Ms Anya Porter

Who needs some yoga-breakdance-sauna time? (Everyone.)

This Saturday, 7-10pm at Yogaworks Soho, is another session of Breakti with the superfun Anya Porter. Beginners are welcome; you’ll learn some basic yoga moves to prep the body for floor work, and then practice a slow-building breakin’ sequence or two. Relaxing in the sauna afterwards makes for a perfect Saturday night.

Want more info? Read our previous post: Yoga Spanda with Anya Porter.

Preregister now and get $5 off!

This one is back at YogaWorks Soho, which means you can chill (I mean sweat) in the sauna afterwards.

Breakti with Anya Porter
street – dance – yoga
Saturday, October 23rd, 2010
7–9pm
www.breakti.com
$25 ($30 day-of)

YogaWorks Soho
459 Broadway, at Grand
Bring a long sleeve shirt, and a beanie hat or hoodie
Sauna and refreshments to follow!

AND — special deal — Yogoer readers get $5 off admission! Just email anya [at] yoga-spanda [dot] com with “Twitter” as the subject line.

It’s totally beginner friendly, and a ton of fun. See you there?

Best profile pic ever

If you’re free this Saturday night, come out for fun times at YogaWorks Soho. Anya Porter is doing another Yoga Spanda — her mashup class teaching both yoga and breakdancing.

I went last month, to the inaugural event at Mark Morris Dance Studios, and had a super great time. We spent the first hour doing slow Vinyasa yoga, with a focus on drawing everything up towards the core. This prepped our minds, and protected our lower backs, when we moved to the floor. (The action of tucking the tail, finding a “cat spine” in each pose, was a really helpful tip for days to come.)

The second hour was breakdance: uprock, a six step, and a freeze. Don’t worry about looking like a complete idiot; the class was very beginner-friendly. I am the gangliest, slowest breakdancer in the world, and I had tons of fun.

The class has live music; funk and soul provided by DJ Scribe. “Spanda” is the pulse of life, the ebb and flow of each pose, and part of the exercise is feeling the beat, exploring yoga plus music.

Here’s the video:

This month’s class is at YogaWorks Soho, so you can decompress in the sauna afterward. Details:

Yoga Spanda at YogaWorks Soho
Saturday, August 7th, 2010
7 pm – 10 pm

This event is bound to be an amazing one…  We have landed the fabulous YogaWorks Soho equipped with a beautiful studio, showers and SAUNAS!!!!  Also featuring refreshments and bites following class from Sattvic Succulents!!! And last but not least, FREE GOODIE BAGS AND SAMPLES from Khushi Spa in Tribeca!!!  We also have some collaborations in the working for an amazing event at Le Poisson Rouge that evening…  breathe, break it down…  spa and sip…  then walk over to LPR to work it out for the rest of the evening!!!

Register at http://bhaktiandbreakdance.tumblr.com/yogaspanda
$25 pre-reg, $30 day-of
Pre-register and get a free week of classes at YogaWorks Soho!

See you there?

Last night I went to Flavorpill‘s monthly decompression, Get Your Dance On. It’s kind of my ideal situation: great DJs, friendly people, lots of gorgeous space, and healthy snacky treats. All before 11pm. They serve free kombucha, wine and chocolate all night, plus coconut water and granola bars. (Well, I guess it’s not free — it’s $20, but that gets you a week at Yogaworks, too.) Totally hippie but WAY fewer men with ponytails than the old Body Temple parties. Maybe zero. And like 90% of the crowd is dancing.

Kombucha (fermented tea originating in Russia or maybe China) is my vote for best party drink. A little caffeine, a little alcohol, a little sugar = recipe for success. Plus, it’s too fizzy and sour to drink too much. It’s like Red Bull, except not metallic or chemical. The (locally brewed) ginger flavor was perfect.

The highlight of the night, however, was the sauna. I skipped it last time, but the well-traveled friend I was with this time was RARING to spend a Friday night in the traditional Swedish way: in the Bad House. (Technically, we should have brought in some fruit and beer, and played chess after, but we settled for coconut water and chatter.) The sauna is small, with room for ten people max, but we met some fellow dancers and soon relaxed. Twenty minutes in, a cold shower, ten minutes more, another cold shower, and I was limp. It was honestly the perfect way to end an evening. Can my future dream-house architect take note?

On our way out, we stopped in the downstairs studio. The musicians were packing up their drums, and a few stragglers still sat still. I was so relaxed from the sauna that I could really feel the tightness of a few over-danced muscles, so I asked for ten minutes to stretch. As my friends chatted, I went through a bit of yoga. (And since we were in an actual yoga studio, you could do this post-party without being a circus attraction!)

