Thursday, December 24, 2009

Vinyasa

Today, for fun (or at least, in hope of some fun) I did the ‘Dawn’ Yoga Practice from a Rainbeau Mars DVD I checked out at the library.

I found it alarmingly bad. Alignment and safety information were scant. Cueing was incomprehensible, incorrect or entirely absent. In particular, the left-right cueing was frequently off and the mirroring was inconsistent. The hold durations were inconsistent and the pace was far too slow for a flow class, even for beginners.
It was maddening! I’m far more forgiving of errors in a ‘live’ class, but this is a DVD!! Fix it before you release it!

I was bored and started adding stuff, just to jazz it up a bit and keep my heat up. Rainbeau kept adjusting her clothing and fixing her hair. Clearly, the two of us were not communicating well.

Two thumbs down. Needless to say, I won’t bother trying ‘Dusk’ and I’m SO glad I didn’t PAY for this. Back to the library you go!

I realise I sound very critical, but keep in mind, I teach full-time and paying attention to these details helps me become a better teacher. I don’t often have the opportunity to experience from a first-hand perspective a student’s frustration with a teacher who is mirroring sporadically, or messing up her left-right cueing (something I’m notorious for). And when I rave about the skills of a teacher on this blog, you can be sure I’m taking notes and absorbing their cues and techniques into my own teaching style.

The girlfriend left for the ‘burbs yesterday, so I’m on my own for Christmas. Before you feel *too* sorry for me, keep in mind that I’m very busy with my cat-sitting duties and one of the cats I’m feeding came equipped with an incredible home theatre system. And a server loaded with hundreds of movies. And a comfy leather couch.

The cat’s owner gave me permission to enjoy his little movie theatre in his absence and when I stopped by this afternoon, I noticed that he also left a bottle of wine along with the BBC ‘Earth’ series on BluRay.

Lonely? HECK NO! I’m having SO MUCH FUN! I’m watching movies and drinking wine and watching ‘Zack and Miri Make a Porno’! On a whim, I phoned my favourite burrito place and, amazingly, they were open! I don’t even have to prepare supper!

When Santa comes (to deliver my coal, of course), I’m going to offer him some wine and see if he wants to watch ’Star Trek’ with me.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I'm glad to hear your review of Rainbeau Mars Dawn DVD. I've thought about getting it in the past (I'm a sucker for marketing), but was never sure how good the actual instruction would be. Now I know!