Yoga Teachers
Padmadarshini
I began to practice yoga in a consistent way when I moved to Manchester in 1990 and started attending Iyengar classes. After a few years I did my initial teacher training at the Iyengar institute and began to teach classes locally. I see yoga very much as a process of enquiry, exploration and creativity and this enquiry has drawn me to study and train with various teachers over the years. In particular I am grateful to have studied with Sarah Powers, Donna Farhi and Paul Grilley who have all inspired me and given me much to play with and explore both in my own practice and in my teaching.
I believe that yoga is and should be a practice that supports us in our lives, taking into account our age, lifestyle, health - there are many tools within the practice that we can learn and adapt to meet our own individual needs. In my classes I try to share these tools and bring in different approaches. I teach both a passive/quiet yin style where we hold poses for a few minutes as well as dynamic sequences moving with fluidity and breath. Yoga is, I think, essentially an awareness practice. It has the potential to help us to reinhabit our bodies, to listen to our bodies` wisdom and to meet ourselves as we are with kindness and sensitivity.
Christine Howitt
My practice and study of yoga began in Glasgow in 1986. As my commitment deepened, I later completed my two year teacher training at the Iyengar Institute in Edinburgh, qualifying in 1995. I was introduced to Ashtanga yoga in 1995 by David Svenson and my interest in this form developed from there. I explored this practice for some years, mainly through my own enquiry but I was greatly inspired by my contact with John Scott. More recently, I have been inspired and influenced by the work of Donna Farhi and in 2004, I completed an advanced intensive teacher training with her in Vancouver. Over the last few years, I have regularly assisted on her visits to teach in Manchester. In 2001, I completed a three year shiatsu training. This interest in Chinese medicine influences the content of many of my workshops.
This ancient practice of yoga continues to fascinate and inspire me. Being such a versatile and adaptable practice, it always has something to offer. In teaching, I enjoy the challenge of making the fruits of this practice accessible to everyone. My teaching reflects an interest in fluid movement infused with the supportive rhythm of the breath. Allowing this constant and primal rhythm to underpin all movement enables us to reconnect to our fundamental sense of well-being. I also bring attention to clarity and precision within my teaching.
Darren Edwards
I feel that yoga practice is a perfect way to step off life's treadmill of plans and high expectations for a while and simply enjoy the experience of life unfolding from one moment to the next, just as a child would. As I then engage once more with the everyday world, I find that the qualities of relaxation, stability and openness stay with me.
My own practice and teaching are inspired by Godfrey Deveroux and also Padmadarshini and Christine Howitt of Bodywise.
Paul Betesh
The breath produces an inner focus from which the movement and postures flow. The yoga postures are an expression of that inner stillness. My classes combine both dynamic movement and the holding of postures. Via the breath we look to harmonise the active and passive aspects of yoga, bringing into balance the sense of strength and alertness with surrender and relaxation.
I have studied and practised a range of different schools of yoga and meditation, including Ashtanga and Sivananda Yoga. I am a qualified Iyengar Yoga teacher.
Manjunaga
My yoga practice began in 1998 when I started attending yoga classes taught by Padmadarshini and Christine Howitt at Bodywise in Manchester. After many years of exploration in my own yoga practice, I started my teacher training with Simon Low and the yoga academy in 2006. In recent years I have been particularly inspired by the work of Donna Farhi and have taken the opportunity of studying with her.
For me, yoga is an awareness practice, offering us an opportunity to become more fully embodied in our experience; this allows for a greater sensitivity to our emotional and physical well being.
I have also spent several years teaching meditation and buddhism courses and I am particularly interested in exploring qualities of stillness and spaciousness through my yoga teaching.