women doing ashtanga on dvd

I mentioned the other day that I’ve been doing a bunch of yoga lately. It started out with some restorative yoga poses because I was feeling exhausted. Then I stopped feeling exhausted and started doing some standing poses each day. I picked up some yoga dvds, looking for some fun routines, and somehow, I have found myself working through the primary series of ashtanga yoga.

The meat of this post? Reviews of four (plus one) women doing ashtanga on dvd. And if you don’t know what ashtanga yoga is, just know that its HARD. It’s breathing and heat and sweat and muscular and it will kick your ass. (And for some reason, I’m totally into it right now. Go figure.) Which is perhaps why it’s REALLY COOL to see women master it. I mean, when a broad shouldered man does a handstand into a floating jump-through, yeah, so what, he’s got that upper body strength that comes with testosterone, plus some good flexibility. Paul could do a decent jump-through on his very first try, blast him. It will take me YEARS to build up to it, if I EVER get there. On the other hand, seeing a petite woman do a Matrix-style jump-through like a graceful gazelle, well, it impresses the heck out of me—and inspires me—in a way no perfectly wonderful male ashtanga yogi will ever do. Sorry, dudes, but it’s true.

The big surprise is that, while the ashtanga classes I took in my early thirties nearly KILLED me, I find that now, although I have done next to no yoga for five years, I can move right through the ten sun salutations and the standing sequences and right into the sitting sequence without feeling like I have to throw up. How the heck is that possible? Where did this endurance come from? Walking babies to sleep, up and down the driveway? To be sure, I’m doing the easy peasy variations of all those twisty hard poses, but still. It feels good. That is so weird.

So, here we go!

First up, Nicki Doane. Nicki has two dvds on ashtanga yoga, one just on Sun Salutes, and one that does the Sun Salutes and the first portion of the standing postures. The idea is that for a beginner, that is enough. I have to agree. Those ashtanga classes I tried in my early thirties were grueling, painful, and duh, I didn’t keep going. I needed to build a LOT of strength before I could take on the heat of the full series. The traditional, Mysore way of learning the series is Sun Salutations, and then the standing postures, one posture at a time. There is a great deal of wisdom in this. So, YES to Nicki’s approach here for a beginner.

As for her teaching, I like it. Simple and straightforward. Although a bit lite on the details. If I didn’t have an Iyengar-based background, I would be floundering mightily as she moves into the standing poses. You can click on a link to go to deeper breakdowns of the poses, a nice feature, but still, not so much with the details. Never the less, her strong voice carries me through when I start to feel tired and as a model, she is exemplary, her yoga flawless, as far as I can tell. Added to her ease-into-it approach, including a slower pace, these dvds are quite accessible. Sophie, my 5 year old, likes to do Sun Salutations with me to these. Not Nicki’s target market, perhaps, but there you go.

Finally, production value: GORGEOUS. By far the prettiest of the dvds mentioned here. Maui is magnificent and, while doing yoga outside isn’t traditional, it is worth it. No shot fails to impress. The changing camera angles and zooming in and out all make for a visually lovely presentation. Soaring blue skies behind Nicki’s perfect yoga, make her seem like some kind of Yogini Goddess. Very nice.

But moving on…

Melanie Fawer also has two dvds, although they are sold as a set, making this the priciest of my yoga dvds. One is a practice dvd, showing the whole primary series, and one is a ‘lesson’ dvd, breaking down the poses with plenty of beginner options. She suggests working through a lesson and thoroughly digesting it before moving on to the next, thus starting out with, perhaps, a 20 minute practice of only Sun Salutes, and gradually, pose by pose, increasing to the full 90 minutes (plus or minus) primary series. Using her disks, you would use the practice video only up to the point you had gotten to in the lessons, and then turn it off and do a finishing sequence. I like this approach, sort of bite sized ashtanga. I like her lesson dvds, too, as she gives lots of beginner variations, and I’m ALL about the beginner variations.

