Speaking of Dennis Dean...

[Guest guest]

This is posted in the "Experimental College"

catalogue of ths university I attend:<br><br>"Ashtanga

Vinyasa Workshop"<br>This class will go through the first

of 6 series of yoga postures all linked together

with a unique form of breathing called ujjayi and a

dynamic flowing form of body movement called the vinyasa.

We will explore the fundamentals of the First Series

as well as lecture, demonstration, and a question

answer [sic] period. Beginners are very

welcome.<br>Dennis Dean is a fourth series practitioner and brings

with him over 15 years of passionate teaching

experience from around the world. Dennis encourages an

empirical approach to the yogic teachings as it applies to

everyday life with a sense of compassion, patience, and

humor that is necessary for

self-discovery.<br>(workshop times, which is 6.5 hours over two days, at a

cost of $47 for both days)<br><br>For those of you who

are familiar with Mr. Dean, can you tell me what I

ought to expect from this workshop? What Mr. Dean will

emphasize, his style, his teaching ability? Is he a great

fellow that I should not miss, or should I

pass?<br><br>I would greatly appreciate any information you can

provide. Thank you.

[Guest guest]

Most of my experience with Dennis comes from

practice, not from attending workshops. I have been to one

short workshop but it was over something very different

so it would be hard to tell you what to expect from

that.<br><br>He is a very calm, low key, devoted yogi. I think he

is very involved in developing the entire yogic life

not just the asana practice, that will come across

very readily. <br><br>I would think from your

description, that there will be an initial didactic discussion

session, explaining about the 8 limbs, about the ashtanga

approach, the nuances like vinyasa, bandhas, breathing etc,

then a practicum. either a led class of the early

postures or maybe small vignettes of postures in which you

try them out as a class, then discuss them to

understand them, then move on to some others. <br><br>I

would doubt from the description you gave that he will

be giving a mysore-style class of ashtanga, it

rather sounds like an "intro" workshop type

experience.<br><br>Hard to know if you should pass since we can't know

what your other teaching opportunities are where you

are (Medical school? Really? You have time for

ashtanga while going to medical school?). But I paid money

to go to a workshop to learn what I could from him

and was happy to have done so, despite being able to

be taught from him on a daily basis in class.