Ashtanga Weekend with David Robson

Narrowly escaping a nor’easter that would clobber New England, I left for Miami. Destination, the Miami Life Center in South Beach for a weekend with David Robson. He runs the largest Mysore program outside of Mysore India, which is based in Toronto.

Florida in all of its splendor didn’t disappoint when we arrived; temps warm and balmy, the people young and beautiful. Even those not young in years had a vitality about them. I think it’s the vitamin D. Right off the bat we connected with the hotels master chef who also turned out to be a shutterbug and was quite photogenic. He was the first of many friendly Floridians whom we had the pleasure of encountering.

The Learn to Float workshop was Friday evening. In the vinyasa sequence the jumping forward and back on your hands can also be achieved by floating. Its not part of the ashtanga practice because there is no count for it, but yogis like to do it anyway. It requires strength, a fair amount of fearlessness and a WHOLE lot of practice. I found it difficult to keep my arms straight, but it is coming.

David also had us practice sun salutations a and b to a drum beat. Moving in this manner required slowing down some movements such as up dog and expedieting others such as warrior 1. Breathing in this manner is called sama vritti, and connected with movement resulted in a lot more internal heat and focus for me. The weekend was multipurposed and therefore split between led primary and mysore.

I love workshopping because I get to spend time on nuances that just can’t always be broken down in a guided class. My teacher Ursula often says at the start of her guided ashtanga classes, “we get right to it” so in keeping with the self practice of Mysore, ashtangis owe it to themselves to spend time supplementing their practice with workshops, dvds and or books. Regular practice is a must, but knowing the sequence is simply not enough. I recall many of the teachers I‘ve spent time with documenting their svadhyaya or self study and writing about it also cements the experience for me.