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5.3
March 17, 2009
Video: Yoga Poster Boy Darren Rhodes does every Anusara pose.
Darren Rhodes—who I met last summer when elephant journal sponsored Yoga Rocks, where I interviewed Seane Corn—is the poster boy of Anusara yoga. Below, his poses are brought to 2D in an amazing, beautifully-executed yoga video. First, the Posters:
Every yoga pose, flowing in and out, pausing only to get a photo and make this big huge comprehensive yoga poster.
Commentary:
Late in November 2005, we concocted a crazy plan. 1) Darren Rhodes would perform every asana in the Anusara Syllabus in two days. 2) He would do all of the poses of each type (backbends, armbalancing, forward folds etc) in each level as an uninterrupted set (for ross’ video purposes). 3) Michael would photograph every pose for output to a syllabus poster. This is some footage from the process:
Home Base Tucson, arizona
Age 37
Darren Rhodes is quite literally the poster boy for Anusara Yoga. You can find him on the Anusara syllabus
poster, deftly demonstrating more than 345 awe-inspiring poses. His motivation for achieving such a feat wasn’t ego driven; it came from his belief that asanas create more than just physical change. “When I come across a posture I really want to do, I ask myself, “How do I have to shift physically, mentally, and in my heart to be able to do that?” He adds, “I want to be able to do a posture because I know it will require transformation on all levels.”
Rhodes grew up in a family of yogis.
His mother took up the practice when he was in utero, and his father is an avid meditator. He remembers entertaining his parents’ friends by doing poses in the living room. In high school he began practicing in earnest, using a Richard Freeman video and going to local studio classes. But it wasn’t until his early 20s that he met Anusara Yoga founder, John Friend, and had one of the most shakti-filled experiences of his life. “John turned my yoga practice into a radical, rockin’ life celebration,” he says, “which is what I strive to share in my classes.”
As a result of his own fire and passion for the physical, Rhodes’s classes at both of his YogaOasis studios in Tucson, Arizona, are playful yet intense. “I ask students to be with the asana as a mode of transformation. The most beautiful thing about yoga is that it allows anyone and everyone—no matter what their level
Waylon Lewis, founder of Elephant Journal & host of Walk the Talk Show with Waylon Lewis, is a 1st generation American Buddhist “Dharma Brat.”
Voted #1 in U.S. … Read full bio
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