Monday, May 2, 2011

At last! Rajashree !

So this morning's class went fairly well for me considering how crap I am feeling with this cold. Certainly if I was at home I would have chosen the stay at home option but when you have to practice its amazing how well you can turn off your mind, listen to the dialogue and just do the postures. Thats not to say that it was one of my best efforts by any stretch of the imagination but I got through it without too much problem.

Then this aft we broke into our groups and started working on the rest of the dialogue. We are all divided into groups of approx 20 students and from now on we will practice and do the posture clinics with that group. This includes practicing on a specific line in the hot room which is rotated daily so that everyone gets a chance to practice in the front row. Up till today we had been allowed to practice wherever we wanted and so it was interesting to see that already there were people who had established their spots in the front rows etc.

For the posture clinics we work together with another group, so there is 40 of us in total. Again, these group combinations are rotated on a daily basis so that my group gets to work with every other group here. A good way to meet everyone and keep things fresh.

Today we did Back Bending and Pada Hastasana / Hands to Feet Pose. I got up and delivered my dialogue - though not feeling the best, I just wanted it over so I could start reviewing the next posture, which is Awkward pose. Awkward to do and awkward to learn!

I did ok, though the teacher said I need to connect with the students more to try and see what they are doing / feeling. Granted at this stage, I pretty much just say the words and don't make much of a connection at all with the bodies in front of me. Something I will endeavour to work on but I'm also hoping it will develop naturally over time once I'm more comfortable with public speaking.

Then this afternoon we had our first class with Rasjashree, Bikram's wife. The two of them couldn't be more opposite. She has such a calming, loving nature and energy it makes you want to work hard just to please her. Apparently we will be seeing more of her over the next few weeks both in the hot room and in the lecture room so I'm really looking forward to that.

Tonight is our first Anatomy lecture so it will be interesting to see what that involves. Its all very well to learn the dialogue but I hope to learn why we do things a certain way and what muscles etc are involved so that I really understand the posture rather than just recite some written words. I'll keep you posted on how it all goes. :-)