I hope someday to be able to take yoga classes with Danielle in Wailea! I was lucky to be her…read moreyoga student when she taught yoga in San Francisco from 2008-2010. While I was her student, I became pregnant, at age 40, with my first child and I continued taking her classes twice a week right up until I gave birth. I credit my extremely positive pregnancy and quick childbirth (3 hours of active labor, all-natural childbirth with no I.V./drugs, and my son was born completely healthy at 6 lbs, 11 oz) largely to these classes with Danielle.
As our yoga teacher, Danielle had students of diverse ages, cultural backgrounds, English proficiency, prior yoga practice and varying abilities. For many yoga teachers, this wide range of abilities and skills would present a challenge. Danielle handled this situation beautifully and skillfully. She made special effort to get to know each student's name and welcomed every person into the class, even students who could not speak English. For these students, she asked for help from other bilingual students who could help translate her instructions for them. Danielle delighted in learning about others' cultures and languages and enjoyed telling us about her experiences teaching in the Caribbean and travelling to India to study yoga in Auroille, an intentional community in southeast India founded by Sri Arobindo, the famous yoga philosopher whose student founded the college she received her BA from. Danielle especially enjoyed teaching students new to yoga and helping them to establish a foundation that would allow them to be comfortable in any other yoga class. Within the classroom environment, she worked with each student individually to help each of us progress in our yoga practice. Her gentle adjustments, encouraging words, and judicious use of humor put everyone at ease and enabled each of us to reach our own personal aspirations in our practice. She was especially careful to explain to us how not to overdo the poses. She taught us the proper use of props such as straps, blocks, blankets, and sandbags to gently help our bodies to safely open up further. She helped us to overcome our fears of challenging poses. At the beginning of each class, she checked in with us and asked us if there were any special needs or requests we had and she always accommodated those requests. During the later stages of my pregnancy, Danielle gave me special instructions to do alternative poses that were good for me and my baby. She even gifted me a book by B.K.S Iyengar on pregnancy poses.
As the first yoga teacher employed by the Richmond District Neighborhood Center (RDNC) to teach our community yoga class, Danielle was unusually invested in being the best teacher she could be and instrumental in setting a high standard for all instructors hired by this organization. Due to her enthusiastic teaching, the class enrollment increased to the point that the Beacon was able to secure more funding. Danielle then requested the Beacon to use these funds to purchase yoga props such as natural rubber yoga mats, wood blocks, straps, and blankets. As a dedicated instructor, Danielle was commuting from Berkeley to San Francisco during rush hour traffic two evenings a week to teach this class. This was even more impressive after she began her full-time B.A. studies at the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS).
At the end of our first year together, Danielle opened up another dimension of yoga to us by doing a special presentation on yoga philosophies. She created and presented an impressive and engaging powerpoint in which she clearly explained different strands and branches of yoga philosophies. She made it a communal experience by encouraging us to bring food and snacks to share and she contributed a delicious homemade chai tea. She also encouraged us to bring our own cups, plates, and silverware so as not to generate waste. Her presentation was a dialogic lecture, in which we were welcome to ask questions and offer comments, so it was truly a dynamic learning experience for us. While it was accessible to the least educated of us, it was not an insubstantial presentation; I learned more about yoga's methodologies than I had ever known before. The final paper she wrote for her B.A. was on successful strategies and methodologies for teaching, mentoring, and empowerment practices for at-risk youth. During her time as our yoga teacher, she also participated in a yoga outreach program for youth at the Alameda Juvenile Correctional Facility and taught yoga to incarcerated youth. Yoga was a tool that they could use and learn to attain a measure of freedom and calm that they badly craved and needed.
Enjoy your practice with this wonderful teacher and beautiful soul!
