"Change is not something that we should fear. Rather, it is something that we should welcome. For without change, nothing in this world would ever grow or blossom and no one in this world would ever move forward to become the person they’re meant to be.”
—B.K.S. Iyengar
As the seasons change our bodies change, moving with the seasons in order to create balance within us. Our practice serves as a grounding force for all of us in times of transition and change. The Iyengar yoga community that was sprouted by B.K.S. Iyengar on his first visit to the US in 1956 and gained momentum in the 1970s is continually changing as well. (For instance, we hope you enjoy our newly redesigned IYASE logo!) As a Board, we are always looking for ways to serve our members, build community, and facilitate the learning and teaching of Iyengar yoga, while also supporting IYNAUS and the Southeast Region of the United States.
The Scholarship Committee is offering grants to be used for personal reasons including economic hardship and medical challenges, as well as scholarships for assessment assistance and community outreach. To apply use the following link: Scholarships — IYASE.ORG
In April, the Membership Committee started offering monthly IYASE Members Classes and has also begun planning for our first IYASE Virtual Retreat. In addition, the Continuing Ed Committee has one workshop scheduled for June 17th and one more to come later in the year.
The Communications Committee continues to issue this bimonthly newsletter highlighting the studios and teachers in the 13 states of our region. We are seeking a communications volunteer to help prepare these materials. Throw your hat in the ring by emailing Ned iyase.governance@gmail.com. In addition to this effort, they continue to share Iyengar yoga through social media and eblasts of events, pictures/videos, and posts all designed to share B.K.S. Iyengar’s teachings and build our Iyengar community.
The IYASE Board met again on May 22nd to discuss the changing needs of members and expand outreach efforts within our region. I am extremely grateful for all of the hard work and effort done so far this year. Our fundamental mission remains to serve the Iyengar yoga community of the Southeast Region and support IYNAUS’s mission to promote the art, science, and philosophy of yoga according to the teachings of B.K.S. Iyengar.
If you have anything you would like addressed within IYASE or have any interest in helping on any of the committees, I would love to hear from you. Please reach out to me directly at iyase.president@gmail.com.
In Gratitude,
Laura Plofchan
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IYASE Newsletter
Tour of our states:
Washington, DC, Area
Eight of the CIYTs in this area are featured below.
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Mary Pappas-Sandonas (CIYT Level 3), C-IAYT, MS |
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I feel heartfelt gratitude to have been, what I believe, divinely placed on this path as a devoted student and certified Level 3 teacher of Iyengar yoga for 30 years. This gratitude influences my teaching which has been described as warm, enthusiastic, joyful, encouraging, respectfully challenging, and methodical in its precision to detail and steeped in yoga philosophy. My professional experiences as an integrative yoga therapist in both hospital and integrative primary care settings and my own personal physical challenges and life events have brought deep introspective insights into my approach to teaching, modifying poses, and adjusting. As a result, I strive to live my life in the peaceful center of the “eye of the hurricane,” finding my way back to the stillness of the heart through the power of the practice when drawn into the swirling chaos. I believe in the wonder of the miracle of everyday things, the power of a brave spirit, a kind heart, a peaceful mind, warm loving hugs, joyful laughter, sunshine on my face, and puppy dog kisses. A rocking pair of shoes and a bit of dark chocolate are a bonus!
Find Mary @:
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Leanne Cusumano Roque (CIYT Level 2)
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Yoga 4 All Bodies builds strength, flexibility, and equanimity with a focus on safety through alignment. We are the only studio in Fairfax and Loudon counties (Virginia) to exclusively offer yoga in the Iyengar tradition. Our studio is also the only studio in the area to have a yoga ropes wall. We offer small group classes of up to 4 students and 1:1 yoga privates, in person and on zoom.
Established in 2012, Yoga 4 All Bodies was created for students who want small or private yoga classes that take into account their physical needs. We particularly enjoy helping fellow hyperextenders transform the body as they learn how to shift from being overly flexible to combining flexibility with strength. Every body is different every day. Iyengar yoga builds the intelligence of the body, bringing physical, mental, and emotional benefits.
Leanne likes to offer yoga in a space that feels safe and encouraging while helping students to grow their practice. She has practiced yoga since 2006, Iyengar yoga since 2009, taught yoga since 2012, and has been a fully Certified Iyengar Yoga teacher since 2014. She continues her practice and teacher training with senior teachers so as to offer options and opportunities to her students.

Find Leanne @:
Text/voice: 703-297-2224.
