Heathen Hill Yoga

Heathen Hill is pleased to present these outstanding guest teachers

2009 Retreats

Summer’s 1st Annual Fall Yoga Retreat

Title: Summer’s 1st Annual Fall Yoga Retreat

Location: Heathen Hill

Description: A blissful weekend of Yoga in the country during the most beautiful time of year. Enjoy a getaway trip before the cold sets in. Four Yoga classes with a different area of focus for each one (including pranayama , hip opening, inversions, and restorative) will leave you feeling refreshed and rejuvenated prior to heading back to the city for the winter season.

About Summer

Summer Shirey is a certified Yoga teacher from NYC. She teaches at Kula Yoga Project and Pure Yoga in Manhattan and at YogaSole and Bend and Bloom in Brooklyn. Her classes are filled with creative and intelligent sequencing that leave you more conscious of the mind, body, breath connection on and off of the mat. Inspired by many different styles of yoga, Pilates, the Alexander technique, and Laban each class is a well-rounded, multi-layered experience.

Start Date: 10/23/09
End Date: 10/25/09

ASL Yoga Fall Retreat – Oct. 16 – 18 2009

Title: ASL Yoga Fall Retreat
Location: Heathen Hill
Description: Spring was so fun we are doing it again!
Enjoy wonderful food, good friends and a full weekend of yoga instruction surrounded by the fall colors.
This weekend of yoga is taught in American Sign Language by Jen Kagan, certified Iyengar Yoga Teacher

About Jennifer

Jennifer Kagan is a Certified Iyengar Yoga Teacher. She graduated from the Teacher Training program at the Iyengar Institute of NY. Her teachers include Mary Dunn, Kevin Gardiner, Manuso Manos, and James Murphy.

She has studied with the Iyengar family in Pune, India as well as with Rajiv Chanchani at Yog-Ganga in Rajpur, India. Jennifer also teaches yoga in American Sign Language to the Deaf community. www.signyoga.blogspot.com
To register contact: kaganj@gmail.com

 

Start Date: October 16, 2009
 End Date: October 18, 2009

Reservations: kaganj@gmail.com
More information  at www.jenkagan.net

Summer Sattva : A Vinyasa Yoga Retreat with Marisa Sako – Aug. 21 -23

Title: Summer Sattva : A Vinyasa Yoga Retreat with Marisa Sako
Location: Heathen Hill
Description: Come away upstate to lush pastures overlooking a gorgeous green valley. Unwind, relax, reinvigorate. Revel in four of Marisa’s energizing and creative vinyasa yoga classes with emphasis on alignment and ending with deeply restorative savasanas. Enjoy home-cooked goodness fresh from the organic garden and eggs courtesy of the Heathen Hill hens. Spend your time in between classes doing what brings you into balance. Take a swim, do a handstand or two off the dock, practice walking meditation in the labyrinth, admire the flower beds, play Bocci/badminton/horseshoes, or simply lounge under a shady tree with a good book. Explore the middle path if you wish to sip a glass of wine in the hot-tub, star-gaze and toast marshmallows on the campfire. Fall asleep in the quaint farmhouse or snug in your tent to the sound of crickets. Wake up refreshed and ready for more.

About Marisa

Marisa teaches vinyasa yoga at Bend & Bloom right here in Park Slope, Shambhala Yoga & Dance in Prospect Heights, Kula Yoga Project, and Yoga Effects on the Eastside of Manhattan.
Her classes are slow-flowing but intense, creative but safe, challenging but never competitive. She completed her 200-hour training with Dana Flynn and Jasmine Tarkeshi at Laughing Lotus. She went on to study with Neuromuscular Therapist Susan Hefner and yoga anatomy educator Leslie Kaminoff. Over the past few years, she has been practicing regularly with Schuyler Grant and the teachers of Kula Yoga Project, who have helped her learn how to bring alignment and bandha work into the vinyasa flow. This year she has begun practicing with Alison West, which greatly influences her teaching these days as well. Marisa tries to pass on to her students what yoga has given her: an understanding of how to use the breath as a bridge between the body and mind; how to imbue action with mindfulness and heart; and how to quiet the mind through moving meditation. Each day her students amaze, inspire, and humble her. For this, she is grateful.

 

Start Date: August 21, 2009
End Date: August 23, 2009

Email Marisa for more info or to reserve: rissako@gmail.com

Yoga and Wine Tasting Revisited – Oct. 2 – 4

Owen Kotler Before the Tastings
Owen Kotler Before the Tastings

Title: Yoga and Wine Tasting Revisited – Oct. 2 – 4
Location: Heathen Hill
Description: Yoga and Wine Tasting Revisited Oct 2-4 with Owen and Lip

The event in May was such fun, we’re doing it again.
Owen Kotler is putting together ANOTHER spectacular selection of wines and I’ll do my best with the menu and the yoga. Will we try balancing poses????? We shall see.

