Yoga and Flamenco Retreat With Yalda Younes

Oct2320151:00 pmtoOct3020151:00 pm

Map of Koh Samui, Surat Thani
Where
55/20-24 Moo 4, Tambon Namuang, Koh Samui, Surat Thani, 84140, Thailand
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When
Friday, 23 Oct 2015 toFriday, 30 Oct 2015
Call
+66(0)77920090
Website
www.samahitaretreat.com

Description

About the Private Retreat
Those who have previously practiced Yoga as well as Flamenco might have experienced how these two disciplines are not only incredibly complementary,
but to some extent also very similar.Focusing on each practice individually, we will be able to feel in the dance the residue of the meditative stillness and breathing movement of Yoga, and in Yoga the residue of the inspired state and contemplative gaze of Flamenco.

The yoga sessions will be based on vinyasa-krama sequencing with a maximum emphasis on the coordination of breath and movement, enhancing focus and concentration, leading step by step towards more strength, more flexibility, more synchronization and detachment on all three levels of body, breath and mind.
The flamenco sessions will explore the opposite and nurturing forces anchoring the feet into the ground and deploying the torso towards the sky. We will work on practicing still movement and moving stillness, as well as creating strong rhythmic dynamics and unpredictable sequences, with a sense of drama and a sense of humor.

This retreat will tackle a contemporary teaching approach extracting both disciplines of yoga and flamenco from national realms, folklore or modern fashion, and reaching back into their original roots: avant-garde forms of individual quest for liberation.

This retreat does not require students to be dancers or to have any dance or yoga background. It is open to everyone from all backgrounds and levels of experience or inexperience.

Born in Beirut 1978, it is by chance that Yalda Younes dedicates herself to dance, after having followed cinema studies.
She spends long periods in Spain between 1997 and 2006 to learn flamenco, mostly in Sevilla where she is lucky to become the student of Israel Galvan, a great master who also guided and encouraged her to develop her own choreographic language.
In 2005, she moves to Paris and collaborates with different artists to create performances for the contemporary dance scene. In her pieces, she extracts flamenco from its cultural background and (re)uses it as a form of individual expression. Her contemporary flamenco pieces which toured across Europe and the Middle East include Zad Moultaka’s “NO” (2006), “Ana Fintizarak” (2009), “I Have Come” (2010), and “Là, Callas” (2013).

In 2009, she develops a growing interest in yoga, as the practice helps her overcome some physical, mental and emotional difficulties induced by chronic dance injuries. But it is only her trainings in India under the guidance of teachers from the lineage of Tirumalai Krishnamacharya that reveal and allow her to understand what yoga really is. Known as “the grandfather of modern yoga”, Krishnamacharya revolutionized the practice by believing that “yoga must be adapted to the individual, not the other way around”. Amazed by the incredible therapeutic benefits of this method, she returns to Chennai to follow her yoga teacher training at the Krishnamacharya Yoga Mandiram. She also continues to travel regularly to study with international teachers such as Seane Corn, Kathryn Budig or Richard Freeman, to diverse and enrich her practice.

Yalda Younes has been teaching flamenco for more than 15 years and yoga for the past couple of years. She imparts workshops in traditional or contemporary studios, or sometimes more academic contexts such as Sciences-Po University in Paris. Inspired by the five elements of nature and digging into her shadow, she encourages her students to adopt a truthful, personal and non-hurtful approach to their practice. Both flamenco and yoga disciplines continue to complement each other in her life, as she sees in flamenco a spiritual and existential quest, and in yoga a liberation tool that ultimately leads to that same blissful and detached place that art can lead to.


Schedule / Itinerary

October 24-31, 2015

The program begins at 5pm on the first day of the retreat with a group welcome and departure is at 12pm on the last day.
The schedule is subject to change at the discretion of the teacher.

6:30 am – 8:00 am Early light breakfast and quiet time
8:00 am – 9:30 am Yoga Asana practice
9:30 am – 10:30 am Barefoot flamenco dance
10:30 am – 11:00 am Yoga Pranayama, chanting and meditative practice
11:00 am – 1:00 pm Brunch Buffet
4:30 pm – 6:00 pm Insights of Yoga Philosophy, study of different flamenco palo, beach flamenco experiments.
6:00 pm – 8:00 pm Dinner buffet
6:00 pm- 8:00 pm Steam Room available