The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Just breathe
Yoga teacher, 83 years young, guides students in her gentle way
GUILFORD >> A peaceful, slow-paced yoga class was exactly what Florence Sordi was looking for when she began studying with Marlene DeSanto. Yet, this 73-year-old got much more than she could have ever anticipated.
“She said, ‘Florence, do you date?’” recalls Sordi, of a conversation with DeSanto five years ago. “I was a widow of about eight years and I said, ‘No, I don’t. I’m not interested.’”
The rest is history, as they say, and Guilford resident, Sordi, is still attending weekly yoga classes and spending quality time with her beau, Pete.
This story epitomizes the sense of community DeSanto, 83, has built around her yoga practice.
The camaraderie and caring atmosphere is appreciated by those who join her.
“She just doesn’t take you as a student, she’s very interested in each person specifically,” said Sordi.
“That’s the big difference, it’s not just a class,” she adds. “It is a class, but it’s more than that. Marlene is very caring.”
The smell of incense greets students in her walk-up studio. Low light and soft, soothing music flows through the classroom.
“It sets the right atmosphere,” DeSanto said.
Once inside, settled on yoga mats, the lithe instructor gently guides her students through stretching, meditation, mindfulness and breathing.
“We always start this way, because after coming in from a busy day we just need to start to empty your minds,” DeSanto said, sitting cross-legged on her mat in front of the class.
“One of my favorites is the bubble technique where you imagine that those thoughts that are roaming around in your mind are bubbles and we get to blow them away from you and in doing so, begin to clear the mind,” she instructs her students.
DeSanto eschews the younger generation’s method of fast-paced, cardio yoga. Her classes have a tranquil atmosphere, with little or no competition among participants.
“People feel really relaxed when they leave, and you should,” she said. “You shouldn’t feel like it’s another chore that you have to do, in addition to everything else.”
Moving into a floor position, DeSanto calmly guides her students to work at their own pace and listen to their body.
“We work slowly, one step at a time,” she said, “because to move quickly into a position, sometimes, before you realize it, you have done something that is not appropriate for your body.
“A little bit at a time, that way you never go beyond your capabilities,” she said in her soft, quiet voice.
“What she taught me was about breathing and slowing down and moving my body and stretching and the importance of all of that and the rhythm of yoga,” said Rosemary Alpert, a former student.
“It’s such a full workout. Full body — mind, body and spirit — every time you go to that class.
“Her voice and just the ease. I know she’s getting older, but I still think she’s a master of yoga,” said Alpert, joyfully laughing, talking by phone from her home in Washington State.
Her students appreciate her individual attention.
“It’s straightforward, she opens the class up to all ages and levels, so you can work at your pace,” Alpert said. “She’s very aware of everyone’s individual needs.
“I don’t know how she keeps track of everybody, but she does,” Alpert adds.
Guilford resident Joan Leonard knows all too well the importance of yoga and stress relief. “I started coming af-
ter I’d had a heart attack,” the criminal defense lawyer said , preparing her mat for a Wednesday night class. “Friends of mine suggested I do yoga. The heart attack had nothing to do with anything physical, it was pure stress.”
That was in 2002, at age 57 and at the time she had to be persuaded to even try a class.
“I figured I could never do it, I wasn’t a spiritual enough person to do yoga,” she recalls. “Now, if I miss yoga class I really feel like I’m missing something.”
Since 1967, DeSanto has practiced yoga along the Shoreline, starting in Madison and settling in Guilford at Total Health Center in Village Walk. All those years ago, yoga didn’t have the popularity it has today. DeSanto was a trailblazer.
“I started taking yoga with Marlene when I was 25 years old and that was 30 years ago,” said Alpert.
“She was pretty much the only one doing teaching yoga,” recalls Alpert. “When she started, yoga wasn’t popular. She was literally one of the first yoga teachers on the Shoreline.
“It wasn’t embraced because it was just too alternative at that time,” said Alpert.
Guilford resident Caroline Chandler has been practicing with DeSanto for 45 years, while her husband, Knox, started 30 years ago.
Ask Caroline Chandler, 82, what she gets out of her once a week visit and she answers, without hesitation, “everything.
“How to breathe, how to be flexible, meditation,” she adds. “There’s an exercise you can do with your tongue that brings saliva, so if you have a dry mouth. I’ve told many people about that.”
Knox Chandler, 83, joined his wife after hearing her say, “Oh, I’m so much better,” after coming home from every class.
“I was having back problems, lower back,” he says. “Somehow I could do little things and somehow would strain it and it really bothered me.
“I had that for years and years and I finally said to Caroline, ‘Do you think yoga would help that?’” he recalls.
As he prepared to participate in a Wednesday class, his spot set up right next to his wife’s mat, he said, “I would say it (yoga) fixed it 95 percent.”
As a young mother, raising three daughters and a son, DeSanto started taking yoga classes with some friends. Yet it was a diagnosis of cervical cancer that made her look at the practice in a new light.
“I certainly was a very busy mom and everything had to be just so and it helped me to quiet down and realize what was important,” reflects DeSanto.
What was important was “to try to spread the feeling that I have of peacefulness.”
Surrounding herself with inspiring people, including Bernie Siegel, an internationally recognized expert in the field of cancer treatment and holistic medicine, attending lectures on healthy living and participating in The Kripalu Center for Yoga & Health is in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, annually, DeSanto strengthened her yoga practice.
Over the years, DeSanto has had knee replacements and faced the death of two of her daughters. Through it all, she has continued her devotion to yoga.
Today, she teaches eight classes a week, twice a day on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday.
The stories from current and former students are enough to fill a book.
“That woman changed my life,” recalls Alpert. “I went through both my pregnancies with her, I went through the death of both of my parents with her, I went through the death of both of her daughters with her and she truly is my surrogate mother. I love that woman, she’s remarkable.
“Marlene is the real deal as you can get,” says Alpert.
DeSanto can clearly see the benefits of yoga for her students.
“They come in and I can see the difference at the end of class,” she says. “They come in, stress written all over their face, but when they leave they’re shining, they’re glowing with that feeling of peacefulness.”
Total Health Center, 1221 Village walk, Guilford; 203-530-5360.