The Anusara Yoga Poster Project

I have given myself a project. 
I have taken it upon myself to go through the entire Anusara poster which has over 250 poses. It has all the poses in our syllabus. They have been divided by John Friend in three levels: Level 1, 2 and 3 or "Basics, Expanding and Radical Expansion." The poster is called "From Tadasana to Savasana" and it shows an inspiring yogi and teacher named Darren Rhodes. 

I actually remember being in Tucson several years ago, doing John's Advanced Intensive. A bunch of us heard Darren was being photographed so we went to a room next to the studio and watched Darren for a few moments doing asanas. Much much later I realized that it was for this poster! We didn't realize it then, but we were watching Anusara history as it was being made. He exuded such calm as he was doing the most challenging poses. 

This poster has inspired so many of us students and teachers to continue to challenge ourselves and grow. As well as it has given us greater clarity into some mysterious poses. Whenever I am doubt about  a pose I go to Iyengar's "Light on Yoga" or to the Anusara poster.

Just looking at the poster makes me peaceful and happy; which is probably why I have it over my bed!

Speaking of, I just got out of my chair and went over the poster and counted the poses.

So according to my calculations, there are: 
108 Basic poses (Level 1),
127 Expanding poses (or Level 2), 
and
108 (there's that auspicious number again!) poses for the Radical Expansion syllabus (or Level 3).
Which brings the grand total of poses to: 343 asanas.

So I have started going one by one. Today we are on "Parsva Uttanasana." These first basic poses are a dream to teach. I await with excitement and a little trepidation the challenges that lie ahead on the Level 3 section; but alas, I still have many months ahead.

I find that as a full time teacher I need to come up with games like these to pique my deepest creativity and keep the teachings fun and challenging. The moment the teachings starts to get stale or dense, we get into trouble.

Thank you Darren and thank you John for inspiring me!


Posted by Moving Through My Vinyasa at 11/2/2009 3:40 PM
Categories: uncategorized
Tags: anusara yoga poster Darren Rhodes
 

What did you think of this article?




Trackbacks
Trackback specific URL for this post
  • No trackbacks exist for this post.
Comments
Display comments as (Linear | Threaded)

Leave a comment

Submitted comments are subject to moderation before being displayed.

 Enter the above security code (required)

 Name

 Email (will not be published)

 Website

Your comment is 0 characters limited to 3000 characters.