ASHTANGA WEEKEND WORKSHOP with DAVID GARRIGUES

ALL LEVELS WELCOME

This workshop is suitable for anyone interested in Ashtanga with a motivation to
learn. David is skillful in providing explanations of elusive, often unspoken aspects
of the practice. In a weekend workshop he offers clinic style led classes that
investigate specific aspects of the practice that help students come to new
perspectives on how to practice more intelligently, safely, and joyfully.

All individual sessions are $45 

EARLY BIRD DISCOUNT: $200 before 9/01 

FULL WEEKEND: $230 when purchased after 9/01

(Members please contact staff for special discount)

ABOUT DAVID

David Garrigues is one of a few teachers in the US certified to teach Ashtanga Yoga
by Sri K Pattabhi Jois. David met Pattabhi Jois in 1993 and over the next 16 years he
traveled to Mysore India to study with the great yoga master. In 1996 Pattabhi Jois
granted David a teaching certificate. As an Ashtanga Ambassador he bases his
teachings on the idea that ‘ANYONE CAN TAKE PRACTICE’, a core idea in the
teachings of Sri K Pattabhi Jois. David’s mission is to help others flourish within the
living, contemporary lineage of Ashtanga Yoga.
In his workshops David offers a combination both traditional counted vinyasa led
classes and clinic style led classes that investigate specific aspects of the practice in
varying levels of detail. These important classes feature more verbal instruction;
they give students a chance to slow things down, see new ways to orient during
practice, get explanations of elusive, often unspoken aspects of the practice, and
understand the Ashtanga method in greater, more subtle detail. Mysore, chanting
and kirtan classes are also frequently included in a workshop. During the weekend
David weaves together studies of asana, pranayama, bandhas, vinyasa, chanting,
bhakti yoga, yoga sutra’s and other elements to help develop Ashtanga Vidya
(knowledge).

WORKSHOP SCHEDULE OVERVIEW

Friday Nov 1st

6:00pm-7:30pm

ASHTANGA’S DYNAMIC VINYASA DIMENSION THROUGH SURYA NAMASKARA

Saturday Nov 2nd

9am-10:15am
EXTRACTING STRENGTH THROUGH STANDING POSTURES

10:15-11:30am

LEARNING HIP INTELLIGENCE THROUGH SEATED POSTURES AND INVERSIONS

(1 hour break)

12:30-2:00pm
PRECISION, PURIFICATION, AND PRANAYAMA

Sunday Nov 3rd

9:30-11:00am
MYSORE CLASS

11:00-noon
YOGA SUTRAS TALK ON BOOK 1, SUTRA 20

FULL WEEKEND WORKSHOP DESCRIPTION

FRIDAY

6:00-7:30PM

ASHTANGA’S DYNAMIC VINYASA DIMENSION THROUGH SURYA NAMASKARA

This asana class will focus on how proper vinyasa knowledge extends
beyond memorizing the number of positions of the asana; you are also
meant to know the vinyasa positions dynamically within your body.
There is a great art to understanding the subtle progressions of
movement that bring you into and out of each asana, exploring this
refinement is what brings you into readiness, poise, beauty and
alignment in your postures.  We’ll look at how such vinyasa knowledge
helps you understand how to refine your awareness and to learn to see
the practice as chiefly dhyana, meditation.

SATURDAY

9:00-10:15am

EXTRACTING STRENGTH THROUGH STANDING POSTURES

In this class we’ll explore how the cultivating a combination of
dynamism and stability in the standing postures provides you a perfect
means of entrance into the internal practice of Ashtanga Yoga. We’ll
explore the importance of using the feet, legs, and hips to create
strength, stamina and concentration. Better understand how the
standing postures are an essential key to building a strong asana
foundation. Learn to better access to mula and uddhyana bandhas
(locks), see how the grounded support of the lower body can awaken the
breath and the spine and lead the way to steady gazing (dristi) and to
dynamic meditation (dhyana).

10:15-11:30am

LEARNING HIP INTELLIGENCE THROUGH SEATED POSTURES

In this class David will teach skillful ways to open up your hips
safely. There is an integrated thinking process about the action in
the hip joint and the transfer of energy through the leg from the hip
to the foot that you want to draw from in your approach to opening
your hips. You learn to call on the frog like circular action of
external rotation, to explore animal like movements that show you the
playful and practical possibilities of what your hips can do, and thus
you begin to safely reclaim and to discover the natural range of
motion of your hip joints without straining your knee or ankle joints.

1 HOUR BREAK

12:30-2:00pm
PRECISION, PURIFICATION AND PRANAYAMA

This class is devoted to pranayama, chanting, and discussion of the
central role breathing plays in attaining success in practice. This
class will utilize breathing exercises, retention, and discussion, to
help you better centralize your awareness on breath during practice.
We’ll study how to use breathing to build powerful strength in your
asanas and to effect nadi shodana, purification of the pranic
channels. Prana Vidya, knowledge of prana, helps you to progress
towards subtlety as you concentrate your mind and better direct the
power of the internalized prana. We’ll discuss how cleansing is not
limited to the tapas that you create during practice, but rather how
purification is a central theme that encompasses all aspects of your
life. We’ll explore how to access awareness of your more subtle energy
channels through breathing and how to better direct this energy both
on and off the mat.

SUNDAY

9:30-11:00am

MYSORE

Mysore class provides the student with a concentrated and heightened
learning experience that will help he/she develop practical and
technical yoga skills and be immersed in the inspirational magic and
poetic soul of the practice. Each student will receive valuable one to
one guidance from David on developing his/her personal practice.  The
student will develop skill in applying the practice techniques in ways
that are logical, challenging, intelligent and fun. David focuses on
learning how to follow the Ashtanga system and at the same time
creating a practice that honors individuality, versatility and
creativity.

11:00-Noon

YOGA SUTRAS TALK ON BOOK 1, SUTRA 20

Study of the Yoga Sutras offers key insights on how to better work
with your mind in your daily asana practice. David will give a talk on
book 1, sutra 20; this is one of the most famous sutras in
Patanjali’s, Yoga Sutras, and talks about the 5 qualities to cultivate
for progress in practice.

Sraddha—FAITH
Virya——ENERGY/STRENGTH
Smrti——MEMORY
Samadhi—MEDITATION
Prajna—AWAKENING OF WISDOM OR INSIGHT

This unique combination of qualities are meant to be cultivated and
are the gifts of your practice. They can be thought of as 5 jars that
you want to fill and keep filling.  David will discuss each one of
these powerhouse words in this 1 hour talk.