4th Edition
Wednesday, 21st June
From 12:00 pm
Lake Wanaka Centre
89 Ardmore St - Wanaka
On its 4th edition, the International Day of Yoga Wanaka will run on the date of the celebration, 21st June, from 12:00 pm.
The commitment of the teachers involved is to share our passion and knowledge of Yoga and associated subjects to you, offering different options of workshops for our community.
In the last years, the numbers of no-shows have been increasing. To avoid this, there will be a small registration fee that will be donated to local charities Food for Love and St John's. There will be donation boxes from them at the venue for those who want to give more.
The IDY Wanaka event is open to all, regardless of your yoga experience and level.
Prizes:
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A free trial class at The Body Garage to all attendees;
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2 packages of 5 classes at The Body Garage - to be drawn.
Below you will find the program, a description of each session, and the link for registration.
Please, bring your own yoga mat, blocks, blanket and water bottle.
Program
Title | Auditorium | Armstrong Room | Faulks Room |
---|---|---|---|
12:15 pm | Welcome + Vinyasa Flow | ||
1:30 pm | Mindfulness Workshop | Hañsa Rest | |
2:45 pm | Tradition & Modern Alignment in Yoga | ||
4:00 pm | Immune Boosting Yin | Iyengar Yoga | i-Rest Yoga Nidra |
5:15 pm | Yoga Therapy: Shoulders & Neck | Vedic Meditation Intro Talk | |
6:30 pm | Winter Solstice Flow |
Reservation required for all sessions. This program is subject to change.
About our workshops
12:15pm - Vinyasa Yoga, with Rose Gray
During this Vinyasa Yoga class you will move with your breath, connecting one asana to the other. You will feel the energy raising into your body with this flow.
1:30pm - Hañsa Rest, with Kate Wolfe & Sandy Fischer
Hañsa Rest is a deeply restorative practice that helps regulate breathing patterns to support, steady and reset your nervous system through deep rest. This is simulated through Hañsa Rest swaddling, a cocooned experience that temporarily shields the practitioner from the outside world and induces a feeling of security. In time, this enables a deeper state of rest and restoration and enhances growth on a physical, cognitive and emotional level.
Hañsa Rest cultivates an internal environment that helps the user digest life experiences. It provides opportunities to move past historical narratives, instead realigning and centring our mental and physiological states through rest, meditation and mindfulness. Hañsa Rest offers the practitioner an experience that enables them to return “home”.
1:30pm - Mindfulness Workshop, with Danielle Anson
In this session, Danielle will help to shed light on daily mindfulness practices you can incorporate into your everyday life. As a mindfulness coach, yoga teacher & meditation facilitator, she will guide you through techniques that can start to make significant shifts in your life; your work life, your relationships, and your personal wellbeing. You'll come out of this workshop feeling rejuvenated and armed with the tips & tricks you need to incorporate these tools into your day to day life.
2:45pm - Tradition & Modern Alignment in Yoga, with Keity Garcia
A correct alignment during your practice is so important as your practice by itself. It can protect you from future injuries or overworking muscles. But what is it a "correct alignment" if each body is individual and different? This is what this workshops it about. Taking main asanas and breaking them down, explaining how they are expected from the tradition and modern Yoga, and how to adapt them to your body.
4:00pm - i-Rest Yoga Nida, with Sandy Fischer
i-Rest Yoga Nidra is a guided meditation practice. Over time It helps you to feel yourself as a fully functioning, integrated and healthy human being. It is a gentle yet powerful restorative practice which allows you to lie back as the words wash over you. No expectations, nothing to change.
4:00pm - Iyengar Yoga, with Sirpa Gardner & Kasia Podgorni
During today’s class we will concentrate on standing poses and some seated twisting postures. Standing postures activate and strengthen our bodies, teach us stability and stamina. Twisting postures teach us to rotate spinal column which increases the flexibility of the back and torso and help to build up and create length in the lateral muscles.
You do not need to be flexible to join. Anyone, stiff or flexible and any age, will benefit from this practice.
Please bring your mat and some blankets and if you have got yoga blocks and straps this could be helpful but not necessary.
This class will be taught by certified Iyengar yoga teachers Kasia Podgorni and Sirpa Gardner from Northlake Yoga Wanaka.
4:00pm - Immune Boosting Yin - Sian Leigh
Yin Yoga is about getting deep into the connective tissue and resetting the nervous system. On this session, Sian is going to help to boost our immune system for the winter. Through this hour long practice you will hold postures for a minimum of 3 minutes and leave the class feeling lighter as the blood flows more freely around your body and your mind has had the time to enter a space of deep relaxation.
5:15pm - Yoga Therapy - Chest, Shoulders and Neck, with Kasia Podgorni
Who doesn't have tight shoulders and neck? Stress, long hours at the computer, driving and physical jobs leave your shoulder girdle hard and immobile and your neck sore. Just a small session of therapeutic asana variations can change that. Come and join me for a Neck and Shoulder Therapy Session at The International Day of Yoga.
Having conducted therapy classes for years and worked with countless neck and shoulder issues, I've had amazing results so let me help you.
5:15pm - Vedic Meditation Intro Talk, with John Wilson
Calm and stillness are closer than you think. By learning the simple, natural technique of Vedic Meditation the mind and body can achieve deep states of rest, two to five times deeper than sleep. Reaching these states of rest our body starts to release stress and more clarity and creativity flows allowing you to be the best version of yourself.
