WAWADIA: Six Lenses for Studying MPY (draft excerpt)
In the process of this study, I’ve reached out for as much theoretical help as I can find, and tried to view the scene through as many lenses as possible. I’ll describe some of these lenses here,...
View ArticleWAWADIA Update #20 /// The Kaminoff-Matthews Interview: Full Transcript
This is the full transcript of my 10/13/2014 conversation with Leslie Kaminoff, Amy Matthews, and Sarah Barnaby over dinner in Leslie’s office at The Breathing Project. I published the first bit of it...
View ArticleWAWADIA Update #21: You Are Not the Problem… Your Yoga Culture Is
Consider this anonymous, borderline-abusive post from the Ashtanga Picture Project on Friday, entitled “The Yoga Is Not The Problem… You Are.” On one hand, it chapped my ass hard on behalf of those who...
View ArticleWAWADIA: Answering Some Early Objections (draft excerpt)
The following essay is featured in the full prospectus that supports the IGG campaign to help fund publication. Only eight days left! _____ So far, I’ve received overwhelmingly positive response to...
View ArticleWAWADIA Update #22: The Prescriptive Kinesiognomy of Modern Postural Yoga
Everything is impeccably clean, yet somehow not good enough. Every body part is be placed just-so through an endless series of micro-adjustments, addressing flaws undetectable to the uninitiated. The...
View ArticleWAWADIA Update #23: “Kino Has a Beautiful Practice” vs. “Kino Is Talented”
Everyone has a beautiful practice when they're practicing. And everyone can take selfies. But only a few of those selfies can go viral. Maybe talent makes the difference.
View ArticleKing and Queen No More? Headstand, Shoulderstand, and the Yoga of Experience...
This was originally published at Yoga International. Thank you to Kathryn Ashworth and the editorial team there. Framing the Problem Leena Miller Cressman, my colleague at Queen Street Yoga in...
View ArticleFive Easy Ways to Derail a Conversation About Yoga Safety (King and Queen...
It would seem that for the foreseeable future, talking about physical safety in yoga may remain as contentious as talking about the role of the state in regulating religious freedom. I’ll bet that the...
View ArticleKino’s Hip: Reflections on Extreme Practice and Injury in Asana
The circular argument that MacGregor transparently makes is so hard to understand, it seems to validate the adage that yoga cannot be conceptualized. Pain is described as a necessary spiritual tool in...
View ArticleMark Singleton Responds to Critics Who Didn’t Want to Understand His Book
An earlier version of this article first appeared in Yoga International. ____ The 2010 publication of Yoga Body: The Origins of Modern Posture Practice, marked a watershed moment in the history of...
View ArticleThe Problem of Pain in Yoga
This essay first appeared in Yoga International: thank you to Kat Heagburg for editorial help. ____ You’ve probably heard a number of translations for the haṭha part of haṭhayoga. “Forceful” is...
View Article“But He’s Not Erect”: Rationalizing Videos and Lies
Rationalizing these behaviours revolves around making claims about what's going on inside these teachers' heads and shorts. The focus is mainly on their penises, as if the mechanics of erection or...
View ArticleLearning About the Need for Trauma Sensitivity Is a Little Like Learning...
Inheriting and benefiting from and professionalizing yourself within a patriarchal somatics while believing that because it works for you means that it's just fine for the bodies of others is a lot...
View Article“So Now What?” A brief composite of convos with yoga teachers after #WAWADIA?...
_____ When I present on the tangled history of early modern postural yoga, I detail what we know about the teaching modes at the Mysore Palace, the privations suffered by the young Iyengar, and Jois’...
View ArticleWhen Yogis Stiffen Up And Find the In-Between
One of the richest things for me about presenting on the post-extreme-asana paradigm with Diane Bruni is listening to her describe her former capacity to tolerate and then sublimate pain while she...
View ArticleThe Sublime Uselessness of Old-School Asana
“Art is useless because its aim is simply to create a mood. It is not meant to instruct, or to influence action in any way. It is superbly sterile, and the note of its pleasure is sterility. If the...
View ArticleAgainst the “Recent YTT Grad” Stereotype
I want to push back a little against an inaccurate and often cruel stereotype of the 200-hour YTT graduate that’s been gaining steam in Yogaland over the past couple of years. It frames out like this:...
View ArticleTalking About Yoga Injuries Can Be a Way of Talking About Other Things
A few months ago there was an interesting thread on Yoga and Movement Research Community about the difficulty in establishing medical causality for yoga injury. The debate was vigorous as always, but...
View ArticleWhy I’m Still on the Yoga Boat: A Few Notes
I’d like to bite at a question Diane Bruni asked on the Yoga and Movement Research Group Facebook page, months ago: Why are we still on the yoga boat? Given all the scandals, disillusionments, power...
View Article
