Old Moon Yoga

“What is this morning’s theme going to be?” Dawn asked me as I was getting ready to sub John’s Saturday morning class. When I was subbing this class on a regular basis I would go all out. As if preparing for some small Broadway play I would pick the theme the week before, research appropriate music, even create a special set of intro music to tease the class into guessing. It was a busy week at work, no time to prepare. I looked down at my new Yoga shirt. “The moon” I replied and just as Andrew Lloyd Webber didn’t for Phantom of the Opera, I made the rest up as I went along. In doing so I found some interesting transitions to a couple of the harder half moon variations.

Not surprisingly there are lots of poses associated with the moon. It is Hatha Yoga after (Ha = sun, Tha = moon). Usually we start the class with sun salutations. Today it was moon salutations. They are very similar just a little gentler.

• From the forward fold step back into a low crescent moon lunge with the knee down.
• Reach the hands up and look up. Want more? Curl the back toes under and straighten the back leg by pushing the heel away. Try to keep the hips low.
• Step back down dog
• Step forward to forward fold and come all the way up to standing.

That is pretty much the sequence for my moon salutations. Variations include:- Twisted crescent lunge, Parivrtta Parsvakonasana, binding this twist or even the arm balance Eka Pada Koundiyanasana II (Pose Dedicated to the Sage Koundinya II). Which means you can vary the class and make it possible to do the sequence for all levels.

During the standing sequences of course there was plenty of chance to throw in Ardha Chandrasana (Half Moon Pose) half moon. First in the warm up, twisted half moon arrived at from standing splits, not an easy transition. Then bound half moon, arrived at from bound triangle. It was noticeable how much easier yogis found it to release the bottom hand and bring it to heart’s center when in bound half moon using this transition.

A better sequence to get to twisted half moon, which we also did, is this, :-

• Parsvottanasana (Pyramid Pose/ Intense Stretch Pose )
• Parivrtta Trikonasana (Revolved Triangle Pose)
• Parivrtta Ardha Chandrasana (Revolved Half Moon Pose)

Revolved half moon is a real “crowd pleaser” of course because it is quite a challenging pose. But this way in, through revolved triangle results in far less groans from the participants. I usually take that as a good sign The difference in everyone’s pose is clear when we enter via triangle rather than standing splits too.

Finally a balancing vinyasa which is a great doorway into the variation of half moon where you hold the back foot. There is a sanskrit name for this pose of course, and someone told me what it was this week too, but it escapes me now. Usually there is flailing around on one leg in half moon whilst trying to grab the back foot which insists on flapping inches from the outstretched fingers, not so with entrance. You might even call it graceful. Here is the balancing sequence.

• Natarajasana (Lord of the Dance pose)
• Forward fold to this variation of half moon holding the foot (insert your sanskrit of choice here, just hope the studio is not full of experts when you teach)
• Release the foot to half moon
• Virabhadrasana III (Warrior III Pose)

Don’t be put off if everyone complains doing this sequence on the first side. This happened to me in class on Wednesday. But like the good drill sergeant I am we carried on and did the other side. Suddenly everyone could do it.

Maybe I should be planning next week’s Saturday class already, if I thought of the moon idea in advance I could have lined up music to match, maybe even made the intro tunes for the Norah Jones album. There is no excuse this week,I have plenty of time to make Andrew proud, alternatively I may just pull on a different tee shirt Saturday morning and see what happens.

This entry was posted on Sunday, August 1st, 2010 at 3:58 pm and is filed under Lessons, While Teaching. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.