IYANW Update
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IYANW Update Iyengar Yoga Association of the Northwest November 2008 www.dongura.com/iyanw Current IYANW Officers: Letter from the President: Change and Remembrance Pat Musburger Pat Musburger - President Tonya Garreaud - Vice President Autumn brings many of us to a time of reflection. As the leaves begin to change color and eventually Nina Pileggi - Treasurer fall, we naturally turn to thoughts of change and remembrance. Jennifer Shonk - Secretary In December our yoga community remembers the 90th birthday of B.K.S. Iyengar with a variety Paul Cheek - Membership Chair of events. These are woven together to create our Mala for the Guru to send our birthday wishes. Don Gura - Communications Chair In addition Felicity Green, our most senior Northwest teacher, reflects on Mr. Iyengar’s profound influence on her life and teaching. I remember the first time I saw Guruji as he is often called. Judy Landecker - Scholarship Chair The brightness of his smile radiated warmth and intelligence and I knew I was in the presence of someone very special. Upcoming Workshops In September our community lost someone who was also quite special. Senior teacher and IYANW encourages members to send announcements inspiration to many, Mary Dunn, died after a long battle with cancer. Enough of us were fortunate to of upcoming workshops being offered by certified have Mary as a teacher so that no one in the Iyengar Yoga community will ever go untouched by the Iyengar Yoga teachers. magic of her teaching. Three long time practitioners share with you here their remembrances of Mary Judith Lasater and her spirit. February 6 – 8, 2009 Boise Yoga Center, Boise, ID www.boiseyogacenter.com And finally, the end of this year marks a change in the IYANW Board of Directors and the end of my 208-343-9786 tenure on it. Serving as President has been an honor and privilege. I offer my thanks to past board members with whom I have served, Felicity Green, Nadine Sims, and Nina Pileggi; my support to Dean Lerner continuing board members Paul Cheek, Tonya Garreaud, Don Gura, Judy Landecker, and Jennifer February 13 - 15, 2009 Julie Lawrence Yoga Center, Portland, OR Shonk; and my congratulations to incoming board members Denise Weeks and Karen Brown. www.jlyc.com 503-227-5524 I look forward to seeing all of you who continue to support the work of IYANW. Keep practicing, learning and loving. Carolyn Belko March 6 – 8, 2009 Iyengar Yoga of Bend, Bend, OR www.yogaofbend.com Namaste, 541-318-1186 Ingela Abbott March 20 – 22 Mary Dunn, The Great Conductor Tree House Iyengar Yoga By Vickie Aldridge Shoreline, WA Www.thiyoga.com 206-361-9642 The impact that many people have on our lives can be profound, and they often don’t even know how important they are to us. I am sure that Mary Rebecca Lerner March 27 – 29, 2009 Dunn touched many of us in that very special way that she had, with her Sunset Yoga Center, Portland, WA laughter, her most descriptive way of instructing, her sincerity as a teacher www.sunsetyoga.com and her compassion in demanding that we rise to our full potential. I think 503-539-4504 she was one of the fortunate ones who knew how much we loved her. George Purvis May 8 – 10, 2009 Mary Dunn inspired me in so many ways over the years. I remember somewhat Boise Yoga Center, Boise, ID proudly the times that she liked my poses, but her way of teaching also Mary Dunn www.boiseyogacenter.com 208-343-9786 inspired me to practice those that didn’t please her quite so much. Every single Continued on page 2 Continued on back page Let us hear from you. Send articles or news of assessment results, studio workshops and other happenings, recommended resources and pictures to Don Gura, [email protected] or Tonya Garreaud, [email protected] Deadline is April 30, 2009. Mary Dunn, continued from cover time that I sit with simple cross legs for Pranayama or fold my knee for Last year I signed up with great enthusiasm for a “double header” with Mary; Janu Sirsasana, I think of Mary, every single time. She taught me to have a workshop at the Julie Lawrence Yoga Center as well as a teachers’ intensive awareness about my hips, knees and back and to practice in a nonviolent at Feathered Pipe. Alas, Mary’s diagnosis meant she could not be present way, bringing Ahimsa into my life and practice. for either of these. I nonetheless attended Feathered Pipe having a most touching Iyengar Yoga experience of community and prayerfulness. Dean and In Tulum, Mexico we used the dining hall for our classroom, so the furniture Rebecca Lerner courageously