Owen Kotler After the Tastings
Owen Kotler After the Tastings

About Owen

Owen Kotler is a well known sommelier and concert clarinetist.

He specializes in organic and bio-dynamic wine distribution for Artisan Wines. His deep knowledge and love for yoga and wine shine in his skillful, interactive, and uplifting wine presentations.
The Honeymoon Sweet and both single rooms are already booked. Hurry!

Start Date: October 2, 2009
End Date: October 4, 2009

“Keep on the Sunny Side” Weekend Retreat with Tzahi Moskovitz – July 31-August 2

Title: “Keep on the Sunny Side” Weekend Retreat with Tzahi Moskovitz – July 31 – August 2
Location: Heathen Hill
Description: Spend a weekend of serenity found outside of concrete NYC– the Catskills, yoga, garden grown organic food, and fun!

Tzahi will lead the 3 yoga classes where each session will complement the others to provide a complete and well-rounded weekend of yoga— forward bends, backbends, inversions, restorative and pranayama. The combination of Heathen Hill\’s peace and beauty, and a comprehensive yoga study will provide an experience that will leave you feeling integrated and enlivened.

About Tzahi

Tzahi Moskovitz became certified to teach the YogaWorks method in the first Certification to be held in New York, after his original training in the ISHTA tradition with Alan finger. In his teaching, Tzahi combines vigor, flow, and precision, using the full vocabulary of asana to create a practice that is safe while at the same time, playful and adventurous.

He is directly influenced by the flow and strength of the Ashtanga series and the alignment, intelligence and awareness of the Iyengar tradition. He is inspired by the teaching of Mary Dunn, Genny Kapuler and Mark Whitwell. His training and experiences as a medic provide Tzahi with a deep and practical understanding of anatomy as it relates to movement and asana

 

Start Date:July 31, 2009
End Date: August 2, 2009

The Weekend’s Agenda

Arrival: Friday, anytime after 8pm. Snacks will be served. Bring warm clothes. It gets cold in the mountains.

Saturday

Buffet breakfast available from 6:30-7:45AM
AM Yoga
Lunch – 12 noon
PM Yoga
Dinner – 7:30PM (Cocktails at your leisure. BYOB)

Sunday

Buffet breakfast available 6:30 – 7:45AM
AM Yoga
Country Brunch – 12 noon

Departure: 2PM ish.  Any later and you will be assigned yard work or house chores.

Space is certainly limited to this secluded retreat and advanced registration is necessary: tzahi1@hotmail.com to reserve a spot.

ASANA, PRANAYAMA, MEDITATION with Paula Lynch- July 10 -12

Title: ASANA, PRANAYAMA, MEDITATION with Paula Lynch- July 10 -12
Location: Heathen Hill
Description: Join Paula Lynch for a weekend of exploration and relaxation. This retreat will explore yoga as a complete practice, addressing the inter-relatedness of asana, pranayama and meditation. Each class will be comprised of pranayama, vigorous asana practice, followed by meditation with equal emphasis placed on each aspect of the practice.

Intermediate to Advanced Students; prior knowledge and practice recommended.

About Paula

Paula Lynch is a Yoga Works Certified Instructor affiliated with the Yogaworks Teacher Training programs. Her teaching style is influenced largely by the meditative flow and heat of Astanga yoga and the precision and playfulness of Iyengar yoga.

She studies with Genny Kapuler and Alison West, and has been able to shape her experience of the world through her asana practice. She studies anatomy and kinesiology and applies this knowledge to her understanding and teaching of yogasana in her classes through breath and alignment.

Paula’s teaching style expresses that yoga is an incredible technique that can give us access to the layers of our physical and energetic bodies that can only be experienced through patient and intentional practice. She practices yoga as a form of devotion, prayer and self-study and understands yoga as so much more than physical – it is cellular, mental, intellectual and spiritual involving our entire being.

*Please note that cost of transportation is separate. If you have a car and would be willing to carpool, please let me know!

Start Date: July 10, 2009
 End Date: July 12, 2009

Arrival: Friday 5:00 pm

Friday
6:30 pm – Pranayama/Restorative Class

Saturday
8:00 am – 10:30 am – class
4:00 pm – 6:00 pm – class

Sunday
8:00am – 10:30 am – class

Departure: Sunday, 2:00 pm
To register email: paula@yogapaula.com or visit www.yogapaula.com

Samadhi in the Country – June 5-7

Title: Samadhi in the Country
Location: Heathen Hill
Description: Citta vrtti in the city got you down? Ditch those agitations of the mind and come away with us out of town!

