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In Teaching

Teaching: pilates/yoga/stretch class

Author Fanny SuraPosted on Leave a comment

Hello my friends! Last night, I had two neighbors who was excited for a pilates/yoga/stretch class down a the gym. One, a woman from Brazil, had tried pilates before but not yoga, and the other, a woman from Russia, seemed to have taken a lot of yoga but maybe less pilates, so I really tried to do a mix. Since this was the first time we did this I wanted to start off with some basics and focus on proper placements. We ended up doing a bit more pilates blended with just a little yoga. From a yoga pose like downdog directly in to a pilates exercise. I think it turned out pretty awesome. Since stretching was requested, I took some extra time on that but we still didn’t get to stretch some of the muscles that we had worked on. They got to finish with a well deserved savasana which was a nice way to end our hour of workout.

I’ve never taught a class like this, it has always been dance or movement classes. But I know enough to teach both pilates and yoga. And stretching is kinda my thing, haha. Depending on peoples schedules, we will try to do this on Mondays from now on. My parents are coming tomorrow so I’m not sure I can teach next week, but after that I’m happy to teach every week. I think it will be fun:)

In Teaching, Yoga

Husband-wife: yoga on the terrace

Author Fanny SuraPosted on Leave a comment

Yesterday, Jim went to buy coffee for us and we had a really nice morning together. After breakfast he asked me if I wanted to do yoga on the terrace. Him asking me for a yoga class doesn’t happen very often, so of course I said yes. Our neighbor texted us and asked if we could come over to help her in a bit, so I guided us through 30 minutes of yoga before we had to go.

Very simple stuff to wake up our bodies. It was very hot out there and it only took a few minutes for our mats to get extremely warm. So I made sure that we basically only had our hands and feet touching the ground. With that, I created some challenges for my husband. He’s a strong man but a beginner in yoga so I made sure he got challenged but also really understood what we were doing and why. I was doing the yoga with him the whole time so I had to explain everything without being able to touch for corrections (which I normally do when he does yoga at home), but it looked like he got it pretty well. 

It’s not much you get to do in 30 minutes, but at least it was something. Sometimes even 10 minutes can be enough if that’s all you have. But you don’t get your body warm in that time (well, J was super sweaty from the sun), so I personally love longer than that so I can feel that the body has been really working. The yoga classes I take here in Stamford is only an hour long usually and I would love it to be longer than that. 90 minutes is a good length for yoga I think. Then you get to work through the whole body, practice maybe handstands or something else for a little bit and then stretch and relax in the end which is always nice:) 

Now, I’m about to take my pup for a walk and then change into workout clothes and go down to the gym. I’m sort of teaching a class for a neighbor (maybe two?) tonight. I will create something that first builds strength and then take some time for stretches, cause that’s what she mentioned last time I saw her that she wants. I don’t know what experiences she has, how strong she is or how flexible her muscles are, so I have to make it up as we go along, which makes it fun. 

In Dance, Stamford

Weekend park day

Author Fanny SuraPosted on Leave a comment

I know, it’s been over a week since I last posted anything here. So much for putting more focus on the blog like I wrote in June, haha. Sorry. I just haven’t felt like sitting by my computer updating you guys about random stuff I do. But we are having a pretty nice summer. How’s your summer?

This weekend, we wanted to explore a new place that is included in our beach pass (in Connecticut you need to pay for beach passes, Stamford has five locations). This park that we chose was supposed to have a waterfall and it looked really nice on pictures. Well, it had a waterfall, but it was a small river that didn’t look too awesome and the super short hike we went on to just check out the forest was full of broken glass and garbage. Not exiting at all and it broke my heart that people are idiots throwing things around that will hurt innocent animals. There were people in the water and they seemed to have fun but my husband and I were not intrigued, so we left. Instead we drove to a small garden/park area nearby. Very cute there. I just had to dance of course. So below is an improvisation I did to music by Explosion in the Sky. In the afternoon we went to an opening party for the Stamford Yoga Center that I’m a member of. That was about all the excitement of this weekend:)

In Dance

Fever Dance 

Author Fanny SuraPosted on Leave a comment

It has been raining outside almost all day, I might have had fever all day as well, Thor has been tired and there is a thousand thoughts in my head. Today is also my grandma’s birthday. She passed away a few days after her birthday last year so these coming days might be tough ones. She’s in my thoughts today. 

In the afternoon, after a short and wet walk with T, I came back in and pressed play on the random music list I had played on the computer before we went out. Short thereafter, an interesting song came on and I just had to dance. Below is a part of the improvisation I did. It felt good to move and let the body take over. After that, I had to sit down, haha. But it felt nice to forget that I was sick for a few minutes:)

 

In Dance, Stamford

Restless Creature and Wendy Whelan

Author Fanny SuraPosted on Leave a comment

On Saturday, we went to see a film at the Avon Theater here in Stamford. A documentary, Restless Creature, about Wendy Whelan. She was a principal ballerina with the New York City Ballet for 30 years. The film is about when she had found herself injured in the hip and had to do a surgery. She has been dancing her whole life and had been very lucky to never have any bigger problems with her body before. She is a strong and beautiful dancer. After the surgery she eventually made a decision that she wanted to retire from NYC Ballet, after her 30 years in the company and she did a farewell performance. She was also working on some contemporary works with four male choreographers and together created the Restless Creature performance. 

After the film, Wendy Whelan herself showed up for an Q/A with the audience. When that was done, some of the younger ballerinas in Stamford wanted to take pictures with her. We left to get coffee. On our way back home, we walked passed the theater and saw that she was standing there. I quickly walked up to her, got to talk to her and take a photo before she had to go. Starstruck! I didn’t know who she was until a few years ago when she was performing with those male choreographers (one of the choreographers is a guy I have taken classes for and I have worked with someone in his company). But now when I know who she is and know more about her work, it felt like I was walking up to a celebrity:) 

Later in the afternoon, my husband and I walked to Harbor Point. It took us about 30 minutes. We wanted to find a place by the ocean to have a drink. That area is far from being done. Very industrial and they are building tons of new apartment buildings. We looked at some apartments there in December but we are so happy we found a place somewhere else. We sat down at two places before we took the trolley back to the city center. We finished the evening with grilled food and the movie Hairspray. A pretty awesome day!