Monday, August 18, 2008

Yoga Jazz?

Monday as usual is Power Yoga with Michelle R. She's in a good mood today. It might be the coffee she had before coming to class. After several months practicing with her, I learned that the best indicator of much you are going to suffer in class is by looking at her playlist.

Tonight Michelle outdid herself. We held Plank Pose for 1 minute and 15 seconds to jazz.

When did jazz ballad become the new yoga music?

5 comments:

Doc Martian said...

you might pick up john coltrane's 'a love supreme'. that'd be some wikked yoga music.

Cheers!
Doc

purplefugue said...

OOohh... Michelle scared me. She was fierce in my first class with her. Got told off for whispering something to a friend. ACK! But jazz in yoga? Not a bad idea...Coltrane is a good suggestion, suggest Miles Davis quieter stuff too.

How have you been??

darkorpheus said...

Doc - Sampled Coltrane on CD once. Didn't take to him.

Indigo - I'm fine. Life is in flux at the moment, but manageble.

I agree - Michelle can be moody and intense. There will be times when she seems scary and she wouldn't smile when you meet her at the corridors.

But she's serious about the practice and if you're willing to stick with her, you will feel yourself growing stronger.

What I respect most about Michelle is her insatiable thirst for learning. She's always going for yoga retreats and workshops with other teachers - and then she comes back and infused her classes with all that she has learned. I like a teacher who is first and foremost a student.

But if Michelle is too scary, have you ever tried Charat's classes? I love that man. He is gentle and non-intrusive in his adjustments - and they are always spot-on, almost like sixth sense.

Iliana said...

Oh that would have been painful for me. I don't enjoy jazz. However at this point I'd take it - as I've moved to a new city I still haven't found a yoga class I like yet. So I've been without yoga for a couple of months - boohoo.

Doc Martian said...

yeh, he's kinda heavy. like his two extremes are his ballads album and his 'a love supreme'... some folks like his work with miles davis more. 'kind of blue' being a good example of that. i dunno... i tend towards pre-modal jazz... like i'm more likely to buy stuff by django reinhardt or duke ellington than I am something by ornette coleman. charlie haden's quartet west would be good for meditation too... like slow 50s ballad with stringage grandeloquent statements for slow movement, although some of haden's work is a bit too free.