Namaskar - July 2009

Workshop Review
Gently Does it
Valerie Wilson Trower
Dylan’s Ashtanga workshop, at Pure
Yoga in Hong Kong recently, was
one of the gentlest I could ever
imagine for students in terms of
developing their practice. He stressed that
yoga is a form of meditation, and the focus
of a yoga practice was the practice of stilling
the mind.
Reassuring students there was no need to
practice yoga to lose weight, he told them
two handfuls of fat was fine. Each student
gave their name and described their yoga
practice, one confessed trepidation at being
in the class at all! Starting gently in Child’s
pose, the class moved through Down dog
whilst Dylan talked to them, explaining
linking the breathe to movement, the Sun
Salutations, and the first standing poses.
leg at a time was okay if it was ‘too much.’
A variation with hands on the mat was
offered for the Bridge, and Dylan took great
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Describing the vinyasa as their first
challenge, Dylan made it sound easy,
effortless, and with a little joking on the
side, even fun. Instead of the flexed
description of toes in the seated poses he
used ‘Toes are up!’ - much easier to
understand. A variation in Maricharasana B -
with the calf on the opposite thigh, instead
of tucked in half-lotus allowed those with
tight knees to feel that they were getting the
pose. Students were encouraged to attempt
Maricharasana D, or to repeat C if it was a bit
too much. This was followed by Dylan’s
description of Navasana: ‘A pose we can all
enjoy!’ The pace was easy, not rushed, but
students moved through the sequence at a
reasonable pace: although the room was
full, no one was dripping wet and the
windows were not steamed up as they often
become during morning Mysore practice.
Occasionally, Dylan demonstrated to make
students laugh and feel better about their
efforts, showing the full vinyasa with a
handstand as an example of not allowing
yoga to inflate the ego. As the vinyasa began
to get exhausting for many students he
demonstrated the lift between poses, and
described Chaturanga, repeated so frequently,
as ‘your new best friend.’ After
Bhujapindasana, Dylan skipped Kurmasana
and Supta Kurmasana, but encouraged
students to drop their legs from Supta
Konasana to the mat, explaining bending
their knees was counter-intuitive, but one
DYLAN HELPS A STUDENT WITH HER PRASARITA
care to ensure students were careful in the
Headstand, skipping some of the other
inverted closing sequence to finish with a
‘nice vinyasa’, and the last three poses. I
watched students attempting poses that
they hadn’t previously in an encouraging
atmosphere, and observed how hard some
tried to master a pose. In three hours Dylan
showed students what an Ashtanga practice
might be and gave most of them
something to aim for. As one student in
the changing room told me afterwards:
“You do Hatha and Power and you think
you are fit, and then you come to
Ashtanga!” She looked into the distance
clearly seeing a whole different level of
practice! Dylan’s gentle three-hour workshop
was enough for most students, but not too
long that it deterred them from coming to
an Ashtanga class.
Valerie practices
Ashtanga yoga, Mysore
style, and leads Hatha
yoga stretches for the
Siddha Meditation
Path.