This post promises to be short. It will be short for two reasons: first, I am busy drafting four papers for my Rolfing training due tomorrow; and second, to make the point that short does not equate to incomplete or lacking in depth.
I attended a class at the Jivamukti London Studio this afternoon with a new teacher to the studio by the name of Sylvie Ritter. The session was a well-rounded Jivamukti-sequenced class with no surprises. Both the asana practice and many of Sylvie’s adjustments felt very good; she has capable strong hands, and once the class got going, her voice was genuine and credible. A few times her adjustments moved into a dangerous zone of forcing bone (eg. pushing my knee beyond my ankle in parsvakonasana; moving the woman with hyper-extended legs next to me more into hyper-extension in adho mukha svanasana); but in savasana I applaud her for not dousing me with an overly perfumed oil, offering instead a simple yet profound drawing out of my clavicles by sinking into the fascia and staying there (well done!)
The glitch for me was in the unnecessarily long and complicated spiritual talk at the beginning and reprised at the end of the session (made even longer by the whispering quality she used to deliver the monologue). The focus of the month remains one of the distinct features of a Jivamukti class, and Sylvie contextualized her talk in a variety of subtexts that could have been interesting in the frame of a workshop; however, in gestalt of an hour and a half asana class it felt, to me, overstayed.
Personal preferences aside, Sylvie has a kind, non-assuming energy about her and she certainly knows her way around the harmonium.
An unrelated side note: ladies changing room in desperate need of a sweep and some TLC!