Check out this amazing vogue “battle” from NYC featuring Andre Mizrahi vs. Javier Ninja



Some more very, very fierce vogueing (soundtrack NSFW) After the jump...

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Check out this stunning video of the view outside the artist’s home:


One year in 40 seconds from Eirik Solheim on Vimeo.

Read all about how Solheim made the video on his blog.

(via towleroad)

Check out this great demonstration of poses. (Although, at round the 1:55 mark I suspect there's a little camera trickery involved.) Love those rope walls.


Yogaduke ( music by Krishna Das ) from Yogaduke on Vimeo.

Another excellent documentary about yoga. This one, by John Philp, uses Bikram Yoga as a focus to look at the way in which yoga and commercialism have collided in the US. As far as I know it does not yet have distribution in the US, but you can buy copies from the filmmaker himself.



More clips here.

Katchie Ananda was one of my very first yoga teachers. She is one of the most genuine and honest yoga teachers you could ever come across. She owns a beautiful yoga studio, Yoga Sangha, in the Mission in San Francisco. Take class with her or hear her speak if you ever have the chance.

Tags: Gurus

This documentary, by Gita and Mukesh Desai is wonderful. Beautiful footage, great interviews and chock full of valuable information. I use it in my Teacher Training seminars. I thoroughly recommend it to anyone interested in the history and philosophy of yoga.

This is a rather charming paranoia piece from what seems to be the early 1980's. It was posted to YouTube by LaneCh as part of a CNN thread on Christianity vs. Yoga. I must say that there are one or two things the piece presents as yoga that most yogins would raise an eyebrow at as well. It's extremely inflammatory.

Having being raised and educated Catholic by the very kind and compassionate Benedictine monks of Downside School (terrible name), I think I tend to agree that strict adherents to Christian sects should probably not be practicing yoga, as the goals of yoga, regardless of the lineage, tend to be very much incompatible with many of the Christian theologies.

There's some scary things going on in the lower back and knees here, but otherwise this is pretty phenomenal:



Thanks to Souljerky for the link.

From  supersagi on YouTube.com:

"Serge Ugryumov, the lead-teacher from Moscow B.K.S. Iyengar Yoga Center, showing the knee skin moving in Shirshasana."

This fellow has the most beautiful poses.

From  bulwei88 on YouTube.com
"pics about practicing and teaching yoga, mainly in the ashram and around dobongsan.

now i'm back in austria and i'm very thankful for the time with the korean people."

From  108yogini on YouTube.com

"John Friend guides Sarah into Eka Pada Raja Kapotasana (one-legged king pigeon pose) in his level 1 Immersion in Maui, HI... 2006."

From  108yogini on YouTube.com

"Sarah Starnes and Brent Miller demonstrate Ustrasana variation (Camel Pose)."

From  greenyogi on YouTube.com

"Warm up highlights Tuesday 13 March 07"

From  gslcenter on YouTube.com
"Hatha Yoga Demonstration. Classes of Sivananda Yoga in Marbella. For more information you can visit our web: www.gslcenter.es"

Here is an interesting short documentary about the "Yoga for People with HIV" class at the New York Iyengar Yoga Institute:

"From Infirmity to Firmness"

It was directed and produced by Iyengar yogini Stephanie Wang-Breal.

From  moliro4 pn Youtube.com

From  moliro4 on Youtube:

"Partiy Advanced A Series,Partly Finishing Sequence, Manta"

From  moliro4 on Youtube:

From  bulwei88 on Youtube.com

"some variation to put some asanas in padmasana together... and last action in namu yoga ashram www.namuyoga.eu"

From  CorinneGlenne on Youtube.com

"Join yogi Ajay Kumar on a two-minute tour of yoga mecca, Mysore."

From  bulwei88 on YouTube.com:

Vladimir Kalabin is a Russian yoga teacher. His website is in Russian Cyrillic, but here is the pictures page. He does some crazy advanced poses, some of which I've never seen before.

It cracks me up to hear this kind of thing. So, apparently there is some other reason that I manage to maintain a body weight of 185lb of (mostly) lean muscle on my 6'1" frame. Apparently Yoga is not the reason I am able to sustain that weight with upper body strength for 10 minutes in a Head Stand. Apparently Yoga is not the reason I can go swimming every Summer and not sink to the bottom of the pool gasping for breath. I wish this guy could tell me how I manage to stay strong, fit and healthy when Yoga is useless. Perhaps it's the chocolate I eat, or the TV I watch (Battlestar Galactica rules!).

From  vjintl on YouTube.com
"Celebrity Health and Fitness host Victoria Johnson interviews Brian Kest on Power Yoga."



Interestingly, Kest presents himself as the "creator" of Power Yoga. Hmm... I wonder what Baron Baptiste and Beryl Bender Birch (and Patthabi Jois!) would have to say about that. I think this must be a really old clip, because he's talking about his first three videos and the recent opening of his studio.

