Passing the Baton on Yoga Day
By Nancy Marcy, CIYT
Why have one teacher when you can have four, together tag-teaming in a grand āsana session?
And why limit the location to one city when you can have two, with practitioners in person and on Zoom, radiating out through the Midwest? Thanks to careful planning and technology, it all came together on Winter Yoga Day, December 11, 2022.
In early fall, the IYAUM board discussed how to get more teachers involved in our events. Dawn Talbert suggested something akin to what the Northeast region had tried: a week-long teach-fest with instructors from the region each volunteering to do an online class. This idea morphed into another suggestion: that we have several teachers team up for the same event, Winter Yoga Day.
What I learned from the Northeast region classes left me with this impression: Level 1 teachers are extremely knowledgeable and have much to give. So why do we require only senior teachers at Yoga Day? In addition, one of our board’s goals is to become a more accessible, welcoming organization. This led the board to change our criteria for teachers who volunteer at Yoga Day: We decided that all CIYTs, no matter what level, would be eligible to teach.
With December Yoga Day approaching, I knew that as a Level II teacher I was considered next on the list, but also that we had agreed to allow teachers of any level to lead. So, armed with the experience of Zooming and teaching hybrid classes, I suggested that I team up with teachers who were not from the Twin Cities, proposing a hybrid, two-venue Yoga Day in order to maximize participation and access.
Susan Johnson accepted the call to be my Twin Cities partner. To further build the team, I invited Hallie Evans (Level I) and Rachel Frazee (Level II) from the Yoga Place in La Crosse to lead the āsanas from Wisconsin.
We met to discuss the theme and agreed upon “out of darkness into the light,” based on the definition of “guru” (gu=the darkness of ignorance, and ru=the divine light of knowledge), as well as the seasonal mood of December and the Winter Solstice. We agreed that I would begin with Sūrya Namaskār sun salutations, Rachel would lead standing poses, Hallie would do Prasārita Pādottānāsana/Sīrṣāsana and a couple of seated poses, and Susan would finish with Sarvāṅgāsana and Śavāsana.
The four of us practiced together, each doing our twenty minutes. Pam Starcher, owner of The Yoga Place in Wisconsin, agreed to be the primary host, commanding the spotlighting and other technical details.
Our group met three weeks prior to the event for tech rehearsal, focusing on audio problems. Margie Siegel, co-owner of the BKS Iyengar Yoga Center in Minneapolis, was there for the first meeting and was ever so helpful. We met again a few days before the event and worked out the kinks. Katharine Wood helped us Mac users with her PC knowledge.
When the day came, everyone who had said they would help was on hand, and the event rolled ahead with just a few minor glitches.
Many participants said they really enjoyed the event and appreciated the variety of teachers. It was thrilling for us as teachers to pass the baton to each other, as if we were in a relay race. This may not have been the Olympics, but it was a day to remember—and it set a precedent for future collaboration!
