In-Studio Only
Embodying the Curve: Resilience and Presence
with Helen Margaret Giovanello

Saturday, September 27
9:30am-12pm $65

For the third time we are honored to present a workshop with Helen Margaret Giovanello, visiting us from France.

To practice asana is to choose to be consciously present — to meet one’s body and mind with care. This presence allows each of us to find a space to meet life with greater compassion for ourselves and others.

In this workshop, Helen will explore asana from a global and integrative perspective — not as something to perform, but as movements to be embodied with awareness and depth. This way of practicing invites a state of quiet observation that helps one sense the real effects of each posture or movement on the body’s deeper layers. Students will learn to recognize and release unnecessary tension, and explore breathing techniques that support spinal extension and freedom of movement. Helen will also share her basic routine that requires little support and can be adapted to daily life. Helen aims that everybody will leave the practice happier, energized, and in an overall peaceful state.

Helen Margaret Giovanello teaches yoga in the Iyengar tradition with additional specialization in Yoga for Scoliosis, earned through Elise Browning Miller’s training program. She also had the privilege of learning directly from Geeta Iyengar on the subject of scoliosis during her repeated visits to the Ramamani Iyengar Memorial Yoga Institute in Pune, India. Helen’s practice has been shaped by her own scoliosis—every learning experience is processed through the lens of her own body. As her primary teacher, Zubin Zarthostimanesh, often says: “You cannot bypass the body.” At sixty, her 25 years of yoga practice have been deepened by a wide range of life experiences — both joyful and challenging. These experiences inform her teaching, which is centered around cultivating a profound sense of well-being.

In-Studio Only
Working with Hyperextension with Eve Holbrook

Wednesday, October 15
6-8pm $55*
*Get 10% Off Using the Code EARLYBIRD by October 6

Hyperextension of the elbows and knees is quite common among yoga students at all levels, and certain asanas can exacerbate the condition if repeatedly done incorrectly. Fortunately, you can learn to practice in a way that both aligns and protects your elbows and knees, and makes them stronger and healthier.

Eve Holbrook has been practicing yoga since 1994. Initially drawn to it for relief from chronic back pain following a childhood horseback riding injury, she has grown to view yoga as an exploration of the nature of life and what it is to be a human being. She strives to communicate the possibility of being effortful without aggression, of embodying the depth of ourselves without strain.

Eve is a graduate of the two-year teacher-training program at the Iyengar Institute of New York (2005). She now lives in Copenhagen, Denmark, where she leads classes, international yoga retreats and workshops via her studio, Eve’s Yoga Space. Eve also teaches online for the Iyengar Institute of New York, where she is a faculty member. She became a certified Iyengar Yoga teacher in 2006, and currently teaches at the Junior Intermediate Two level. Eve is on the faculty of Samamkaya Yoga Back Care & Scoliosis Collective, a studio dedicated exclusively to yoga for back care and scoliosis. She is founder of The Nerve of Expression, a community project offering yoga to artists with multiple sclerosis. 

In June of 2006, Eve first traveled to Pune, India to study with BKS Iyengar, his daughter Geeta, and son Prashant. Since then, she has returned three times for extended periods to develop her practice and assist in the medical classes there. In New York, Eve studied extensively with with Mary Dunn, Kevin Gardiner, James Murphy, Bobby Clennell and Lucienne Vidah. Currently, she continues her studies with Glenn Ceresoli. She assisted for many years in the Specific Needs class at the Iyengar Institute of New York.

HYBRID Revisiting Actions in Asana for Conscious Stability in Practice
With Jaki Nett

October 17-19
Friday 5:30-7:30pm
Saturday 9:30am-12pm & 2-4:30pm
Sunday 9:30am-12pm
Full Workshop: $225*
Saturday All Day: $130*
Friday Evening Only: $55*
One Saturday or Sunday Session: $70*
*Get 10% off by using the code EARLYBIRD by October 6

Click Here to Sign Up for the In-Studio Workshop
Click Here to Sign Up for the Online Workshop

For those of us with spinal imbalances, back issues, and injuries, stability can be elusive. What is it about yoga that brings us to a place where we find more steadiness in practice?

In Iyengar Yoga, the teacher’s verbal instructions and demonstrations, the student’s response, and the ensuing musculoskeletal action are what set this method apart from other systems of yoga. Over time, these musculoskeletal actions create a more coherent integrity in the entire system, affecting the nervous system, blood and lymph flow, and mind- and emotional-state of the whole body. When we practice regularly by connecting our consciousness with these actions, we find our imbalances and struggles in the practice lessen, our mind is engaged, and our body is more integrated and organized.

We are once again proud to host Jaki Nett, who will share her wisdom from her numerous extended visits to study with the Iyengar family since 1986. She has deeply practiced and  embodied the actions and instructions from her teachers BKS and Geeta Iyengar, and is able to clearly transmit these learnings to her students. Few other teachers can boast this amount of experience and clarity. Please join us for another special workshop with Jaki!

Jaki Nett has taught yoga since 1976 and Iyengar yoga since 1982.  She holds an Intermediate Senior 1 Teaching Certificate, the highest certification of any African American woman in the United States. Jaki has an MA in Humanistic Psychology, and weaves her research in functional anatomy into her teaching. Jaki is the published author of, A Crack in the Mask: The Felt Sense Method® – A Humanistic Approach to Managing Incontinence. Her bright, focused energy and straight-forward teaching style inspires and guides students through the challenges and rewards of a committed practice. Jaki conducts yoga workshops in the Bay Area, around the United States, and in Italy, Germany, England, Poland, Switzerland, and South Africa. Jaki lives in the Napa Valley with her husband, and she is the mother of an adult son.

Somatic Solutions for Scoliosis and Fusions with Martha Carter
Online Only

Sunday, November 9 from 12:30-3PM ET
$65* Get 10% off by using the code EARLYBIRD by October 27

Join Martha for an informative and embodied experience exploring your scoliosis and fusion through the lens of Hanna Somatics developed by philosopher and movement theorist, Thomas Hanna. Similar but different from yoga, the workshop will begin with sitting and moving in a chair with a focus on sensing and breathing into imbalances from the inside out.

The second part of the class will be laying on the floor to allow for new awareness of movement patterns to release tension, improve alignment, find strength and connection and in general, develop more ease in your mobility.  The workshop will start and end with a short Q&A. Somatics exercises are easy to enjoy for all levels and abilities.

Martha Carter: From Vancouver Island, Canada, Martha Carter is the Director of the Twisted Outreach Project (TOPS).  Certified in Yoga (YTT200), Yoga for Scoliosis (Elise Browning Miller) and Essential Somatics (ES),  she also holds a BA in Music, and an MFA in Dance. Combining these techniques with her own experience living with a fused spine, Martha offers a unique and creative way  to specifically address spinal fusion and how it affects the whole body, mind and soul.

WORKSHOP PRE-REGISTRATION & CANCELLATION POLICY

It is strongly recommended that you pre-register for workshops. If you pre-register for a workshop, you must cancel either 1 week in advance in order to be refunded for that workshop less a 20% administrative fee.

Please cancel via email (info@samamkayabackcare.com) or call 646.964.5772. Even if we receive the message later, we will go by the time stamp and refund your money if appropriate. If you are ill or there is an immediate family medical emergency, we will of course waive the fee. However, please email us as early as possible, and before the workshop begins, to waive the fee or arrange a credit.