Yoga in Rio
"I had discovered something; there was a pleasure in becoming something new. You could will yourself into a fresh shape. Now all I had to do was figure out how to do it out there, in my life."
-Claire Dederer, Poser: My Life in Twenty-Three Yoga Poses
This morning we slept in, made breakfast, and prepared for our first Rio yoga class. I had found a studio online that practiced the same type of yoga that I routinely do - vinyasa flow (the studio also offers Hatha). Blyss yoga was the name of the studio and I was fully prepared for the entire class to be done in Portuguese. The studio was only a 15 minute walk from our apartment, a woman who spoke English helped us navigate our way through the building where it was located. Upon arriving a man greeted us - in English! He informed us he was the owner and he had lived in NYC for 11 years. He said the man who would be teaching us had also lived in NYC and spoke fluent English. He didn't take a credit card for payment and we didn't have enough reals, he said he would just send me an email via paypal and trust our payment on "good faith" (have I mentioned how nice the Brazilians are?). We borrowed mats and entered the room, nothing fancy, not very big at all. The windows were open and you could hear monks chanting from the speakers. The class was evenly divided - 4 men and 4 women. All were Brazilian with the exception of an Australian man who had recently moved to Rio and only spoke "so so" Portuguese. Our teacher was an Argentinian man (Agustin Aguerreberry) in his early 30's - excellent shape would be an understatement in describing him. When we walked in he was walking on his hands - not intimidating at all. Before starting class he asked who spoke English vs Portuguese, we were all split there too - so he did the entire class in both languages.
We started off the 90 minute class with a series of breathing exercises before starting into the flow. He came over to all of us and offered assists. He helped me work into my first headstand in which I was able to hold it - yay! The last 30 minutes of class were reserved for stretching and relaxation exercises. I'm not sure I've ever left a class that calm and clear before (it helped not to have to be racing there from work and racing home to do laundry, make dinner, hurry to bed for another early morning). I spoke with the teacher after class. He said he had lived in NYC the last 7 years, spent a lot of time traveling, teaching yoga. He fell in love with a french woman and stopped a lot of the traveling, but they broke up a year ago. Once he had healed his broken heart and gotten into a good head space he resumed traveling - this time in South America: Chile, Uruguay, Argentina and Brazil. He still has a place in Buenos Aires, but wants Brazil to be his home base. Unfortunately we are not here long enough to take another class from him, but he gave me his contact info and I hope our paths cross again someday in the future....he was a fabulous yoga teacher and an interesting man.
*Life tip: ask questions, everyone has a story. People love to talk about themselves - let them, learn from them. The world isn't that big and you never know when you might see someone again...or even need them.....
I've sent several emails to friends and I'm sure they are all wondering if I found a drug dealer in Rio with my zen'd out state of mind.....I'm sure the frenetic energy will come back to me once I return to the states...but until then.....
Namaste.
-Claire Dederer, Poser: My Life in Twenty-Three Yoga Poses
This morning we slept in, made breakfast, and prepared for our first Rio yoga class. I had found a studio online that practiced the same type of yoga that I routinely do - vinyasa flow (the studio also offers Hatha). Blyss yoga was the name of the studio and I was fully prepared for the entire class to be done in Portuguese. The studio was only a 15 minute walk from our apartment, a woman who spoke English helped us navigate our way through the building where it was located. Upon arriving a man greeted us - in English! He informed us he was the owner and he had lived in NYC for 11 years. He said the man who would be teaching us had also lived in NYC and spoke fluent English. He didn't take a credit card for payment and we didn't have enough reals, he said he would just send me an email via paypal and trust our payment on "good faith" (have I mentioned how nice the Brazilians are?). We borrowed mats and entered the room, nothing fancy, not very big at all. The windows were open and you could hear monks chanting from the speakers. The class was evenly divided - 4 men and 4 women. All were Brazilian with the exception of an Australian man who had recently moved to Rio and only spoke "so so" Portuguese. Our teacher was an Argentinian man (Agustin Aguerreberry) in his early 30's - excellent shape would be an understatement in describing him. When we walked in he was walking on his hands - not intimidating at all. Before starting class he asked who spoke English vs Portuguese, we were all split there too - so he did the entire class in both languages. We started off the 90 minute class with a series of breathing exercises before starting into the flow. He came over to all of us and offered assists. He helped me work into my first headstand in which I was able to hold it - yay! The last 30 minutes of class were reserved for stretching and relaxation exercises. I'm not sure I've ever left a class that calm and clear before (it helped not to have to be racing there from work and racing home to do laundry, make dinner, hurry to bed for another early morning). I spoke with the teacher after class. He said he had lived in NYC the last 7 years, spent a lot of time traveling, teaching yoga. He fell in love with a french woman and stopped a lot of the traveling, but they broke up a year ago. Once he had healed his broken heart and gotten into a good head space he resumed traveling - this time in South America: Chile, Uruguay, Argentina and Brazil. He still has a place in Buenos Aires, but wants Brazil to be his home base. Unfortunately we are not here long enough to take another class from him, but he gave me his contact info and I hope our paths cross again someday in the future....he was a fabulous yoga teacher and an interesting man. *Life tip: ask questions, everyone has a story. People love to talk about themselves - let them, learn from them. The world isn't that big and you never know when you might see someone again...or even need them.....
Namaste.