KPJAYI Certified
From London, Philippa Asher is one of a few Ashtanga yoga practitioners in the world (and the only British woman), to be Certified by Sri K Pattabhi Jois, to teach the Ashtanga yoga method in his tradition. She has learned the Primary, Intermediate, Advanced A and Advanced B Series directly from Pattabhi Jois and Sharath (at the Krishna Pattabhi Jois Ashtanga Yoga Institute in Mysore, India) and shares the Ashtanga yoga system Internationally (in studios and on retreats) and also Online (Sanskrit Counted Led classes and One-to-Ones).
After a vocational ballet school training from age twelve and twenty-five years of studying and teaching dance at universities and ballet companies all over the UK, Philippa randomly walked into an Ashtanga yoga class in London. It was a life-changing incident, that made complete sense.
From the late 1990s, she began learning/practising the Ashtanga yoga system, daily before work (in the media, film, and music industries). For over twenty years she has studied for several months each year at KPJAYI (now called Sharath Yoga Centre) in Mysore and on tour, practising under the guidance of guru Pattabhi Jois and his grandson Sharath Jois.
In 2006, Philippa established and ran Triyoga Soho’s Ashtanga self-practice programme in London. She taught there for five years before relocating to South India, to build her own shala (on a coffee estate in the Western Ghats).
As well as teaching Mysore-style Ashtanga guided self-practice, led classes and workshops at ASHTANGA NIRVRTA, Philippa also leads workshops and self-practice residencies at studios in London, Europe, Middle East and on retreats worldwide. When not in the studio, she teaches Online One-to-Ones and Sanskrit Counted Primary, Intermediate and Advanced A Series classes and pranayama.
Her approach to sharing yoga asana (from beginners to more seasoned practitioners) is serious, yet light-hearted and joyful. Her emphasis is on good technique, safe alignment, the synchronisation of vinyasa (Sanskrit-counted, coordinated moving/breathing sequences) with tristhana (alignment of breath, gaze points and movement), passing on the exact method as taught by Pattabhi Jois from the late 1990s and embracing the essence of Patanjali’s sutras on yoga and asana.
Philippa’s dedicated passion for Ashtanga yoga, background as a trained dancer and experience as a qualified teacher (Post Graduate Certificate in the Education of Adults), gives her an intuitive and sound understanding of bodies, yoga asanas, people and how they learn. For more information, please visit www.ashtangaphilippa.com
In Ulpotha for this retreat, Philippa will be offering:
- Daily Ashtanga guided self-practice
- Sanskrit-Counted Primary Series
- Afternoon workshops on asana technique, concepts of the method, body opening, pranayama, meditation, philosophy, Q&A etc
- New to Advanced B Series Ashtanga yoga practitioners welcome
