The Rewards of Practice
Workshops with Kevin Gardiner
In Light on Patanjali’s Yoga Sutra I:17 BKS Iyengar comments, “Through Practice and Detachment four types of awareness develop: Vitarka (deliberate thought), Vicarra (subtle thought), Ananda (bliss), and Asmita (contemplation of the Self).” He calls them “The Rewards of Practice.” During each workshop, Kevin will discuss the four types of awareness in relationship to asana practice.
tuesday, july 21st 2:00–4:00
standing balances
tuesday, august 11th 2:00–4:00
seated twists and arm balances
tuesday, august 18th 2:00–4:00
restorative and pranayama
$25 for each workshop
Kevin Gardiner, a native New Yorker, began studying yoga in 1970 and has been teaching Iyengar Yoga since 1982. He has had the great good fortune to have studied on numerous occasions in India with the Iyengar family, some for extended periods each time. He is indebted and eternally grateful for the genius and compassion of BKS Iyengar, his daughter Geeta and son Prashant whose tireless dedication to the subject is the heart of Inspiration.
He was a co-founder of the Iyengar Institute of Greater New York serving on it’s Executive Committee and in various leadership roles continuously since it’s inception. In the States Mary Dunn has been a guiding light and his primary teacher since the early 80’s and he has been inspired by the teachings of Manouso Manos, Ramamand Patel, John Schumacher, Faeq Biria, Jawahar Bangera, Dean Learner, to name a few. In 2009 Kevin was honored to recieve his Intermediate Senior I Teacher’s Certificate from Guruji himself.
Until December 2006 Kevin also had his own yoga studio in Manhattan. He then married Erika, also a certified Iyengar teacher, and relocated to Erika’s home town of Budapest where they have set up a new home and are now teaching at their own studio, the Amrita Yoga Center, http://www.amritajoga.hu. Over the years he has travelled extensively, teaching in North and South America, as well as many years and countless workshops in his ancestrial home of Ireland.
A graduate of the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, Kevin was a professional actor, director and teacher for 15 years, including seven years of touring Shakespearean productions in traditional repertory style. Along the way he also sustained a ten year practice of Tai Chi and Shaolin Kung Fu.
His teaching is highly detailed and textured, seamlessly incorporating many components of yoga philosophy and the sutras, while continuously challenging students to gain greater sensitivity and awareness in each asana. He has a tremendous pracaitcal understanding of the living anatomy of the human body, and a lighthearted and off-beat sense of humor.
“From the Head to the Heart with Love and Devotion the understanding happens. We understand that “I” am not in the body, the body is in me.” —Kevin Gardiner