Friday, July 20, 2001


as promised, my trip to the new york iyengar institute. . .but first, a word about my search engine.

as you may have noticed, i use the free search engine from atomz. it does have some drawbacks, however. it lacks good phrase searching, and even using quotes or + doesn't help much. also, you do seem to get a slightly different search every time, even with the same keywords in the same order. strange hmmm?

finally, it also doesn't seem to find text in links, which is not so good, because many times you are in fact trying to find the important, linked items! so for example, if you were searching for my local coffee store, "two for the pot," which was mentioned and linked here on may 24, you couldn't find with this engine!

forgive me! over the next several weeks i will work on improving the search features as i can afford it. thank you for your patience.

now for the iyengar report:

the iyengar institute in new york is in the flatiron district in a recently remodeled building. it's easy to get to on several subway lines -- a very short walk from the N & R line esp. the institute has a suite on the 8th floor. when you buzz in, you are admitted to a small dark foyer with a tall desk. the reception area is very busy. first time visitors fill out a card and drop their shoes in the little cubbies.

the ladies' dressing room is nothing but a curtain to the side of the reception area with some pipe racks to hold hangers. it's one open area, so you cna't be shy. just pretend you're at the famous new york super-discount store, century 21, which likewise has an open dressing room.

if this leads you to think that the practice space is dreary, oh no. . .leaving the dark reception/dressing area, you take a few steps into a lovely, large, light-filled loft space, with huge old windows, graceful quiet ceiling fans, beautiful supporting columns, and a sprung wood floor to die for. the top of the room is decorated with large b&w pix of bks himself in various poses. to the side are bakers shelves holding many many blankets, wooden blocks, bolsters, etc. one portion of the back wall has been made into a section with ropes attached to it to use as stretching aides.

mats are free. class payment is on the honor system -- you put the money on a table by the window.

the iyengar philosophy holds that when you are new to iyengar, no matter how much experience you have with other types of yoga, you should begin with a level one class. level one classes mainly focus on the standing poses. the teacher, a woman in her 50s, began the class with a series of stretching exercises based on standing forward bend (uttanasana). in the 1-1/2 hr. class, we did several variations each of uttanasa, uktanasa (chair pose), trikonasana (triangle pose), down dog, parigasana (gate pose), virasana (hero pose), and shoulderstand. there were no sun salutations or vinyasa of any kind.

the instruction was not as technical and detailed as i had expected. actually i was used to receiving more detailed instructions on alignment from my vinyasa classes, where is it common to hear teachers say "keep your shoulders flat on your back," "rotate your upper arms toward the ceiling," "spiral your back leg," "move your front thigh inward and your heart center forward." the iyengar teacher did discuss the importance of raising the knee caps and flexing the thigh muscles by lifting and spreading the toes. she never talked about ujjai breathing or the bandas.

this isn't to say that i learned nothing from the iyengar class. the teacher had an interesting approach to chair pose, which made it much more difficult. she also had a way of getting into shoulderstand which i found helpful in keeping the midline of my body centered. and i had never been taught gate pose before at all. however, i was terrified by the use of 4 blankets in shoulderstand. i was sure i was going to fall off and break my neck!

since one class isn't really adequate to judge by, i will try another with a different teacher, probably a level two class if possible. this level one class did move very slowly. i found it challenging to keep my mind from wandering in the long explanations of the poses. which i guess is part of the work in iyengar -- to pay attention patiently. i'm also not always sure i took full advantage of the time to sink as deeply into the poses as i might have. these are things i will work on in the next class.


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