3pm-5pm, one Sunday a month, winter to summer 2022

Dates:
16/01/2022
20/02/2022
27/03/2022
24/04/2022
22/05/2022
19/06/2022

Are you wanting to explore your relationship to pleasure in a yoga practice, to try making this your main guide on the mat? Or are you curious about how poetry, song, music can weave into a movement practice, how you can let the two blend together and produce so much richness and ease? Or perhaps you’re keen to meet sacred and nourishing contexts to your yoga practice outside the standard (and often patriarchal, casteist) canon? Join Simran, a poet, yoga teacher, and translator, for this New Year, online co-practice series.

This series is an invitational, accessible space for exploring the lusher side of a yoga practice together: the territory of joy and pleasure in the body, expressive and creative approaches to asana and flows, and above all, movements emerging from your own live, resourcing, luscious experiences of sensation through the body. There’ll be space to reflect and share, and space to enjoy beautiful, hugely engaging sacred and popular music and poetry – the electrifying qawwali of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and Abida Parveen, Kabir’s playful, confronting poetry, Nanak’s gorgeous, extraordinary lyrics, even soaring Sufi power ballads from the last decade of Bollywood, and much else.

We’ll use frameworks shaped by the widest range of contexts – prana and ‘desire-energy’ in 20th century Tibetan tantra, sacred medieval love poetry from Sufi and bhakti traditions in North India, the work of Audre Lorde, and even affect theory. We’ll hold space to cultivate, relish, explore and trust the sensations of pleasure and desire that can come through movement and the rest of a yoga practice; and we’ll see how poetry, song, music, and other artforms – sacred, popular, and both! – can support and expand across the board.

We’ll come together once a month over six months, for a practice led by Simran and a mellow, carefully facilitated space for reflecting on or sharing about how your practice has been feeling – in that session, over the course of the month, or more widely. Alongside this, each month you’ll receive a lovingly curated package of songs, poems, short readings and even videos of particularly iconic performances across artforms to enjoy however you like. These will come with lots of easy-reading resources – including new, radical and accessible translations not available elsewhere!

This course is open to everyone: there is no level of yoga experience required, but the course is intended to be a monthly top-up and check-in, supporting and resourcing your own movement and/or rest practices – whatever they might look like. Please reach out if you have any questions, and particularly to discuss any accessibility requirements – we look forward to hearing from you!


Pricing
We believe in the importance and value of this training, and would like to offer a scaled pricing system, which enables attendees to pay which tier feels most appropriate for them. Please note there are NO further discounts available (i.e. no student discounts, etc).

Community price £139
Standard price £169
Supporter price £199


About Simran
Simran Uppal (they/them) is a yoga teacher, writer and organiser based in East London. As a yoga teacher, Simran works predominantly as a faculty member for 200hr and advanced 300hr teacher trainings with Nourish, an inclusive and community-oriented teacher training company based in Oxford. They’ve also led a wide range of CPD and public workshops in the US, across the UK, and more widely. They focus on critical approaches to the philosophical and social contexts of modern yoga, experiential and embodied forms of education, and creative, expressive movement and rest practices rooted in their own experiences of devotion, bliss, and joy in the body.

Join Harriet for an extended practice dedicated to REST!

We'll start with a grounding meditation, then a short discussion describing the different practices of yin, restorative yoga and yoga nidra.

Next, we'll work with each practice in turn to create a soothing and restful space for our bodies & minds.

Rest is a radical practice. Resist busy-culture. Perfect if you've been feeling the pressure of "lockdown productivity". Perfect if you like lying down.

We'll be coming together via zoom. You can join this extended practice from your bed, or yoga mat. You'll want some cushions/pillows and blankets to get nice and comfy.

Sliding scale pricing available (£10, £14 or £18 depending on your circumstances)

In collaboration with Nourish, Theo Wildcroft is looking for a second small group of yoga teachers to join her on a yearlong, once a month journey into collaborative practice together. Each month’s practice will be accompanied by a resource or two, chosen to help us explore a theme together. We will meet up on Zoom where Theo will lead us through a gently-led, shared practice of invitations and suggestions to guide our collaborative exploration. After the practice, we will have time to talk and share.

