Projo Fitness Blog

If in about 10 days you're walking through downtown Providence and see a lot of people with yoga mats, wearing loose-fitting pants, flip-flops or earth shoes and shawls, it won't be a mirage.

The first regional Iyengar yoga happening, the New England Iyengar Yoga Conference, will be held at the Rhode Island Convention Center Oct. 16-18.

More than 400 students of all levels have signed up for the opportunity to study with some of the most notable senior teachers from New England and across the country, including Boston-based yoga video maven Patricia Walden.

Providence-based Iyengar Yoga teachers Linda DiCarlo and Naama Gidron say they are "thrilled to have the largest group of senior level teachers gathered together right here in Providence."

The event is being hosted by the Iyengar National Association of the United States.

Gidron notes that it's a real coup for Providence to host such a large event, "bringing people here, staying in the hotels downtown -- it's really great." Yogis from as far away as California and New York City are registered to attend.

"This smaller and more intimate conference will have only half the number of students than Iyengar Yoga conventions have had in the past, providing you with a more personal environment in which to deepen your yoga practice," the group says on its conference Web site.

And unlike many other conferences in the past, this gathering offers three tracts of classes from beginner to advanced. "We're going to have a good mix, with quite a few beginner students signed up," Gidron notes. Plus, there are special classes for "people physical issues, adjusting their bodies and breathing work."

Gidron, director of East Side Yoga, notes "Iyengar yoga is one of the most widespread [types of yoga] practiced today" -- but in Rhode Island the community is still rather small.

Sri B.K.S. Iyengar, one of the world's most highly recognized yoga masters, reached his 90th birthday last December. The founder of this practice, he is largely responsible for popularizing yoga in the West.

 Tags  Iyengar New England Providence yoga yoga conference

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