Check out our NEW web site... www.CircusYoga.com
Level 1 Teacher Trainings (21-hour)
Kripalu Center for Yoga, Lenox, MA
Friday-Monday, April 18-21, 2008 details
Brattleboro, VT
Friday-Sunday, August 22-24, 2008 details
Pompanuck Farm, Cambridge, NY
Thursday-Sunday, October 16-19, 2008 details
Level 2 Teacher Training (28-hour)
Pompanuck Farm, Cambridge, New York
Sunday-Thursday, October 19-23, 2008 details
CircusYoga Teachers Gathering (3 days)
Thursday-Sunday, October 23-26, 2008 details
What Folks are Saying about CYTT...
What is CircusYoga? CircusYoga combines the consciousness of yoga with the communal ceremony of circus for a deeply transformative experience. In CircusYoga, we foster a spirit of play and provide a level playing field for people of all ages and abilities. CircusYoga strengthens self-confidence, focus, trust, expression, and teamwork.
Developed out of our 25 years of teaching families and kids, CircusYoga offers a safe, supportive environment for transformation within groups of all ages. CircusYoga celebrates the whole community, the whole family, the whole person. Most of all, CircusYoga models the principles of inclusion, partnering, and community cooperation, embracing each individual’s gifts in our circle. CircusYoga says “yes” to life.
Who is the CircusYoga Teacher Training for? Anyone who works with groups of people to facilitate learning or healing can benefit from this training: yoga instructors, classroom teachers, circus educators, social workers, family counselors, occupational therapists, group facilitators, recreation directors, parents and any yoga practitioner who wants to work with kids and adults. We recommend that applicants have at least one year of yoga practice; however, no circus experience is necessary.
What will I learn? We will learn techniques that support parents and kids, and other groups, as collaborators and life-long learners. Opening new realms of vocabulary for play and communication, we will explore in CYTT Level 1:
- Creation of an environment where every student is seen and celebrated
- Group dynamics in Hatha yoga and story creation
- Kinesthetic communication through partner acrobatics and partner yoga
- Integration across the mid-line with juggling and balancing
- The spirit of play in clowning and physical comedy
- Balance on a tightwire and in asanas
- Nurturance in Thai massage
- Self-expression through creative movement and dance
- Cultivation of your authentic teaching voice
We will also provide an opportunity for trainees to assist in creating a CircusYoga experience for others at a public CircusYoga Family Workshop during the training—
a powerful and transformative experience.
In CYTT Level 2 you will learn how to:
- Integrate your skills and practices into CY
- Dive deeper into practicing yoga in community
- Develop a specific practice for your community
- Expand your skills in circus practices such as diabolo, devil sticks, poi
- Master the next level of circus skills you already have
- Practice more advanced partner acrobatics in duos, trios, quartets...
- Discover Mandala Yoga and build human and family pyramids
- Delve more deeply into CY culture
- Include the energy and creativity of the group
- Analyze Parent-kid dynamics and discern when and how to intercede
- Apply the principles and practice of CY to underserved populations—people with disabilities, seniors, pre-schoolers...
- Create a closing ritual that gives your group closure and a celebration
Information & Registration
For more information about the training, contact:
Erin Maile O’Keefe at 212-712-9644
or email erin@circusminimus.com
Download a CircusYoga Teacher Training Registration Form.
Bios
Erin Maile O’Keefe is a certified Kripalu Yoga, Rasa Yoga, and Embodied Anatomy & Yoga teacher whose practice is informed by Body-Mind Centering, circus, dance, and meditation. Her explorations in movement have taken her to India to study Viniyoga at the Krishnamacharya Yoga Mandiram with T.K.V. Desikachar, to Chiangmai to learn Thai massage, and to Amherst where she continues to study Embodied Anatomy and Development Movement with Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen.
Through her practice she continues to explore embodiment, expressive
movement, balance, partnering, and group dynamics. Erin has taught
movement studies to kids since 1981. Through the “Growing A Story”
program she has taught story creation, creative movement, and play
production to inner-city elementary students. She is the former
Festival Director and Vice President of the American Youth Circus
Organization. Born and raised in Hawai'i, Erin regularly teaches yoga
classes, workshops, and retreats in New York, Vermont and on the Big
Island.
Kevin Maile O’Keefe has traveled the world since 1985 to both teach and study circus, theater and yoga. As the artistic director of Circus Minimus he has directed residencies and performances that have touched the lives of over 100,000 children and their families. In 2001 he was awarded an Excellence in Education award from the IJA. He received an advanced Hatha yoga certification in 1991 from the Integral Yoga Institute. For five years he was an instructor at the Big Apple Circus School in Harlem, New York. He is the founder and past president of the American Youth Circus Organization. A few of his many collaborations have resulted in Circus Poeticus, (with BJ Ward and 600 children) Circus Musicus (with the Hudson Valley Philharmonic Orchestra), CircusYoga for the Whole Family (with Erin Maile O’Keefe), Circus Soup (with sixty adults and children with and without disabilities) Circus Around the World, and the AYCO Festivals of 2001, 2003, 2005. For many years he taught in the MFA Theater program at Sarah Lawrence College.
Together they have led Flying Partner Yoga workshops since 1998 and continue to study Yoga, circus arts, Thai massage, and meditation. Their studies have also taken them to Chennai, India, to study with TKV Desikachar at the Krishnamacharya Yoga Mandiram. Erin and Kevin's teaching style is playful and dynamic. Since 1999 they have developed CircusYoga for the Whole Family workshops and teacher trainings at Kripalu Center for Yoga and presented them around the world. Together they continue to discover CircusYoga by exploring deep questions in themselves and in the CircusYoga community.