I attended a different yoga class today, the 9:30am Hatha Yoga class with Keith at Dharma Yoga.  Keith is the founder and director of the center.  He has a great demeanor, and a fabulous voice for yoga.  The three Om’s at the beginning of the class reverberated through my entire being.  Keith began the class with a brief discussion and a setting of intentions. The room is comfortably warm, spacious, and with soft lighting.

As my dear readers know, I have been a fan of the Iyengar, no-bull-shit style of yoga for some time. I hesitated going to this center because I knew that there would be a two elements that I am not fond of: music and flow.   The music was generally not too distracting in this class. It was mostly sitar-cum-new-agey. However,  he did play some Norah Jones during savasana (and, too loudly for my opinion) but made up for it by also playing a Cat Stevens song that reminded me of my first glimmers of spirituality as a teenager. I’m still not a fan of music during yoga, but he scored 1 for 2 on this.

I’m not a fan of flow either. I prefer to take a pose, really take the pose, and then be done with the pose.  We only did a couple of series in this class. For example:  Down Dog, through Plank to Chaturanga, and then to Up Dog, and back again to Down Dog. Four or five times… not out of control. I was OK with this because Keith didn’t “count off’ the poses, but let us do the series at our own pace. It was not a problem for me, and did give my arms a good strength-building work out.

One unique element in this class was a pairing up the students to do assists. Partner One did Down Dog, and Partner Two assisted by pressing and encouraging various aspects of the pose. In another assist, I received some Thai massage from my partner while in Uttanasana. Very nice.

The session ended with a long savasana (to Norah Jones!? and Cat Stevens!!). Afterwards, Keith reminded us of our intentions to bring us full circle form the start of the class, and led us into a five-minute meditation on the breath.

After the class, I felt rejuvenated as well as feeling I had had a good workout. Kudos to Keith! I’ll be back for more.  I may have found a new yoga home.