My Yoga Philosophy

I try to create a comfortable and laid back atmosphere in my classes and to strip yoga of some of its unfortunate stereotypes. What I like about yoga is that it connects the goings on of the brain with the goings on of the body. The technique is a well honed series of connections between our various bodily layers. Each student is able to gauge and to direct their own level of engagement. The spirituality and sense of soul or enlightened self are perhaps after effects of yoga. I'm definitely open to that possibility, but in the meantime the mechanics and the breath and smoothing out all of the transitions feels amazing and gives us increased ability to understand and deal with our own physical and mental selves.

My classes are inspired by my 9 years of training in Ashtanga Yoga, 19 years of training in dance (and various bodywork techniques) as well as my interest in psychology, anatomy and fluid alignment. By fluid alignment, I mean that there is nothing fixed and that we are in constant flux and readjustment, so what is fun in Yoga is to take a repetitive set of postures and to feel how we are different in them everyday. Instead of focusing on the aesthetics of the postures, I'm interested in the sensory change the body goes through while we are in each posture....keeping the curiosity alive.

September Schedule

MY FALL CLASS SCHEDULE:

Starting September 16th:
Institut Saphir
136 Fairmont O. (@ Waverley), 2ieme étage
Tues.mardi 20:30-21:45 niveau moyen-avancé.intermediate-advanced
Wed.mercredi 18:30-20:00 niveau débutant-beginner
Sun.dimanche 12:30-14:00 yoga lendemain de veille pour tous.hangover yoga for all
12$/classe, 90$ pour 10 classes
yogakoop@gmail.com
514-525-8987

Starting September 29th
Luna Yoga
231 St Paul Ouest, suite 200
www.centrelunayoga.com
Thurs.jeudi 12:00-13:00
Sun.dimanche 10:00-11:30

Ongoing
YMCA du Parc
Fri.vendredi 17:30-18:30
YMCA Guy Favreau
Thurs.jeudi 18:30-19:30

The Beginning-Le Lancement

So, I am on the brink of seriously launching my yoga classes. I'm going beyond friends and word of mouth and am doing some REAL advertising. I am officially going public: Laurel Koop is a yoga teacher, and she's looking for students. I'll be using the blog instead of a website for the time being. It's a place where you can come to check the schedule and pertinent information about where and when I'm giving classes. And I also hope it will be a forum for discussion about yoga, body work, and what it means to be in "good" spiritual, mental and physical health. For that, I will need your help. Every week I'll be posting thoughts on various related issues, and I'll be counting on you--my past, present, future and wanna-be students-- for your thoughts. I think this has the potential to be a lot of fun. Surtout quand je vais écrire en français et vous pouvez rire de mes erreurs!