From  Jennifer7114 on YouTube.com
"This looks so cool... Forget taking the subway!"

From  sisterparish on YouTube:

This video is from abuhmeid
on YouTube.

"Examine the world of Hindu yoga and watch a yoga master perform his art."



The Sadhu is clearly very acomplished, but the jerky quality of his movements are very intimidating.

The poses in this video is very adept, though the coverage of it is a little choppy. The reason I posted it here is for the locations. Spectacular!

Mesmerizing footage of Pattabhi Jois teaching Tim Miller, Gary Lapodota, Clifford Sweate and Chuck Miller:

From 7ndandSunny on YouTube.

This may seem a little gimmicky, but turning the camer around helps the eye see the dynamics of the body better. You get to see the technique without being dazzled by the (very excellent) pose:



Unfortunately, there is no biographical information available for this guy, which is a shame, but his youtube handle is roboramma.

Here, again is Narayani (www.namuyoga.eu) demonstrating some awesome poses:

Once again, Russell Case (a teacher at Space in Taipei):



Ahh, youtube.com, what would the blogosphere be without you?

Here, yogi Russell Case (a teacher at Space in Taipei) goes from Pincha Mayurasana into Karandavasana:

In this (very impressive) demonstration, the yogi transitions from Ashtavakrasana to handstand and back to Ashtavakrasana.



I believe the yogi goes by the name Didi and can be found at www.namuyoga.eu.

Check out this very amusing animated short by Daniel Tynan:

Footage of the great man practicing in Pune. He's in his 70's in this video. I've heard from people who have been there that he's a huge show-off . He's very aware of who is watching him, and apparently gets cranky if there's no-one around paying attention when he's done something impressive.

He does some amazing poses here that I've never seen before anywhere else, and wouldn't even know what to call them.

This amazing footage was uploaded to YouTube.com by MCPetruk. It comes from a 1938 newsreel that features footage of both BKS Iyengar (aged 20) and his brother-in-law and guru, Krishnamacharya, demonstrating advanced yoga poses. This was long before Iyengar developed and refined his method of yoga into the Iyengar Yoga we know today.



To begin with he demonstrates part of what he refers to as the "Eka Pada Shirshasana Cycle" (Single Leg Behind The Head Pose) in Light on Yoga:

All on on one side:
Chakorasana (Partridge Pose) - Light on Yoga plates 379 + 380
Durvasana (Durva's Pose) - plates 381-383
Richikasana (Richi's Pose) - plates 384-385
Chakorasana (Partridge Pose)
Skandasana (Skanda's pose) - plate 372
Chaturanga Dandasana (Four-Limbed Staff Pose) - plate 66
Urdhva Mukha Shvanasana (Upward Facing Dog Pose) - plate 74

The footage skips for a moment and we see him briefly in Padmasana (Lotus Pose) from behind.

From there he jumps from Adho Mukha Shvanasana (Downward Facing Dog) - plates 75 and 76 - into stage 1 (plate 342) and then stage 2 (plate 343) of Ashtavakrasana (Ashtavakra's Pose). Then back up into stage 1 before the footage shifts again.

Then he goes through the stages of Ganda Bherundasana (Terrible Cheek Pose) - plates 571-583 - a formidable backward extension. He comes out this almost casually into Tadasana (Mountain Pose).

The footage cuts once again to show him flow from Adho Mukha Shvanasana (Downward Facing Dog Pose) into Chaturangan Dandasana (Four-Limbed Staff Pose) and back before jumping into Vajrasana (Thunderbolt Pose) and going up into Shirshasana (Head Stand).

This is perhaps the most amazing part of this clip.

He comes up slowly into Shirshasana through Urdhva Dandasana (Upward Staff Pose) and takes the legs over his head with complete control, not dropping back, to place them lightly on the floor in Dwi Pada Viparita Dandasana (Two Legged Inverted Staff Pose). He then takes one leg up and then the other to go into Eka PAda Viparita Dandasana (Single-Leg Inverted Staff Pose). He walks his feet in to grab one heel and raise the other leg for Eka Pada Viparita Dandasana II. From there he straightens the arms into Urdhva Dhanurasana (Upward Wheel Pose) and then rolls up to Tadasana once again. He repeats the whole thing facing the other way. He flubs the roll-up to Tadasana, so he does it again, impeccably this time.

It's hard to judge the pacing of the practice. The footage appears to be a little slowed down in a couple of places but, regardless, his control is amazing to see. We mostly see him in the form of the static pictures in LoY from the 1960's, when he was in his late 30's and early forties and from the pictures taken in his later years that adorn Iyengar Institutes around the world. To see him at the height of his youth working away like this is quite breathtaking. It makes me think that if this man tells me to turn my thigh in a certain way, or to firm this part or that, I should bloody well listen and do as he says!