Thread of Breath
In Ashtanga Vinyasa, we draw the breath in long arcing lines through the hollow center of the body. With assiduous practice, we learn to follow those lines with unbroken attention, imbuing our movements with weightless fluidity. In this course, we learn the techniques of bandha and mudra that underlie this ability, and we explore them through some fundamental movement patterns from the Ashtanga Vinyasa system, including the coveted actions of pressing, piking, jumping through and jumping back.
The movement patterns covered here are all derived from Surya Namaskar, which is not only the opening line, but the thread along which the melody of the practice is composed. Every posture is situated within a unique instance of Surya Namaskar, and the purpose of dynamic vinyasa is to string them together into a beautiful garland of forms.
Elegant and Graceful
The instruction offered here is designed to bring elegance and gracefulness to your practice, so you can experience that unbroken flow of movement, breath and attention for which Ashtanga is well known. Even if you feel daunted by these difficult movements, this course will show you how to progress, and it will give you some simple techniques to bring your postures together immediately into a more lyrical flow. The course includes roughly 45 minutes of video material, covering the following:
Pressing Up
Piking Forward
Jumping Through
Jumping Back