Post-sauna yoga was a revelation. Obviously I had to be careful to not overstretch my already loose joints, but I have never felt such relaxation in the poses. One definition of asana practice is “sthiram sukham” — the postures should be “hard AND soft” — and I’ve always struggled with the soft part. I’m athletic, I love the feeling of burning muscles and complete can-I-really-do-this focus. But the softness of my back in a low lunge made me realize that I’m usually working with suspension cables stretched tighter than the Brooklyn Bridge. I expect the yoga poses to stretch and therefore relax me; it turns out I could use a little help. I’m a little tightly wound.

Physically relaxed, it was SO much easier to hold still in the poses — the fidgety tension was all sweated out. I felt like I was falling from one pose into another. It was so easy to decide what pose to do next; I could really feel the tightness that needed attention. Tension was abnormal, instead of normal. I noticed all sorts of subtle details and feelings that are normally subsumed in my stiff-as-a-board back. I felt like I was made of water, instead of wood.

So the takeaway here is: Get a massage. Go to the sauna. Whatever your muscles need. It’s a necessity, not a luxury. Tension is like being deaf to yourself. Muscles that are short and tight can only do and say so much.

- – - – - – -

For posterity: Post-Party Yoga (10 minutes)

Low Lunge — Ashwa Sanchalanasana
Revolved Lunge — Parvritta Ashwa Sanchalanasana
Pyramid — Parsvottanasana
Wide-Legged Forward Bend — Prasarita Padottanasana
Gate — Parighasana
Forward Bend (with shoulder stretch) — Uttanasana with hands clasped behind back
Runner’s Stretch — Janu Sirsasana
Revolved Runner’s Stretch — Parvritta Janu Sirsasana
Seated Spinal Twist — Ardha Matsyendrasana
Standing Half Frog — Urdhva Ardha Bhekasana? quad stretch, just holding one foot
Standing Back Bend — Anuvittasana
Standing Neck Stretch — Hasta Jalandhara, I guess

Yum. Ask Google for the images if you’re curious.

To share some holiday spirit, Resurgent Fitness offers a full day of excellent free classes, including abs at 11:15, capoeira at noon, Muay Thai at 1:15, bellydance at 2:30, Congolese dance at 4pm, yoga at 5:15, and Djimbe dance and drum at 6:30. Call for a full schedule.

Resurgent Fitness
845 Sterling Place, Brooklyn
11:00am–6:30pm
$free
(347) 405-6709

That’s Saturday, December 12, 2009. Happy holidays!

Dance Dance Party Party

Oooh! Dance New Amsterdam, one of the oldest studios in town, is having free classes all day tomorrow! It’s a celebration of their 25th anniversary.

From 10:00am – 7:00pm FREE classes in modern, ballet, contemporary, hip hop, jazz, pilates and yoga and more will be offered by DNA’s first-rate faculty: Gail Accardi, Georgina Aragon, Alexandra Beller, Julie Bour, Rebecca Burton, Martha Chapman, Janessa Clark, Sarah Clark, Jennie Cohen, Wendell Cooper, Amy Cushing, Laurie De Vito, Chris Heller, Nathalie Jonas, Katiti King, Anabella Lenzu, Nia Love, Diane McCarthy, Darcy Naganuma, Te Perez, TaraMarie Perri, Megan Philipp, Ambere Rogers, Benny Simon, Sasha Soreff, Oliver Steele, Teri Steele, Al Turner, Julie Turner, Sophia Fatouros, and Jayson Vasquez.

For more info, visit the event page: http://www.dnadance.org/site/about/our-25th-birthday/

ATMANANDA OPEN HOUSE

Wednesday, September 30
7:30–10:00 pm
324 Lafayette Street, 7th Floor

Please join us for our open house to find out what Atmananda is all about with complimentary classes.  Come and brings your friends and receive an additional 10% off any program or promotion offered at Atmananda.

7:30–8:00 — CAPOEIRA CLASS An African‐Brazilian art form that combines dance, martial arts, music and acrobatics

7:30–9 — SATSANG BLISS MEDITATION CLASS

8:00–8:45 — ATMANANDA SEQUENCE BEGINNER CLASS Taught by Atmananda Yoga Sequence creator Jhon T

ONGOING THROUGHOUT THE EVENING:
Astrology readings
Massage
Nutrition counseling
Acupuncture
Healthy snacks and beverages
Natalie Rivera Jewelry trunk show
And more!

I did my teacher training at Atmananda, after finding the place through… an open house. Who knows what you’ll find there?

I need to invent a Bollywood Superman pose now, some sort of wide-legged hands-on-hips shaking of the belly.

Thanks to Boing Boing via Chris Blattman via my friend Hari.

“Karma is the trouble you make for yourself by being nervous and worried, and by trying to do what you think is right.

… as soon as you don’t care so much — or when you get interested in everything equally — things loosen up and start to happen. This is very un-Freudian.”

— James Waring, “Why I Like the Rockettes“