Yoga to raise the roof
More than 200 people visit the Sheffield Yoga Centre every week. David Bocking entolled for a fundraising evening.
THIS is somewhere calm and peaceful to come to, says Frances Homewood of Sheffield Yoga Centre.
Not tonight it isn't, as Sheena Brabazon urges a couple of dozen middle-aged people in comfortable clothes to wiggle everything they've got to the soundtrack of a Bollywood musical.
It's roof repair fundraising night at the centre in Lower Walkley, opened two-and-a-half years ago in a former non-conformist chapel in Burgoyne Road by Frances and her partner Mike Bower, known locally more for his political rather than yogic practices.
More than 60 people attended the fundraiser last weekend, to listen and take part in entertainment provided by performers connected to the centre including Sheena and her Bollywood dancing, storytelling by Paul Barkworth, music from the Marilyn Gregory Duo and the Gypsy Jazz Quartet, poetry from Derbyshire Poet Laureate River Wolton, harmonies from accapelaists The Late Bloomers and belly dancing from Irene Eleta.
Around 600 was raised towards roof repairs for the century-old building.
Frances has been teaching yoga in Sheffield for 25 years and remembers her original classes of ten to 12 people, largely, she admits, from middle class backgrounds.
"We get a whole range of people now, from an 80-year-old in our 'Older and Stiffer' class to teenagers in our beginners' classes," she says.
"Yoga has really taken off now and I think it's because people are a lot more stressed and there's more tension around. Also people are getting older and they want to look after themselves and their own health more."
There are now well over 200 people attending classes at the Sheffield Yoga Centre every week and for many it's an alternative choice to signing up to the local gym. "People don't always like the atmosphere of gyms," says Frances.
"And if you go to a gym you're expected to have your mind somewhere else, distracted by watching the TV for example. But in yoga you bring your mind completely into view, so your mind and body are in harmony."
Quite a few of the yoga practitioners at the Walkley fundraiser are probably familiar with such theories after spending their formative years in kaftans. (Their own youngsters, many of whom have been brought along for the night, are busy harmonising their mobile phones instead).
The Sheffield Yoga Centre is based around ‘Iyengar’ yoga, named after 90-year-old yoga teacher BKS Iyengar who still works in Pune, India, and whose style, says Frances, “is the precision of movement, careful adjustments so that poses are done correctly and without strain”.
There are also many therapeutic aspects of this type of yoga and Frances and her colleagues at the centre run classes for people suffering form MS, Parkinson’s Disease and cancer.
It’s also good for creative types, says Frances, citing musicians, artists, writers and poets amongst her clientele.
Such as poet River Wolton, who recites a specially written tongue-in-cheek piece about the pleasures and pain of yoga:
“I’m trying to spread and soften the skin behind my ear, and if that’s not enough, I’m supposed to conquer fear!” she recites, to much harmonic yet relaxed chuckling.
lSheffield Yoga Centre, tel: 07944 169 238; www.yogasheffield.org
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Wednesday 08 February 2012
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