कल्याणमित्र Kalyana-mitra(善知識): Tripsichore Yoga with Edward Clark

Tripsichore began in 1979 as a company devoted to creating full length dance narratives.

We explored a variety of stylistic forms including
punk ballet, conventional modern dance and strict neo-classical technique.

We used masks, performed with rock bands and did pop videos.
While yoga was always a part of our training, it wasn't until 1992 that we realised the expressive potential and choreographic viability of yoga postures.

Once we began to devise works using yoga asanas, their extraordinary artistic logic became evident. Surprisingly, it would
seem that there has been no orthodox tradition for using yoga technique to create dances in the 5000 year history of the discipline.

The postures intrinsically possess a sumptuous beauty and fluidity.

They are the ideal vehicle to express the themes of harmony, balance, spirituality, ecstasy, bliss and mysticism because they are exactly
about these subjects in and of themselves.

We are now many years into this experiment and each day brings new discoveries.

From:

http://www.tripsichore.com/id1.html

Edward Clark
Edward Clark is the creator of Tripsichore Yoga Theatre, the London based yoga group who have delighted audiences in Europe, North America and Asia with their sensual and lyric application of yoga to make serenely absorbing performance art. Tripsichore Yoga Theatre have been hailed as some of the most innovative practitioners of vinyasa yoga. Sequestered in their studio in London, England, the company has worked daily for the past 13 years to devise and refine yoga techniques of asana, pranayama, pratayahara, dharana, and dhyana, making excursions out to perform their creations to audiences worldwide. Until now, their techniques have only been taught to a very few.

Edward Clark began studying yoga in 1978. Noteworthy among his teachers are Narayani and Giris Rabinovitch, but he confesses huge admiration for the Ashtanga Vinyasa, Sivananda, Iyengar and Viniyoga practices. The technique Tripsichore uses is a synthesis of many aspects of yoga. Edward says, “We are quick to disclaim that what we do is dance. While there are dancers in the company, there are others who have never been in a dance studio. They meet on a common ground of pure yoga.” Edward was also the Head Of Movement and Dance at the prestigious Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art in London for 20 years.

Edward says, “The concept of vinyasa as applied to yoga philosophy could either be considered very ancient or radically new. In either case, vinyasa seems to be the great contribution to yoga of this particular generation of yogis. Most yoga discipline has worked on refining one's self in the direction of greater stillness - an absence of movement in the mind and body. Superficially, vinyasa would seem to contradict this. However, the mental focus and physical technique needed to bring about continuous fluid movement can also bring one to a ‘seat’ of great stability and clarity. The stability is not only in the posture, but in the transition between postures - to the point where there is no distinction between movement and stillness. The place of vinyasa in the history of yoga is yet to be determined, but as yoga has become a world wide pursuit, it is probably safe to say that its importance now also lies in how people begin to apply it outside the more traditional places it has been practised.”

VINYASA in the Tripsichore definition is the evenly metered flow of movement, breath and thought resulting in a smooth, uninflected state of being.

The techniques bring about clarity and stability to one's thoughts and actions.

Tripsichore endeavours to do this in class and onstage.

You can read more about Edward and his theatre work at

www.tripsichore.com.

From:

http://www.pranamaya.com/teachers/edward-clark