Themes will include:

Rooting, resilience and rising together;
Pushing edges, finding centres;
Balance in movement and stillness;
and Journeys and travelling.
This offer is open to any yoga or movement teacher. We are looking for a small but committed group who miss the community of moving together without moving in unison. Sessions will feel gentle, contemplative, relaxed and physically accessible.

The second series of this practice begins in May 2021, and spaces are very limited.

Thursdays 9:30 – 11:00am GMT, via zoom.

20 May 2021
17 June 2021
22 July 2021
19 August 2021 - no session
23 September 2021
21 October 2021
18 November 2021
16 December 2021
20 January 2022
17 February 2022
17 March 2022
21 April 2022
5 May 2022

Community Price: £139
Standard Price: £169
Supporter Price: £199

WHAT TO EXPECT
In this class, we share practices that are empowering, grounding and gleeful with you, creating space for you to thrive and flourish. We can begin to see this practice as a vital movement which enables space, community and time to acknowledge your experiences, cultivating a deep awareness of yourself and your body.

Despite approximately 80% of yoga practitioners in the UK being female, contemporary yoga is largely built upon a foundation and understanding of anatomy and alignment for men, by men. This isn’t to say that we should leave behind our dynamic, strength & heat building practices. Instead, perhaps there is the opportunity to explore a complement that is more grounded in experiences of women and woman-aligned, appropriate for all stages and cycles of life.

In general, this is a slower, softer class, which combines meditation, pranayama (breath practices), yoga postures and gentle somatic movement to help you attune to your body, cultivating ease and space.

WHO THIS CLASS IS FOR
This class is for you if you identify as a woman or woman-aligned (this is intended to be language which includes trans women, genderqueer people and femmes), it is fully-accessible if you a pregnant or postpartum, are menstruating or experiencing endometriosis. This class does not include prone (front-lying) or supine (back-lying) positions.

WHAT YOU NEED
A yoga mat (maybe, a carpeted floor is also probably fine!), a strap/belt/scarf, a blanket, a yoga bolster or a large cushion, and a block are all nice to have, plus anything else you like to have for your yoga practise.

HOW MUCH
Single class – £8
5 Class Pass (Community Price) – £35
5 Class Pass (Standard Price) – £40
5 Class Pass (Supporter Price) – £45

6 January - 3 February 2022
Thursdays Evenings, 18:30-21:30 GMT

Join Theo, Barbora and Harriet for a journey through the past, present and future possibilities of yoga and yoga teaching.

In this course, we’ll be taking a comprehensive, critical and contextual look at the history of pre-modern yoga, Modern Postural Yoga, and into the world of Post-Lineage Yoga. We’ll encounter the beautiful variety of yoga’s history and celebrate its diversity.

Turning to today, we’ll consider the impact of globalisation, modernisation and capitalism on yoga, and how the profession of yoga teaching has evolved and developed. Lastly we’ll look to the future of yoga, exploring the issues critical to the contemporary yoga teachers and what a post-COVID future might look like.


Course Outline

1. Welcome, Introduction (Harriet): In our first session, we’ll lay a foundation by unpacking what we might know or feel about the history of yoga already. We’ll begin to consider the ideas of history itself, the importance of positionality, and what is at stake in yoga’s contested history.

2. Pre-Modern Yoga (Barbora): this will serve as a historic overview of the diverse pre-modern yoga teachings that have been found in South Asia since about 500BCE. We will cover a wide range of yoga methods and approaches spanning a couple of millennia, from early Vedic and Buddhist teachings to medieval hatha yoga. The goal of our session will be to understand that the premodern history of yoga is incredibly varied: embedded in many South Asian religions, it encompasses a large number of diverse teachings and practices, from dualistic philosophy of the Patanjali’s Yoga Sutra, to breathing techniques and harsh physical practices prescribed by the texts of the hatha yoga traditions.