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Joe Adlesic (CIYT Level 2) |
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Joe had the good fortune to cross paths and begin studying with his mentor John Schumacher in the early 1980s. After years of weekly classes with John, along with attending numerous workshops with Senior Iyengar yoga teachers from the US and abroad, Joe began teaching at Unity Woods in 1990. At that time, in addition to teaching at Unity Woods, he also founded the Blue Ridge Yoga studio in Charlottesville, VA, where he served as owner/director for the next 20 years. Since 2009, Joe has taught exclusively at Unity Woods where he offered classes over the years at all of the previous in-person studio locations: Bethesda, DC, and Arlington. Joe is currently teaching online classes exclusively through Unity Woods Yoga Center(unitywoods.com) . Joe also had the good fortune to attend national Iyengar conventions and international Iyengar events where he attended mega-classes with B.K.S. Iyengar directly. He also traveled to Pune, India, on multiple occasions to study at the Ramamani Iyengar Memorial Yoga Institute to attend classes with B.K.S. Iyengar’s children - Geeta and Prashant Iyengar.
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Find Joe @:
Email: joe@blueridge.yoga
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Raina Fishbane (CIYT Level 1)
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After trying many different types of yoga, I began studying Iyengar yoga 12 years ago and have been a devoted student of Iyengar yoga ever since. I was drawn to the physical benefits, such as becoming stronger and more flexible, but also to how Iyengar yoga helped me to quiet my mind and boost my energy. I believe teaching is all about building relationships. I am always deepening my own practice through my teaching, and vice versa, deepening my teaching through my practice and my students. My teaching style is relaxed and accessible and my goal is to share my love and enjoyment of practicing with my students.
Find Raina @:
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Laurel Goeke (CIYT Level 1)
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I have been teaching for over 20 years and founded Sweetbay Yoga over ten years ago. I care deeply about the practice we share, and the vibrant community of practitioners and teachers who call our studio h(om)e. I can’t imagine anything more worthwhile than being devoted to Iyengar Yoga and the Sweetbay community!
Find Laurel @:
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Kathy Lotspeich (CIYT Level 1), Ela Rohde (CIYT Level 1),
and Dian Seidel (CIYT Level 1)
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Though the pandemic has taken its toll on yoga studios and in-person classes in the DC Metro area, Iyengar yoga is alive and well at several branches of the YMCA of Metropolitan Washington, which closed only briefly in the spring of 2020. At first, classes resumed outdoors, on a rooftop terrace, tennis court, and lawn, with masking, distancing, heat lamps, and other safety precautions. Now back indoors, Kathy Lotspeich, Ela Rohde, and Dian Seidel teach weekly classes at the Anthony Bowen (downtown DC), Bethesda-Chevy Chase, and Silver Spring (suburban Maryland) branches, respectively. All three CIYTs are longtime students of John Schumacher, Doerthe Braun, and other teachers at Unity Woods Yoga Center, and all three passed their assessments in 2018 in Pittsburgh. Though the Y may not have all the props and paraphernalia of a classic Iyengar studio, that's more than compensated by the opportunity to bring the Iyengar approach to yoga to a diverse and friendly community in the national capital area.
Find Kathy @:
katyalot@yahoo.com
Find Ela @:
elarohde@yhoo.de
Find Dian @:
Profiled further below.
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Dian Seidel (CIYT Level 1) |
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A practitioner for 20+ years and CIYT since 2018, I love sharing Iyengar yoga and helping students reap its benefits. I teach at DC-area YMCA branches and teach "Let's Learn English and Yoga Together" for ESOL students (highlighted in this issue's Spotlight on Community Outreach, below). Visit me a www.DianSeidel.com.
Find Dian @:
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Spotlight on Community Outreach
Dian Seidel, Ph.D., CIYT
Washington English Center, Washington, DC
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I teach Iyengar yoga. I also teach English for Speakers of Other Languages. Sometimes, I teach both ... at the same time. And I love it!
“Let’s Learn Yoga and English Together” is a ten-week series of one-hour sessions I developed for the yoga club at Washington English Center, an ESOL school for adult immigrants in the Washington, DC, area. The yoga club is a free extracurricular activity open to ESOL students of all levels as well as school staff and volunteers.
Most participants have little or no yoga experience. Many face challenges such as immigration issues, financial stress, past trauma, separation from family and friends, and health problems and have little time to devote to their own wellbeing. Yoga club is meant to open a door to yoga while building English vocabulary and comprehension.
From my pre-pandemic visits to Iyengar yoga studios in other countries, and more recently from Zoom-based classes with foreign-language teachers, I know that it’s not easy to take yoga classes in a new language. In my case, knowing the Sanskrit names of poses helped. I don’t use Sanskrit in yoga club—we keep our focus on English—so body language and clear, direct verbal instructions are critical. I demo every action in every pose, syncing my words and movements, and exaggerating both to make sure everyone understands, both intellectually and corporeally.