Take the day off on Friday and we’ll head upstate to Heathen Hill to enjoy a weekend of juicy vinyasa flow, delectable home-cooked meals, lying in the grass with a good book, and dozing off to the sound of crickets. And don’t forget to pack a bathing suit for the swimming hole and hot tub!

About Marisa

Marisa is a local girl lucky enough to have a mom who was teaching her to walk on her hands shortly after learning how to walk on her feet! Throughout her life, she has dabbled in all sorts of movement, but nothing has been able to really inhabit a space in her heart like vinyasa practice.

It was this love that brought her to Laughing Lotus College of Yoga where she completed her teacher training with Dana Flynn and Jasmine Tarkeshi. Each day, she wakes up feeling honored and fortunate to be practicing and teaching yoga. Her instruction is greatly influenced by her on-going studies in anatomy and kinesiology, marrying detailed descriptions of alignment and encouragement to flow with grace. She believes that moving with mindfulness and compassion for oneself on the mat leads to moving about the world in the same manner.

 

*Please note that cost of transportation is separate. If you have a car and would be willing to carpool, please let us know!

 

Start Date: June 5, 2009
 End Date: June 7, 2009

Please call Levitate Yoga at 212-974-2288 or email Brenna@levitateyoga.com to register.

Relax, Rejuvenate & Revitalize: A Weekend Getaway with Vivekan of Bodhisattva Yoga – July 24-26

Title: Relax, Rejuvenate & Revitalize: A Weekend Getaway with Vivekan of Bodhisattva Yoga
Location: Heathen Hill
Description: Vivekan, founder and director of Park Slope, Brooklyn’s Bodhisattva Yoga, invites you to a weekend of relaxation, rejuvenation and revitalization. Though this can be just a getaway, it’s opportunity to cultivate mental and physical wellbeing. Set at Heathen Hill Guest and Retreat Center, in the Catskills’ peaceful and natural settings, you will learn and practice tools for relaxing the body and clearing the mind. Through the practice of yoga, along with the natural, supportive setting and environment, you will experience the body and mind in the moment. Becoming aware of our body, speech and mind, we will witness how we unknowingly create suffering. This knowledge, along with Vivekan’s instruction and the natural setting, will aid in an attitude and perspective shift. We can then discover how yoga can help us build genuine, harmonious relationships with others by engendering a spirit of generosity, ethical conduct, patience, enthusiasm, mindfulness and insight.

About Vivekan

Vivekan (AKA, William D. Mejia, Jr., B.S., E-RYT) is a New York City native and the founder/director of Park Slope, Brooklyn’s Bodhisattva Yoga. He received certification under Jayadeva, a direct disciple of Swami Satchidananda. Vivekan credits Rodney Yee as an asana and flow-sequence giant from whom he learned a great deal. “I also must credit my venerable and sagely mentor, Serge Ledan, MD, as a peerless friend and one who has completed the trainings. His empirical mind has helped me yoke the essence of Buddhism and the utility of yoga.” Vivekan’s exposure to eclectic yoga styles, along with his home practice, has led to his unique style, which he terms as Inspired FlowsTM. “My Inspired FlowsTM differ from class to class – I never come in with a script; it is based on the premise that fun and effort are not mutually exclusive. One can be interested in, and mindful of, form and breath and yet not be restrained by orthodoxy.” Vivekan has instructed thousands of students in the New York City area; he has also worked extensively with individuals coping with hard-drug addictions, HIV, AIDS and their respective difficulties and treatments. He has attended to under-served populations such as seniors and individuals with physical, visual and hearing disabilities. He has led numerous workshops, seminars and retreats based upon wellness, yoga & meditation.

Vivekan operates Bodhisattva Yoga as an ecologically and socially responsible business – using recycled products and wind-energy, while hosting monthly activist meetings called Engagement for Change. Aspiring to Right-Livelihood, he now terms himself a sustainopreneur (and is a founding member of AEREAS) as he seeks to marry his entrepreneurial spirit with his concern for ecological and social issues. He is currently in a graduate program for Environmental Management; and, his next project of interest is tentatively titled, Bodhisattva Group International (BGI). BGI is an envisioned organization intent on solving problems facing habitat, species and humanity on a global level. BGI’s function will be to meet the increasing demand in eco-tourism and holistic wellness while addressing key ecological and social difficulties unique to locality

 

Start Date: July 24, 2009
 End Date: July 26, 2009

For Registration, contact vivekan@bodhisattvayoga.com