Two sets of workshops to introduce the practice of Yoga will be offered in February and March through the non-credit program at Dabney S. Lancaster Community College on the Clifton Forge campus with certified Yoga instructor Joan Vannorsdall.
“Yoga has wonderful physical benefits for people of every age,” says Vannorsdall. “Yoga increases flexibility and strength, and improves posture, breathing, and balance. It also instructs one in finding calm in a chaotic world, decreasing anxiety, and improving focus and receptivity.”
Two 2-session workshops have been scheduled in McCarthy Hall, Room 502. The first will be held on Monday, Feb. 16, and Wednesday, Feb. 18, from 6 to 7:30 p.m. The second workshop will be held on Monday, Mar. 9, and Wednesday, Mar. 11, also from 6 to 7:30 p.m. The tuition fee for each of the two-night workshops is $30. Students may attend one or both of the 2-night workshops.
For those students who wish to continue with the practice, the first full program series will begin meeting once weekly for six weeks starting on Apr. 1. Tuition for each 6-week program is $95 per student.
The mat-based, mixed-level yoga programs will provide instructions for safely moving through a series of classic yoga poses. Based on the Ashtanga yoga sequence, the practice will begin with focused breathing and gentle stretches, then move into sun salutations and standing poses designed to improve flexibility and strength. Seated and prone postures will focus on leg, hip, and back flexibility. Sessions will end with a period of deep relaxation (savasana), which is often considered the most important part of the practice.
Vannorsdall received her yoga teaching certification in Ashtanga yoga from the Blue Ridge School of Yoga and Massage in Blacksburg, VA, and has studied with therapeutic/senior yoga pioneers Carol Krucoff and Kimberly Carson at the Duke School of Integrative Medicine. In March, 2015, she will continue her studies at Massachusetts’ Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health taught by Peggy Cappy, whose PBS show “Yoga for the Rest of Us” has popularized the notion that yoga is for every-body.
To register contact DSLCC Programs Coordinator Doug Jones at 540-863-2870 or email djones@dslcc.edu.