6:30pm - Winter Solstice Flow, with Shannon Turner
A yoga practice to honour the Winter Solstice. With the transition into winter, colder months can often make the body feel vulnerable. This practice will focus on grounding postures that hep generate warmth in the body and build strength and stability. This practice can help us release tension, reduce stress and hopefully rejuvenate the body ad mind.
About our teachers
Danielle Anson - Danielle Anson is a Soul Purpose Life Coach, Yoga Teacher & Meditation Facilitator. She thrives on helping her yoga students & coaching clients to live life in their most intentional way. As a yoga teacher, she's passionate about providing mindful flow classes, with a strong sense of grounding & connection to the breath, to aid her students to be truly present and leave class with a true sense of relaxation in the body & mind.
John Wilson - 5 years ago I learned a powerful, yet simple technique to help my life balance, as I navigated my way through the challenging projects at hand. My Vedic Meditation practise soon became part of my daily routine. It kept me grounded and gave me profound clarity. Clarity to the point where I found myself being pulled in a direction to move beyond my private practice and explore teacher training. After several years of learning advanced techniques and knowledge, I was accepted and on my way to the foothills of the Himalayas to study under my Master Thom Knoles. The training programme was one of the most challenging things I have ever done. I am now pleased to be back home in Wanaka as a qualified Vedic Meditation Initiator and teacher.
Kasi Podgorni - I’ve been practicing Iyengar Yoga since 2006. I come from Poland, where I got certified and was teaching since 2009. From 2015 I started training and assessing other teachers. Throughout the years I attended countless workshops with European and American Senior Iyengar Yoga teachers and I visited Ramamani Iyengar Memorial Yoga Institute, RIMYI in Pune twice. I appreciate the variety and beauty of Iyengar method. I believe that everyone can find in Iyengar a way of practice that will bring joy, tranquillity and light into their lives. In my own practice I combine dynamic sequencing and precise, intricate technical work. Although this reflects in my teaching, I remain considerate of my students’ needs. I have vast experience in teaching yoga therapy (from structural injuries to organic and mental problems), and yoga for athletes (specifically for runners and climbers, also trained a Paralympian long jumper).
Kate Wolfe - Kate moved to Wanaka when she was 16yrs, she fall in love with the mountains and all the outdoor activities. She has been studying and practicing yoga for over 25 years. She started following the teaching and trainings of Satyananda Yoga with Swami Karma Karuna and Swami Multidhharma at Anahata Retreat centre in Golden Bay, NZ. She taught at Yoga Ground Studio for 7 years, assisting Susan in two of her retreats. She is the founder of Dome Yoga, Meditation, Birth based in Hawea Flat. There, she teaches yoga & meditation classes and offers pregnancy and birth support/mentoring and a Birth Doula service. Kate is a facilitator on woman's W.E.E retreats where she facilitates resting workshops.
Keity Garcia - I'm a yoga practitioner for over 20 years and teacher for more than 5 years. I'm also a pilates instructor, breath coach and meditation facilitator. I have studied deeply about yoga philosophy, bandhas, biomechanics and the connection between pranayama and the nervous system. I taught yoga classes in Turkey and Brazil before moving to New Zealand, in 2019, when I created Soul Yoga and have been teaching yoga since then. I have also been organizing the International Yoga Day event in Wanaka since 2020.
Rose Gray - After my career as a registered nurse and midwife, she moved into fitness and nutrition and have been helping people adopt a healthy lifestyle. After many years of being a dedicated yoga student, I was aware of the emotion, spiritual and physical benefits of yoga and wanted to share this with others. Following my passion, I then undertook further study to become a qualified Yoga Teacher and a couple of years later I completed Mat Pilates Training. I have a caring nature and am genuinely motivated to guide and assist people to become the best version of themselves. Yoga and Pilate are key components on overall health and wellbeing, and I love to share this on the mat.
Shannon Turner - Shannon is a RYT 200Hr yoga teacher who has been teaching for nearly two decades. Her love of yoga started when pregnant and as her children got old enough, she trained at Karma Kids Yoga in New York City to teach the little ones and then teenagers. No matter what your age, it's never too early or too late to start up your yoga practice :)
Sandy Fischer - Sandy is the studio owner of NuYoga in Dunedin. After many years practicing, studying and teaching, she developed her own accessible, functional and calming style of classes.
Sian Leigh - Sian has been practicing yoga since her mum rocked up in her purple one piece when Sian was 6. She found the “yang" of yoga fundamental to life in her 20s after breaking her back snowboarding, and discovered much more of the “yin" in her 30’s when she was crippled with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. She embarked on her first 200 hours of training in Ibiza in 2016 whilst moving away from working in the corporate world, and then consolidated this in 2019 with another 100 hours specialising in Yin. She is passionate about teaching yoga, and can be found online, at The Body Garage twice a week, at Snowsports with the young snowsports kids, and at Peninsular Bay Community Center where she teaches all levels.
Sirpa Gardner - I have practiced Iyengar Yoga since 2006 and started teaching as a certified Iyengar yoga teacher on 2016. For the last 6 years as a yoga teacher in Wanaka I have been able to share my constantly developing knowledge of the yoga practice with the students who come to my yoga class. Yoga and teaching yoga is a journey, learning never ends it just deepens. I continue studying yoga with senior Iyengar yoga teachers in New Zealand and recently also with a teacher in Australia. To inspire and to be inspired by others is my goal when teaching yoga. I will always continue being a student of yoga and wish my students to become students of this beautiful art as well.