Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Another Studio Beckons

I have been asked to teach at another nearby studio! Needless to say, I am thrilled and SO honoured that the studio owners have asked me to join their team :-)

So I went and taught my first class there last week which was really nerve wracking but I was able to settle in and find my "groove" fairly quickly. It was strange just working out how loud to speak and hearing my voice out loud in a different room and seeing how people would respond to the dialogue and to me etc.

By that I mean that although we all say the "same" dialogue everyone has their own style and when you practice at various studios you will see different ways that some of the postures are approached, different techniques and rituals etc. Balancing Stick / Tuladandasana is a good example of how teachers have different timings for when they clap and how to get the class into the posture. (I wont bore you here with my detailed analysis of each part of the pose but perhaps just keep it in your mind when you get a new teacher or go to a different studio for a class.)

Anyway, my feedback on the class was really good and the Owners said it was clear I knew my dialogue really well (including the Left sides - a direct result of you guessed it - more study!) and that my timing for 2nd sets was good etc. Which was SO great to hear because I have worked really really hard and STILL spend hours studying the dialogue. So it was great to have that hard work recognised.

And I have to say, that I feel my confidence growing with each class. Yes, I still get my Left and Rights mixed up and make mistakes but I can recover much quicker and don't get a sick feeling of panic when my mind goes blank. Yikes! It really helped that I sat down and planned my 2nd sets. That is, as there is no "definite" way to do these (its just left up to us as Teachers to break them down from the 1st set) I took the time to plan them out and work out what lines I need to say and what I can leave out. Ever the Perfectionist eh! You would have thought that Yoga would have beaten or at least sweated that out of me by now huh? No such luck.

Something else I have been working on is starting to read / write up notes for additional information I want to add between the postures (while in Savasana) in an effort to help the yogis in the class understand the posture better. I know that for me as a beginner, that I was eager for any information that was going to help improve my practice and often I found that I didn't really understand where the effort for the posture needed to come from etc. I.e. I can remember the first time I realised that Standing Bow Pose is a back bend?! It made a HUGE difference to my posture once I figured that out and went into the posture thinking of it as a back bend rather than just trying to balance on one leg and kick the other one up behind me. :-)

So my learning and teaching journey continues.