This review is for Skadi van Paaschen's Thursday 1030am (as of writing; duh) Vinyasa "Experienced" class. As is often the Yelp-case, a 5-star scale is a blunt tool; I'm taking the time to write the review because I felt Skadi was an exceptionally good teacher and I wanted you to know that.
I'm giving "only" 4 stars because, _for me_, in my _subjective preference set_ for yoga, what I hope for in an advanced class is a mix of workshop-y/long hold/learning stuff I've not done, towards the end of the class; and before that a challenging and long period of flow. This class didn't do that, but it was not like it tried to. It was a slower kind of class than what I'm used to (I mostly practice in Los Angeles), _on purpose_. So now I'm going to talk about what I really liked / why I'm writing:
Skadi was intuitive and responsive to the people in the room, certainly including myself. She tracked what we were doing and working on and, especially towards the end (when the class _did_ have a breakout period, if brief, for working inversions etc.) gave me some sharply observed and very helpful notes -- particularly since she'd never seen me before. I respected and enjoyed her measured ease in handling all the different levels / interests in the room, and I particularly appreciated a couple of concrete notes she gave me which I was able to take with me out of the room. read more