At the start of every class, I spend five minutes introducing new vocabulary, and I use that vocabulary repeatedly in that day’s sequence. For example, I might teach the verbs straighten and bend, the nouns knee, elbow, mountain and chair, and the adjectives parallel and perpendicular before teaching tadasana, utkatasana, virabhadrasana II, etc. The linkages between the mind and body are obvious and strengthened when we focus on language. Feeling the sensation of extension in the arm (and torso) as you hear (and perhaps repeat) the instruction, “Extend your arm” in uttitha parsvakonasana reinforces both the vocabulary and the asana. And though we don’t focus on grammar, you can bet that yoga club students learn the imperative tense!
Teaching the yoga club has made me a better Iyengar yoga teacher and a better ESOL teacher. More importantly, it’s made my students better yogis and English speakers, too.
Find the Washington English Center @:
Harris, New York
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Our July/August newsletter will feature North Carolina! Please send information and photos about classes, yoga, and life in North Carolina.
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"Sources for learning about yoga philosophy abound but which ones provide the fundamental sources for studying yoga philosophy?"
Read John Schumacher's article explaining the texts and his recommendations on approaching the study of Philosophy.
There is more on the IYASE website, under the RESOURCES menu. Check it out.
Find John @:
Unity Woods Yoga Center:
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Upcoming Workshops and Events |
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IYASE Members benefit:
Free Online Workshop with Bobbi Goldin
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June 12, 6:30-8:00 pm EDT
Belts, Blocks, Blankets, & Bolsters
Explore how blocks, belts, blankets, and bolsters turn poses into asanas.
Experience the wisdom, generous spirit, and great humor of Bobbi. Please bring two of each prop (belts, blocks, blankets, and bolsters) or their equivalent (e.g., wearable belts, books as bricks, towels, cushions)
Free for Members of IYASE $25 for non-members
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Free-to-Members All-Levels Zoom Classes
IYASE continues to offer monthly Free-to-Members All-Levels classes via Zoom, taught by some of our own Level 1 teachers. Registration is required to receive the Zoom link and recording link.
Upcoming Classes:
June 23 @ 5:30-6:30pm - Jill Frankel
July 28 @ 8-9am - Alison Lintal
We hope to see you there!
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Join us in this noteworthy workshop to learn from 2 exceptional teachers. John Schumacher and David Meloni are both devoted students of our beloved Guruji. In this collaborative workshop, they will share the experience, insights, and acumen gleaned from their years of study and practice. |
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Tuesday, June 7, 2022, 1:15-2:30pm
Explore the Upanishads, one of the most ancient, insightful and inspiring spiritual texts that has come out of India! All are welcome.
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IYASE Members benefit: Free Online Workshop with Bobbi Goldin
Friday, June 17, 2022 6:30-8:00 PM
Belts, Blocks, Blankets, & Bolsters
Explore how blocks, belts, blankets, and bolsters turn poses into asanas.
Experience the wisdom, generous spirit, and great humor of Bobbi. Please bring two of each prop (belts, blocks, blankets, and bolsters) or their equivalent (e.g., wearable belts, books as bricks, towels, cushions)
Free for Members of IYASE
$25 for non-members
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Iyengar Yoga Weekend Intensive with Swati Chanchani
In-Person at Iyengar Yoga Asheville
July 22 - 24, 2022
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Join Swati Chanchani, long-time student of B.K.S. Iyengar and co-founder of the Yog-Ganga Centre in northern India, for an inspiring weekend of asana, pranayama, and Yogic philosophy. Steeped in the rich culture that accompanies yoga techniques, Swati engagingly shares her deep understanding both of the physical postures and of the history and ethical implications of the practice of yoga. This is a great opportunity to study with one of Mr. Iyengar’s dedicated pupils, highly respected for her gifts as a yoga instructor! You can read more about Swati HERE.
Workshop Address: 111 Grove Road, Asheville, NC 28804 US
Phone Number: (828) 484-1607
Workshop Level: Prior Experience
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Click the button below to email the details of your workshop
if you would like to be listed in the next newsletter.
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Call For Photos and Videos of Iyengar gatherings |
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Help us build our IYASE community and share images, audio, articles and video clips that you may have of events, workshops or other Iyengar gatherings. We are building an IYASE Archive so we can continue to share and enjoy those memories with our members and for the promotion of the legacy of BKS Iyengar.
Please make sure when submitting content that you own the copyright to the content. You can submit your items by clicking the button below.
Thank You and Namaskar,
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Yoga and Equity Information |
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The Yoga and Equity Regional Leaders Forum is a valuable opportunity to share information about DEIJ efforts taking place within the regions, talk about developing and implementing DEIJ programs, and learn how the Yoga and Equity Committee can support those efforts. Meetings are held quarterly.
If you're interested in learning more or attending the next meeting, please reach out to Theresa St.John-Siegel at tmstsiegel@gmail.com.
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