Camilla Pellegrini Yoga

It is undeniable that our yoga world is living the era of vinyasa and creative sequencing. Transitions are becoming prominent over holding asanas, and the pace to which we move in yoga classes is getting faster.
Now, I have nothing against a flow class - the problem is not the flow. The problem is when fancy transitions and cool sequences are given priority over the learning of the students. A cool sequence is only cool if it makes clear to the students:
- What the hell we are doing on the mat
- How to do it mindfully
- How to do it with their own body and energy of the day

In order to understand these things you need alignment concepts. Alignment is getting a bad rep these days, many people stating that if you focus on alignment you are imposing unrealistic and sometimes hurtful shapes to your own body or to the bodies of your students. To these people I say, practice more, study further.

Alignment is the blueprint that will have you deeper into your focus, awareness and physical embodied experience. It will teach you the technique you need to make your practice sustainable. It will help you to engage your muscles so that your joints don’t take the load and suffer. You will become literate about asanas and you will understand you body better. It will connect your movements to your breath.

Now, be careful, the type of alignment I’m talking about is not simple, it is not a set of linear rules like “knee over ankle” or “heel to heel line” or “squeeze the glutes”. It is a complex system of power lines that you can create within your body and that will make you feel space, lightness and safety in your asanas.

Also help me out here, without any talking about positioning, what to engage in a posture, where and how to breathe, what is then the content of an asana class? Is it a choreography of poses that people just follow along without understanding anything?
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