The Beginner's Pro: Priceless.
She's got the patience of a saint, the body of a gymnast and the disposition of your favorite young, hip, high school teacher.
Yoga Journal Beginners' Expert Natasha Rizopoulos explains, for the 127th time, how to properly roll over the toes from Chaturanga Dandasana into Urdhva Mukha Svanasana. Yet she explains it with the attention to detail and the enthusiasm of the first time she answered the question. And it's clear that she's into it.
"I love teaching beginners," she says.
In this morning's class, Natasha taught the building blocks of Surya Namaskar. Focusing on proper anatomical alignment, especially in the shoulders, she led her students through the sequence, pose by pose.
I had my personal breakthrough of the decade in Urdhva Mukha Svanasana. I've always struggled to get my legs up and off of my mat in the pose, and never quite understood how my classmates could make it look so easy. Thanks to Natasha, I'm now privy to that information. A simple realignment of the my hand placement further down my torso served to bring me more leverage, and stability, in UpDog. I was relieved and excited at the same time.
I wasn't the only one.
Joan Callahan, a student from San Andreas, Calif., spoke excitedly to a friend just after the class.
"I used to just fudge through Updog to Downdog, but now, I finally did it right, and it felt good!" she exclaimed.
You can read expert advice from Natasha in our Ask the Beginner's Expert section, or submit your own question to her. She's also got some great DVDs if you weren't able to make it to the conference.
Thanks Natasha.
Natasha Rizopoulos, who is the featured teacher in the video series