proceeded without Mary physically present and had to be moved in and out twice a day. The bar, however, was a permanent upheld the teachings with strength as we collectively and with tenderness fixture and couldn’t be moved. Each evening she would see many of us prayed for Mary in a Native American pipe ceremony, in song, and in each joyfully having our cocktails around that bar. One morning when George asana as we dedicated the merit of our practice to one of Iyengar Yoga’s Purvis was teaching she came in early for her next class. There many of great spirits. us were, with one foot up on the bar using it as a prop for Utthita Hasta Padangusthasana. She interrupted the class with her laughter and yelled out As I get older and weigh my life experiences with increasing discernment that it was the best use of the bar she had seen all week! and gratitude, I hold even more preciously these amazing gifts of studying with our guiding teachers. Mary held a unique place for me and for so many Mary was there to help many of us learn about our own body. She was also others. Her voice, intelligence, and bright presence live on with clarity and there to celebrate with us when we overcame our difficulties. She taught resonance in our hearts and minds. We in the Northwest are privileged to that this body is not just an instrument but a full-fledged orchestra. I can have our own direct links to the Iyengars in our senior teachers. I am see her walking around the classroom and so joyfully instructing us with her grateful to have such a solid foundation of teachings with Felicity Green and “oom pa pa, oom pa pa”, telling us to bring in the violins now, then the flutes, Ingela Abbott, two of my original and inspiring guides. As a second- the drums and cymbals, all of the instruments that make the beautiful music generation teacher in the method of Iyengar Yoga, I am indebted and ever we love to hear and to create the most excellent yoga pose we can for now. more appreciative of those first-generation American recipients of the teachings in our school of yoga. May the teachings thrive in the days and I will miss her presence in this yoga world, my world of yoga. I will miss years to come as we honor Mary and all our senior teachers in the tradition her laughter and the fact that she always remembered my name. But she of Iyengar Yoga. left me with a piece of her in my memories of all that she has taught me. She left her mark in this world, was loved by many, and will live on in my Elizabeth Kerwin is an Introductory Certified Iyengar Yoga Teacher who lives heart forever. in Deming, WA and teaches at 8 Petals Yoga in Bellingham. Vicki Aldridge is an Intermediate Jr. I Certified Iyengar Yoga Teacher who, along with her husband Jerry, owns and teaches at The Boise Yoga Center. A Note for Mary Dunn By Ingela Abbott Mary Dunn’s Inspiration Mary, it’s so hard to believe that you are not with us anymore. I’ll miss your By Elizabeth Kerwin big warm radiant smile. But I know you are with us. Your generous spirit and warm-hearted teachings will echo through us forever. Mary Dunn’s inspiration as a teacher of the Iyengar method beamed as brightly as her sparkling blue eyes and poetic articulations. She Mary was my first Iyengar Yoga teacher in this country, at a workshop in passionately guided students towards deeper understanding of the asanas Seattle at Marie Svoboda’s studio in the late seventies. Her teaching which and all that constellates the fullness of our practice. Mary’s gift for me was dynamic yet very warm, supportive, and light-hearted, touched me resided in her ability to so fully and directly transmit her enthusiasm. deeply. Things she taught and said in that first workshop are still with me 30 plus years later. An example, in Savasana “feel the roots of the hair relaxing A high seriousness accompanied by great knowledge, an ethical inwards…” sensibility, and the ability to articulate instructions clearly with graceful and spontaneous metaphor infused Mary’s classes. I feel privileged and Thank you Mary for all you gave us. We’ll miss you. deeply blessed to have studied in several teacher trainings with Mary at the Feathered Pipe Ranch as she taught alongside the other stellar senior Ingela Abbott holds an Advanced Jr. I teaching certificate and is Director of teachers George Purvis, Gabriella Guibalaro, and of course Dean Lerner. Yoga Northwest in Bellingham, WA Mary, Dean, and George guided my very first teacher training intensive at Feathered Pipe. Even at meal tables Mary would hold forth, speaking her experience in such a way that we were captivated.