Yoga in Paris

@Guerilla Yogi 

11.00 - Community Yoga Class with Marc Holzman

I am in Paris! Weeeeeeeee! Thankfully I'm staying with a lovely friend from Uni days who has been living here for the past 3 years  His apartment has a view of the Eiffel Tower and he can speak perfect French so it makes it a far nicer experience.  He took me to this lovely old church hall where, Marc, the yoga teacher  gives community classes by donation every few weeks. The venue was a beautiful old church hall, up a gorgeous staircase and with lovely bay windows. 

Marc began with a bit of a chat about a quote referencing the Bhagavad Gita several times. We then sang a mantra (which he had handed out to us on a piece of paper) by call and repsonse, then altogether. That's actually the first class I've ever been to where the teacher explained the mantra and the reasons we DOa mantra. It was really useful and I think, a nice way to introduce the concept to new students who might be intimidated/might think it's weird and freaky! HE then, showed us the pose: Ardha Chandrasana with Naturanjasana, basically Half moon pose with Dancer pose on top, as an introduction and said that this is what we are working towards today. Again, another first for me. What a great idea! I think i'm going to actually try this when I teach. My mate told me that it's a really Anusara Yoga way, which is the style that Marc taught in originally.

We then launched into the class with a series of slow flow half Sun Salutations which were just beautiful. Uttanasana (Standing forward bend) has GOT to be my new favourite pose I think.Boring, yes, I know, but the benefits are just huge, especially in comparison to the simplicity of the pose.  Again, Mark walked around, making adjustments and giving us verbal cues like all of the other American teachers. WE then did the 'final' pose, on our stomachs, then with a few things in between, then on our knees, with a few more things in between, then finally on our feet but with a partner standing behind us supporting our sacrum and guiding our top foot back a bit further. IT was GREAT!

Overall, an awesome class, especially because I'm jetlagged...again...and one in which I have taken away heaps of useful ideas. I also really like his marketing concept of 'Guerilla Yoga' being sort of the equivalent of those 'pop-up stores'. Have you seen those? They come and go in empty retail spaces, stay for a few weeks and then disappear again. Kinda like that.

Marc was a lovely, friendly guy. His voice was the perfect pitch and volume for yoga I reckon, something which I'm concerned about myself because mine is so annoying and loud. He was really knowledgeable on the 8 limbs and kept throwing in stuff from the mantra. Also, he had really good hair. 

The mantra we did.