Open Sky Yoga Center in Rochester, New York

Summer is almost over...Still writing, practicing, reflecting, zoning out!

Here is the new news!

SOUND: I completed an intense certification as a Sound Healer, started two years ago in Spain with Michele Averard and Nestor Kornblum, founders of the International Association of Sound Therapy. It's a complex subject including yoga of sound, tuning fork, sound bath, harmonic series, overtone chanting, mantra and group improvisation of shamanic music.

Have been reading books on the nature of sound, embryogenesis, the resonance of the fluid system and musicology, especially the transition from modal to tonal music. To drone or not to drone, that is the question!



Music and sound always have been primordial in my life, in the history of mankind and at Open Sky Yoga, so I will finally take the dive and open a private practice of Sound Therapy/Healing in the music room of my house starting mid-September, probably Monday mornings.



THE BOOK: I wrote the outline of my book and gathered/organized by theme tremendous amounts of material/articles/photos. The title is still secret. A renowned publisher in the world of yoga and spirituality is seriously interested. The mission is moving along as resistance melted away, partly because Nathalie and I stayed in our home near Montpellier most of the summer...the ocean 20 minutes away...no huge travel project like the previous years...and we went to the Himalayas in May....so the need for strong cathartic experiences was fulfilled.

Still, we went to see the Tour de France, as it was racing a few miles from our village. Can you see the yellow jersey?

I am not into sports or fitness but there is something mythical about it. Then we went to this fantastic dance performance at 4.30 a.m., yes a.m., in the Theater Festival of Avignon, one hour away. Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker (Please, Google her!) dancing ritual with live 14th century polyphony, mostly in the dark or with the light of sun rising. She is the one who choreographed Steve Reich in the early 1980s. I was there too. A must see. Those people make history.

OPEN SKY YOGA: I am preparing a chart defining more clearly the teachings of Open Sky Yoga. Traditions have evolved with influences from other times and cultures. This keeps us full of life, creative and innovative. Take a look (a hearing!) at the transition between Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven, for example. Also, listen to Boshiman languages and music, one of the real sources.



As usual, we will offer workshops, restorative yoga and the women's health series with Eleanor (PDF). Yoga to Minimize Depression and Anxiety is scheduled for early December (PDF), as well as our annual residential yoga retreat (with great organic meals) at Chapin Mill (PDF). Finally, a Nada Yoga Festival including Mukesh Desai, Baird Hersey, Francois Raoult and a live performance of In C by Terry Riley, a major event in North America. Just before the jazz festival!

Out of town seminars this fall will take me to Brooklyn, New York (PDF), Oakland (PDF), Westfield (PDF), Buffalo (PDF), Burlington (PDF), Toronto and Rome (PDF). You see that dullness and boredom are not compatible with yoga. Curiosity, explorations, spiral evolutions are intrinsic parts of authentic Yoga.

GRATITUDE to all Open Sky teachers--Eleanor, Carla, Tom, Rick, Alan and Kristin, who kept the local classes flying high with smooth landings in savasana here and there all summer--and to my team of office managers, Aimee, Zachary and Josh, web/graphic designers Dave and Susan for keeping the flight on target and at the proper altitude, and to Cathy Salibian / Craig Filek for guidance and media supervision, for a safe landing in Rochester, NY!

Hope to see new and old (smiling) faces soon in local classes or around the planet for mindful and playful Journeys towards the Center. Would you be willing to send friends and family to the free Intro to Yoga seminar September 8th (PDF)? It is user friendly for those still scared of diving into group classes, or those who do not truly know what yoga could be...surprise, surprise!



In yoga, we are yoked!

Om for All, All for OM...



Francois Raoult

Open Sky Yoga