab the toe, then straighten the legs... We went from Utthita Trikonasana into Warrior C (?) then on the other side. She had us get into Utthita Parsvakonasana in some strange way... Prasarita's were good....then before Utthita Hasta Padangusthasana she had us put our ankle over our knee, squat down, cradle the lower leg, stand again... I thought this was leading to Ardha Baddha Padmottanasana but, instead, it led to Utthita Hasta Padangusthasana and those of us who grabbed our toes from the inside of our leg were strongly reprimanded -- I've never had anyone at Tim Miller's correct this -- is this an Anusara thing? From there we did some wierd bouncing... legs hip distance, squatting, bouncing our butts up and down ?????!?!!!!!!!! It felt like 7th grade gym class. Utkatasana, Warrior then jump through into a wierd version of Dandasana...Paschimottanasana A & B... a sorta half backbend thing where we took one hand behind is, center back, lifted up into an arch with the other hand in over our heads... Then she had us do a vinyasa jumping through with our "leg folded back" -- those of us ashtangis in the room assumed we were heading into Trianga Mukhaikapada Paschimottansana but instead we did this pose that I believe is in the 3rd series where you grab your feet, one arm inside your leg, one arm over your head, twisting... then Janu Sirasana A, repeat other side.. Vinyasa, Mari A & C... Vinyasa, Navasana and a few variations thereof... then a lot of rocking up and down...shoulderstand... and that's it... 3 Vinyasas and a lot of wacky stretching stuff is most certainly not an ashtanga class and shouldn't be called one. At one point the very good ashtangi next to me and I just looked at each other and laughed... After the class was over I heard a much older person talking to the teacher about how great it was... the teacher said "Well, I can't teach ashtanga so I just do my anusara." Okay, then WHY set yourself up as an ashtanga teacher.
Rumor has it my favorite club teacher is leaving ;( Rumor also has it the only other ashtanga teacher there (who does prep classes true to ashtanga) is also leaving... I can only pray that Kiran will take over somewhere in there...
After yoga the family and I enjoyed the pool then had lunch at our favorite restaurant...when we were leaving, The Daughter's midwife, Catharine Miller, came with Tim Miller and his wife... it was nice to talk to Carol and meet Leela and talk to them outside of yoga. Although, I must admit, everytime I see Catharine I get that yearn to give birth again...
Posted by ashtangagirl at 1:49 PM | Comments (2)