But. My understanding is that Melanie is the only person certified by Patpattabhi Jois to teach other ashtanga teachers, so she must know something good. Certainly her technique appears perfect, and her body is strongly capable of effortlessly doing the most challenging of the primary series. The practice video, for me, however, doesn’t work. Melanie counts out the breathing and 1) it never matches mine, 2) its annoying to listen to, and 3) she freezes the image of herself in the pose in order to stay in the pose for the full five breaths which is visually weird, and sort of feels like she’s cheating. I mean, I know that’s stupid because I’m sure she CAN hold the pose that long, but somehow, it bugs me. If she’s not really holding the pose that long, I find myself less disposed to do so. I know it’s silly, but I can’t help it. I want her suffering along with me. I think the counting may be fairly traditional, the teacher counting out the breath, but what can I say, I don’t like it. I’d rather be hearing something interesting about yoga, or about how to do the pose, or silence.

Production value is decent, but defintely more homemade feeling than that slick Giam production of Nicki’s dvds. I could certainly forgive the more humble quality here if it weren’t for that freezing-the-image thing. There is a small section at the end of Melanie teaching a class that is really alive and interesting. I wish there was more of that.

So, thumbs up for the lesson dvd, and not-so-much for the practice dvd.

One final nit pick: the design, with the pink squares and all, constantly reminds me of an ad for some feminine hygiene product. Not something that will stop me from extracting the valuable yoga information to be had, but still, not a design choice I would light a candle for.

EDITED TO ADD (10/16/2009): I’ve decided Melanie IS totally a Yogini Goddess. She just makes everything look so incredibly easy, it’s easy to miss how difficult what she’s doing really is. Uth Pluthi for a million breaths and smile on your face? No problem! (Shoot me now.) There really is a wealth of information in that lesson disk. Well worth it for that.

I still don’t like the ‘breathing for 1, breathing for 2′ business, but I understand better now that this is how they do it in Mysore in the led classes, and hey, this IS “Mysore Style Ashtanga.” It helps to get the breath count exactly right, when you’re ready for that.

EDITED ONCE AGAIN (1/8/2010): I recently revisited this dvd and, once again, I have upgraded my appreciation of the practice disk. For one thing, I put it on my ipod touch and have, at times, listened to it as I practiced, using just the voice track essentially, and it’s a great led “class” that way. The freeze-film thing become irrelevant and Melanie’s voice over is wonderful (wait for the moment when her cell phone rings and she quietly turns it off—you can hear the smile in her voice like, “oops!”). In this form I have come to appreciate the counting because it is very regular—you actually stay in all the poses the same amount of time, unlike some other dvds (Kino’s comes to mind) where sometimes the hold is much longer than other poses, for whatever reason. Also, Melanie gives a nice long count—it takes 90 minutes to go through her whole primary practice. If you’ve got the time, it’s worth it. I get so high off this disk.

It took me a while to fully appreciate this one, but now I really do. Highly recommended.

Moving on….

FIrst I have to say I have some lovely memories of Miami, which is where Kino MacGregor, teaches, and the opening shot of a gorgeous Kino on Miami Beach, chilling and talking about yoga, brings them all back. Maybe it’s this association that makes this my favorite ashtanga dvd at the moment…?

But, no, it’s not just Miami Beach. It’s about the yoga. Kino is supposed to be the youngest woman to be certified by Jois to teach. She does have an energetic, playful energy that comes through as younger and livelier than any of the other presentations, male or female, that I’ve seen. For example, in her ‘advanced options’ she suggests going up into a handstand at one point because it’s fun. I like that! I mean, not that I can do it, but a girl can dream, can’t she? Combined with Kino’s attractiveness and her perfect, and amazing, body, and you have another Yogini Goddess before you. All bow down before her!

(Which made me wonder why Melanie didn’t come across that way—she may well be, and probably is, a Yogini Goddess, but somehow, her dvd didn’t inspire that feeling. I don’t know why. Huh.)

Anyhoo, I probably use her dvd the most. The bulk of it is Kino doing the primary series, with a second section of beginner options that are very useful. I really like her energy of ‘whatever level of the pose you are doing doesn’t matter, doing the practice is what matters. Feel welcome to try these beginner options.’ I would like more beginner options, but the ones she includes are good. Her level of ability could make me feel overwhelmed or intimidated, but the way she speaks about the practice doesn’t lead to that, rather, the opposite. The pacing is quick, but it seems to work for me.

