Got a chance to see Christine (aka Shanthi-Pants) this weekend. She's from Ottawa, but is currently living in Toronto. Christine is my first Ashtanga teacher, I met her at a small studio in Toronto a few years back. She was doing the two Ashtanga classes at a place called The Yoga Room.
That little studio was the brainchild of Keri and Brendan. Well ok really just the brainchild of Keri, though Brendan is a supportive husband and played a big part in getting the business up and running. Brendan and Keri are now in British Columbia and no longer in yoga business.
I had bought a pass to Keri's studio, mainly in an effort to help out by populating the new studio...I'd drag along anyone I could to get Keri some exposure in her new business. That's how I met Christine and came to learn about Ashtanga yoga (even though Glen had been trying to get me into it for a while).
Turns out Christine will be moving to Montreal, probably by the end of the summer, if not sooner. She'll be teaching yoga and assisting Cam Thai (sp??) in some respect in his Thai-massage business. Apparently she's already got offers to teach at Darby/Shankar's new shala, and also with Nicole. It'll be great to have her in our fair city, it'll be neat to see how our bi-lingualism changes her over time.
We had a nice breakfast in Old Montreal and I showed her my photos from India. She had some great stories of a friend of hers currently travelling there now, including her recount of her friends yoga enquiry at the doors of AYRI.
Apparently the friend is a little sensitive, perhaps even shy and introverted, and she went to AYRI only to ask questions about practicing there. She has no understanding of Guruji, or the shala, or even of the practice of Ashtanga...
Her story goes a bit like this...
I found the place (ayri) and went in, an old man came out and sat at a desk he smiled at me and asked "where's your money?"
"I want to learn yoga..."
"learn yoga...need money...no money?....bad lady...come back tomorrow"
I think she was pretty freaked out, almost in tears even. Poor girl.
Anyhow it was nice to see Christine and get a sneak-peak at her 2005 calendar, she a photographer and produces a calendar of her black and white photogrgaphy. She mainly uses a Holga camera that exploites most of the typical Holga characteristics...light leaks, cheap plastic lens, square format images due to 120 film. I ordered two of them.