Lucy Crawford returns to Cheshire for a weekend of her unique and inspiring teaching and exploring of the practice of yoga.

Lucy was a direct student of Shri K Pattabhi Jois from 1993 onwards and remained his student until he passed away in May 2009. She has since developed an attentive and detailed approach to exploring the practice of Yoga - with respect to the differing needs of each individual, with the premise that the practice should be tailored and modified to suit each and their unique postural patterning. Her teaching is informed by an understanding of anatomy and function, and is explorative in essence, and respectful to the tissues of the body, without demand for unrealistic flexibility.

The weekend will consist of morning led classes and afternoon workshops working with the spinal curves of the body.

The spinal curves create suspension, support, space and grace. We develop spinal curves from our earliest movement beginnings. The spine begins is soft and flexible, supported through the multi-layered network of connective tissues. The 3 bowls of the body, the head, ribcage and pelvis are suspended, relative to one another, supported by the spinal curves.

Postural imbalances can create fixity in the spinal joints and other joints of the body affecting our relationship to gravity. In this interactive, playful workshop, we will use controlled breath and slow somatic movement practices to rediscover lost spaces. The body responds to being ‘listened to’ more, than being ‘done to’. We will explore our curves from heel to head and play with seeking new awareness, so that we may breathe and move with more fluidity wholeness and health.

During this weekend we will look at facilitated stretching, how we can use our muscles with greater awareness to find equilibrium in the joints.

We will explore the use of Muscle Energy Techniques (METs) and look at individual groups of muscles, using methods of engagement / contraction, followed by expansion / stretch…. to offer the optimum natural lengthening of shortened fibers. We will engage specific muscles and muscle groups, followed by stretching / lengthening the same. We will also look at engaging the oppositional muscles to help this process. Muscle energy techniques can be extremely useful when we appear to have fixity; when something seems to resist change in the Asana practice. So, instead of pushing and pulling our tissues we can instead become more gentle with our bodies, and become curious! as we employ these techniques, tapping into the body’s own physiological mechanisms for change.

SATURDAY 10 am-12 noon: A talk-through class based on the Primary Series: bringing awareness into the major joint spaces, and softening into the fascia.

SATURDAY 1-3 pm: A workshop exploring twists and forward bending.

SUNDAY 10 am- 12 noon: A talk through class based on the Intermediate Series: bringing the work from the Saturday afternoon workshop, into play. Moving the spine from the spine, with gentle more refined awareness.

SUNDAY 1 - 3 pm: A workshop exploring leg behind head and backbending asana.