ALEXANDRIA CROW WEEKEND

Friday, January 26, 2018 6:30 PM
Sunday, January 28, 2018 6:00 PM

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What are you trying to teach as a yoga teacher, not just on the surface but at the deep reaches? What are you aiming to learn or gain as a student? What is it that motivates you to teach and to practice? How are you teaching that? How do you approach learning the intended outcome?

How do you take where you are as a teacher and/or student and move the needle of intention closer to the outcome? How do you adapt or toss the things that aren’t working, create new practice and teaching techniques for the ones that get tossed? How do you create a practice experience that is effective, personal and your own both as the teacher and the student?

Teaching and practicing yoga in group classes can be a beautiful and inclusive experience of individual self discovery, but it can also be one that feels impersonal, exclusive, and about just trying to keep up to please everyone. The community aspect of a yoga practice is one of the things that a lot of students love and it can be expanded to be more inclusive and personal, leading to more acceptance and ease within each student.

The information and tools that we are trying to teach are sometimes missed and can be difficult to integrate and understand as the student. How do you teach people to make skillful choices as an individual within a group setting? How do you make it safe for students to explore their individuality and their patterns of belief? How do you facilitate student choices that may be different than usual, even confrontational to you as teacher?

Every body is different. Every mind is different. There are so many diverse styles of classes these days. What each person needs in order to learn the concepts presented in yoga is unique. Come spend a weekend with Alexandria Crow taking all these seeming differences of body, mind, and style of class and work to create a classroom experience that is deeply personal and individually effective.

Sessions will include practice, lecture on the topic, mechanics/anatomy of the body, and class planning worksheets and tools.

Yoga: What Are You Aiming For?
Intention + Outcome = Yoga Practice > Yoga as Outcome (Yoga Philosophy & History)
Friday 6:30-9:30PM
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What is this word yoga? Where did it come from? How has it morphed and changed over the years through its many shifts and changes? What is a practice and what has it been through the ages?

In this workshop we will look at the history of yoga as it moved through time and cultures to examine what the practices were aiming to teach and how. We will discuss what it is we’re aiming to teach our students today, where those concepts came from historically, and what methods we are currently using. How do you teach and access these concepts currently in the style of classes you teach or take? How do we bring the intention and outcome closer together? How do we allow our students to access that information more readily?

This session will include a short practice and tools to begin to assess where teachers and students are in terms of intention and outcome in their teaching and practice.

Bodies, Joints, Muscles & Poses - Stability, Mobility, Range of Motion & Asana
Intention + Outcome = The Body’s Makeup, Mechanics & Movements > Anatomically Wise and Sustainable Practice Building (Applied Anatomical Concepts For Asana Teachers and Practitioners)
Saturday 11:00AM-2:00PM
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How do bodies move? Learn about how muscles work, release and stabilize to move the body and hold it in position. How far should joints move? When is it not enough and when do they go too far? We will look at the different variables involved in stability, mobility, range of motion and the postures that are taught in most yoga classes today. We will debunk the concept of stretching and flexibility and rebuild those components in ways that are aligned with how the muscular and fascia systems work. Skeletal variations and differences will be discussed in order to set up postures in a way that is wise for each individual. We will look at poses through the lens of muscular activation, release, stability, and potential counter productive sensations, creating a sensory experience in class that invites each student to use the poses and movements as a tool for personal learning, exploration and skillful choice making.

Fire - Physically Demanding Hard Work With A Twist
Intention + Outcome = Work the Body Wisely > Calm The Mind (Vinyasa/Power/Flow/Hatha)
Saturday 3:00-6:00PM
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These are some of the most popular classes at this point in time, and yet some of the most difficult within which to achieve the outcome that a yoga practice intends philosophically. How do you get students to work hard, move, and do it with ethical integrity? This session will contain a practice based around the vinyasa/power model that takes individuals and personal choice into account, allows for exploration and discovery, is physically demanding but also limits the risks and pitfalls in classes today.

We will deconstruct the postures and activities used during the practice from an anatomical and biomechanical standpoint. Functional range of motion vs limited range vs hypermobility will be discussed as they are important physical considerations to take into account within this type of class. The expectations of students and teachers in relation to this class style will also be discussed and alternatives that offer the same outcome without the problematic components will be offered in an effort to marry the intention and outcome of these classes in relation to a yoga practice more closely than is often possible.

Calm - Quieting the Noisy Body/Mind Loop
Intention + Outcome = Balance the Nerves > Calm The Mind (Restoratives/Yin/Therapeutics)
Sunday 11:00AM-2:00PM
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The nervous system states, skeletal range, and basic biomechanics in relation to commonly taught restorative/ yin/therapeutic classes. We will explore how the nervous system affects the body, its range of motion, the mind, and more.

There will be an hour long assessment inventory and practice where students will set a baseline of their personal range of motion and skeletal structure both before and after a class aimed at calming and balancing their nervous system.

The practice will be followed by a deconstruction and reconstruction of common postures within these styles in an effort to have them function more effectively and to lessen injury and/or calm a heightened nervous system. We will explore the joint’s range of motion in relation to poses, and find ways to create postures that fall within the functional range in an effort to create a sustainable and calming class outcome.

Class Planning Laboratory - Purposeful Creativity
Intention + Outcome = Lesson Plans For Personal Exploration & Discovery > Students Who Know What Is Wise For Them & How To Advance (Sequencing and Formatting Classes)
Sunday 3:00-6:00PM
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Class planning can be difficult, daunting and monotonous. In this session you will introduce how to plan classes using what you’ve learned no matter what the style or level. Students and teachers will work through planning a class from start to finish, using class planning tools designed to give students a personal experience in a group setting so that they learn to approach the topic being presented in a way that is skillful and wise for them. Participants will then be led through the class that was created in an effort to experience the concepts presented and developed.

Participants will learn how to create class plans that turn classes into a personal laboratory that is inclusive, invites inquiry, creates a safe place for exploration and when necessary allows difficult choices to be made by students so that they learn what is wise for them which can translate clearly to applying yoga off the mat as well. Class planning worksheets will be provided as well as emailed afterwards for continued use.

Cost: