I started studying yoga within a month of my arrival in Paris in the fall of 2009, and unlike the up's and down's I've experienced in other subjects, I've been consistently enthusiastic about these studies. My yoga school teaches SwáSthya yoga, a codified form of pre-classical yoga dating back about 5000 years, assembled (as best I understand) several decades ago by a Brazilian man named DeRose who studied many ancient Indian texts.
Yoga, or more accurately yôga, isn't just a physical exercise but the incorporation of studies of theoretical philosophy, behavioral practices (like vegetarianism, which no, I haven't embraced), and physical philosophy (wherein falls the physical practice of yoga). To be fair, I devote most of my time to the physical practice. My yoga school's physical training is distinctive because it naturally and artistically sequences the positions trained during a session. Students are pushed to really hold each position, developing strength through endurance, but never through repetitions of positions. Ideally, each student will develop his or her own personal sequence to be performed as a choreography, the first performance of which marks a major advancement in a student's progression and officially earns him or her the title of yogi (male) or yogini (female).
To become a yogini, I worked for months both at home and with instructors at my school on weekends to develop a full three-and-a-half minute performance including thirty-some-odd positions. I had to polish all the transitions and select mudrás, or poses for my hands, to go with many of the positions. The final product is still far from perfect, but I'm quite excited about it! I then had to study some theory and pass a written exam on my school's history and basic philosophy. The exam wasn't nothing: it took me about three hours (and ugh, what hand cramping from all that writing), but luckily it was just memorization.
In the final stretch of preparations, my choreography prep even required a last minute sewing project as none of the leotards my school offered were totally perfect, and the best fit had full-length flare legs instead of fitted pants finishing mid-calf. The flares really cut into the nice line of the full leg and made many positions lose their grace. However, a beautiful ômkára was printed on the very bottom of the leg and I had to find a way to salvage that while chopping off the lower pant leg. Luckily, despite my fears and the challenges of sewing spandex, the leotard was in top shape for Wednesday evening and the performance went about as well as I could have hoped. (I'm holding off on sharing the full leotard until you can see it in action in my choreography video!)
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| Sewing skills put to the test: in a last minute leotard make-over, I had to convert a full-length, flare leg into a much more aesthetically pleasing mid-calf tight fit since none of the leotards my school could offer me were just right. Despite my fears over the time I'd spent away from my sewing machine, the project turned into one of this week's little victories! |
Two other students also presented their choreographies that night which was exceptional as it's not every month that even a single student performs. The comraderie was welcome, and together we all sat for a brief pin-awarding ceremony after our performances to mark our formal transition to yogin.
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| My spoils from the sat chakra: in the foreground, the orange yogin pin received after my choreography performance, with the ômkára, the written symbol for Ôm; in the background a fruit and a flower from other yoga students. At each sat chakra, we all bring a fruit and a flower which we exchange with two other students. |
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