Breathe in, breathe out … repeat

World renowned Ashtanga yogi draws crowd to Little Rock workshop

James Brown and yoga — an unlikely parallel — but Ashtanga yoga titan David Swenson channeled the Godfather of Soul while teaching backbends in Little Rock. “Just think of him snapping those legs together when you’re pulling yourself up,” Swenson said while instructing a session of his Jan. 23-25 workshop at an event space known as Loft 1023.

A resident of Austin, Texas, he travels all over the world sharing his knowledge and 40-plus years of experience practicing Ashtanga.

Ashtanga differs from other forms of yoga in that it involves throaty breathing — called ujjayi breathing — synchronized with a progressively difficult series of postures, or asanas. As a result, the body produces intense internal heat and a profuse, purifying sweat.

“Without the breathing, it’s just gymnastics,” Swenson, 58, told the workshop class of 50. Practitioners came from across the state, region and world for an evening and two full days of Swenson’s Ashtanga practice, tips for attaining difficult postures and his thoughts on using yoga philosophies to create a more meaningful life.

When contorted in some of the more advanced postures, Swenson appears as if he has had to break some bones to achieve them. Of the six series of poses, many practitioners will never get past the first or second series, he said. His spiral-bound book, Ashtanga Yoga: The Practice Manual, is considered the gold standard for learning Ashtanga.

Swenson was engaging and witty during the talking segments of classes, sprinkling in vignettes from time spent with his Ashtanga influences, including the late K. Pattabhi Jois, founder and director of the Ashtanga Yoga Research Institute in Mysore, India, where Ashtanga is grounded. Swenson did amusing imitations of Jois and of friend and fellow Ashtanga yogi David Williams, who, with his wife, Nancy Gilgoff, introduced Jois to America and the western world. The pair organized and sponsored Jois’ first U.S. visit to Encinitas, Calif., in 1975.

Local artist, fashion designer and Ashtanga practitioner Erin Lorenzen had been trying for five years to get Swenson to teach a workshop

in Little Rock. She described herself as “an angry, chain-smoking artist — a real mess” before she began practicing Ashtanga two to three years ago.

“I thought it was freaking magic,” Lorenzen said of the yoga form.

Steve Kirk, who teaches Ashtanga at the Arkansas Yoga Collective, said that more than anything, the workshop “renewed my zeal for practice.”

With so many types of yoga practiced around the world — hot and not — why are some yogis drawn to Ashtanga?

“They like the flow and the rhythm,” Swenson said. “There’s a component of strength and flexibility with it, so in Ashtanga we try to seek a balance between these two things.”

“Not only do we get a nice physical benefit, but also we can feel more balanced in our mind and thoughts and our emotions, as well,” he said.

Swenson has been a yogi since 1969, learning from his brother, Doug Swenson, and started practicing Ashtanga yoga in earnest around 1974. Practitioners of “the hard yoga” were scarce back then.

At first Ashtanga was sort of “underground, a smaller movement,” he said. It took a high-profile following, beginning with Sting and Madonna, to make Ashtanga more popular and mainstream. Celebrities Paul Simon, John McEnroe and Eddie Vedder also became practitioners.

But it’s more than a passing trend.

“What’s unique about Ashtanga is that it works. You may come to it because it’s a fad or a celebrity’s doing it, but what keeps people doing it is the benefits they gain.”

Over his 25 years of teaching Ashtanga, he has never taken time to count his workshops, but some years he has been on the road teaching 300 days of the year. Later this year, he’ll be in Hong Kong, Shanghai, Bangkok and throughout Europe.

“Yoga teaching as a vocational choice is something new,” Swenson said. “In the past, you did it because you wanted to, but you couldn’t make money.”

He has been a waiter, a landscaper, a car salesman and ran an art gallery, among other jobs.

“I used to wear a suit and carry a briefcase. I did whatever I had to do to pay my bills,” he said.

He’s not likely to become rich teaching Ashtanga, but he’s doing what he loves — on the mat and off.

Marcus Goodwin (center) and others take a folded position while attending a weekend Ashtanga yoga workshop taught by David Swenson at Loft 1023 in Little Rock. Ashtanga involves throaty breathing — called ujjayi breathing — synchronized to a...

PHOTOS BY MELISSA SUE GERRITS Yana Mintskovsky of Dallas listens to Ashtanga yoga teacher David Swenson at Loft 1023. Throughout the workshop, Swenson stressed the importance of using breath with movement in Ashtanga.

David Swenson assists Karen Moss in a forearm stand. Moss is a yoga teacher in Memphis and practices the Ashtanga style, for which Swenson’s book Ashtanga Yoga: The Practice Manual is considered the gold standard.

Little Rock yoga instructor Marcus Goodwin finds stillness in a headstand during David Swenson’s Ashtanga workshop. Swenson’s visit was five years in the making, and his workshop drew 50 yoga students and teachers from around the state, region and world.

A rock star to practitioners of Ashtanga, 58-year-old David Swenson began practicing yoga in 1969 and took up Ashtanga in earnest around 1974. He travels the world sharing his practice, tips on attaining postures and yoga philosophies.

Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/MELISSA SUE GERRITS Jeremy Henkhaus of St. Louis (right) assists Carl Bringenberg in a breathing exercise during David Swenson’s Ashtanga yoga workshop. “Without the breathing, it’s just gymnastics,” Swenson told the class of 50.