3. Modern Postural Yoga (Barbora): we will focus on the development of the late medieval hatha yoga into modern postural yoga. Our goal will be to map the radical changes and adaptations that happened to yoga between the late medieval period, which saw a considerable proliferation of yoga postures, until the half of 20th century, when yoga really became an international phenomenon with very different goals and audiences than ‘traditional' yoga. Our session will consider the effect that the processes of globalisation, colonisation, and modernisation had on yoga, how yoga grappled with foreign ideas and practices, and how it was disseminated in various cultures and nations outside of South Asia.

4. Post-Lineage Yoga (Theo): in this session we will consider the history of yoga not just as it has been practiced, but as it has been taught. We will start with what evidence we have for pre-modern teaching practices beyond guru-sisya, consider the well-documented development of modern postural yoga, from hobby to profession, and use the framework of post-lineage yoga to understand the less visible forms of community-based transmission through the ages.

5. Future of Yoga (Theo): In this session we will consider live and ongoing issues within transnational yoga cultures and communities within the context of yoga's historical development. From standardisation to exploitation, from appropriation to conspirituality, we will trace the roots of contemporary issues to shed new light on possible futures.


Who is this course for?
This course is for anyone interested in a thorough, critical understanding of the history of yoga. We welcome interested students, trainee teachers, and teachers.

This module is offered as part of Nourish’s 300 hour teacher training, but can be taken by any teacher wishing to improve their skills in this area as Continuing Professional Development (CPD). The module will run as five weekly sessions of three hours, and combine theory, practice and skills development.

Nourish Yoga Training's 300 hour Advanced Teacher Training is registered with Yoga Alliance (International), and is completed as a series of standalone modules which can be taken over 3 years. There are limited spaces available. If you are taking this course as CPD or part of our 300 hours, you are able to miss one session and a recorded session can be provided for the missed module only at no further cost.


Course Materials
You will be provided with notes & resources for each session.


Pricing
We believe in the importance and value of this training, and would like to offer a scaled pricing system, which enables attendees to pay which tier feels most appropriate for them. Please note there are NO further discounts available (i.e. no student discounts, etc).

CPD Community Price £169
CPD Standard Price £199
CPD Supporter Price £229

About the facilitators
Theo Wildcroft, PhD is a yoga teacher, writer and scholar working for a more sustainable relationship between our many selves, the communities that hold us, and the world that nourishes us. She is currently registered with the IYN (RYT500) and Yoga Alliance (E-RYT® 500, YACEP®). Her research considers the democratization of yoga post-lineage, and the many different ways yoga communities are responding to concerns about safety in practice. She’s a lover of vulnerable people, of wild things and wild places, and of the simple miracle of life itself.

Harriet McAtee is the founder and lead trainer of Nourish Yoga Training. Movement, yoga, and our minds have always fascinated her. From a young age, Harriet has nearly always been involved in some form of dance, martial art, gymnastics or sport. She found yoga as a thirteen year-old and it firmly secured its place in her heart. Harriet’s teaching emphasises empowering students to embrace and nourish their bodies and minds, with a focus on embodied movement, cultivating intuition and fun. She relishes the opportunity to make practice matter in everyday life through social justice & making yoga accessible and inclusive. Harriet is currently registered with Yoga Alliance (E-RYT® 500, YACEP®).

Barbora is a yoga teacher and academic, originally from Prague, Czech Republic. She is currently finishing her DPhil in Sanskrit at the University of Oxford with a research focused on animals, plants, and human-animal relationships in Vedic India. She is deeply interested in nature, environmental activism, and climate crisis. Barbora has been practicing yoga since she was 19 and trained as a teacher with Nourish in 2021. Owing to her background in Sanskrit, Indology, and Religious Studies, Barbora has always been interested in yoga history. Since 2016, she has been teaching history and philosophy of yoga in a number of teacher trainings in Prague.