Ann Barros has been Teaching Iyengar for 41 Years
I was drawn to yoga through my personal experience with BKS Iyengar, in Pune, India in 1976.
I showed up on his doorstep alone and asked if he could help me correct my spine, due to a scoliosis curve.
He worked with me personally in an intense traction pose, aided by his assistants, and including weights, straps, and chair, which I held for 20 minutes a day for a period of 6 months.
This experience not only corrected my spine, it was a life-altering, career changing event.
After returning from India, I enrolled in the Iyengar Yoga Institute (then called I.Y.I.T.E) in San Francisco.
I completed the 500 hour course work, began teaching in September 1976, at UCSC, and graduated I.Y.I., certified in 1980.
I have been teaching in the Iyengar tradition for 36 years.
Some of my most influential teachers have been Ramanand Patel, (with whom I studied advanced teacher trainings for 17 years), mostly because of his creativity and innovation in the use of props to help students achieve the essence of poses. Another great influence for me was Judith Lasater during her earlier years in challenging me to accomplish advanced poses intelligently, and then in later years, her brilliance in explaining restorative asanas.
Yoga became my whole life after my early experience in Pune, that was what brought me to commit to Yoga.
I am now teaching at my home studio in Santa Cruz, California, to a dedicated group of students whom I love.
I am still leading my Yoga In Bali retreats (since 1985) and have just returned from my 62nd successful BaliYoga retreat program Please see: www.baliyoga.com
The key benefits to yoga, for me, are knowing the anatomical and physiological benefits to each asana and therefore knowing, in a practical daily application, when it is most appropriate to practice which asana, or set of asanas.