Production: this one is filmed in a yoga studio, very bare, but it works to highlight Kino’s amazing yoga, and her beauty. I like the pared down approach. Mostly one camera angle with a few close-ups and a couple of straight on shots tucked in shake things up just enough to keep it from feeling static. Works for me.

A funny thing, the first time I listened to this one, the sound of her voice TOTALLY came across like a flight attendant telling me to lift my tray tables to their upright position, I swear to Patanjali. It cracked me up. I could not listen to her talk at all as I watched her do these amazing poses like she was buttering her morning toast. But I guess I got over it, because it doesn’t sound like that any more. I find the things she says useful. When I can hear them over my kids playing.

Next, we have….

Ease Into Ashtanga isn’t strictly speaking, a woman doing astanga, it’s two, plus some guys in the practice class, but since but since the two featured teachers are women, I’m counting it.

First of all, this dvd is really well designed. Like Melanie’s dvd set, there is the lesson section, led by Tonia Jo Ingraham, and assisted by Rupali, and a practice section. Lots of detail in the lesson section, lots of beginner options, lots of hand holding—hey, it’s EASE into Asthanga, not NOW WE WILL DROP YOU INTO THE DEEP END Ashtanga—and lots of encouragement to use them. I really like this. Hold my hand baby, because Ashtanga is HARD, so anything that can make it easier and, most importantly, keep me from getting injured, I am ALL FOR.

In the ‘flow section’ a bunch of people, not just the instructors, and including both men and women of varying abilities, do the primary series in front of some lovely Hawaii background. Not as pretty as Nicki’s vista, by far, but to make up for that, it’s really cool to watch all these different people doing the yoga, some backing into the easy pose variations, some rocking the hard ones, some teetering in a balance pose, some flowing through some awesome jump-throughs, etc. If some of the other dvds have been Yogini Goddesses From On High, this one is Mere Mortals Do Ashtanga, Too. And this works. I use this dvd almost as much Kino’s, possibly for this reason. Do I want to be inspired by the goddess today? Or do I want to do my prostrations with a bunch of other human-folk? Hmm…

You can flip back and forth between the flow and the matched lesson on this one, too, so if you’re confused about a certain pose, you are a click away from seeing Tania explain the heck out of it while Rupali and another gal, Lisa, demonstrate variations. Then click and you’re back in the flow again. Very nice.

Somewhere (on the box? maybe on the paper inside…) the producer talks about a time in Hawaii when there was no one who knew Ashtanga, and the yoga community was trying to figure it all out from a couple of books, and then the David Swenson dvds. I liked that story. I get the feeling that this dvd is what those early Hawaii yogis and yoginis would have liked to have had to work with, before they got a bunch of ashtanga teachers of their own. As someone working largely without a teacher myself (at the moment, any way), I appreciate the sentiment. This video may have the least ashtanga ‘pedigree’ of all of these, but maybe that’s why it feels so friendly and accessible. I mean, yeah, absolutely, it’s best to have a teacher who can work with your unique body. No question. But if you don’t have that, do you give up on yoga? Heck no. In the spirit of inquiry and experimentation, you try to figure it out for yourself. It’s what the ancient yogis did, right? So you might end up down a wrong path for a while and have to back-track, but so what?

As Jois says, “practice, and all is coming.”

Finally, I’ll offer a teaser for one more Woman Doing Ashtanga, a video I haven’t actually seen (can we say EXPENSIVE?) but it looks awesome.

Anne Nuotio is a Finnish yogini of the highest level. Her dvd is more of a demonstration of her practice, 1st, 2nd, and 3rd series, plus interviews (English subtitles). The bits I’ve seen on youtube are amazing. It’s real practice sessions, not clean and tidy. Very inspiring. A woman! Doing Ashtanga! Really well! Gasp! Here is an interview with Anne that I liked. Maybe one day I’ll pony up the Euros for this one and see it in it’s entirety. Maybe as a reward for the first day I actually do the whole Primary Series. The kids will have to be older…they won’t let me get through the whole thing now, even in a limping, beginner-options-up-the-ass way. But one day!

You, ashtanga primary series, you will be mine, oh yes, you will be mine.