Tuesday, November 26, 2013

Breath Easy Through The Season: And above all dance flamenco!

Thanksgiving is surely a time to be thankful for all the good graces that are in our lives, but truth be told it can also be a stressful time. All ages, kids to adult, have to combat overeating, stress, sadness, lack of exercise and imbalance.

I like to make sure my students have a few good things  in their tool box of way to cope with these feelings.

Remember if things do get stressful:
1. Breath: inhale though your nose and out through your nose. Try to elongate the exhale to calm you.
2. Do a simple inversion: forward bends, which can be done leaning forward onto a chair if the floor is just too far away. Yoga poses like forward bend and downward facing dog raise your blood pressure enough to trigger the body's natural calming mechanisms (do not do inversions if you have high blood pressure-the best thing here to do would be to sit and rest your head on a table).
3. Do heart opening poses to combat depression: cobra, bridge, bow, wheel, locust, fish, camel. Simply you can sit on a chair, place your hands by your sides, lift up your chest and feel you back arching up.
4. You can tame feelings of fear and instability by doing twists, hip openers and side bends. These will help balance your emotions: butterfly, child's pose, 1/2 lord of the fishes, simple lying twist and dimple seated twist (on the floor or in a chair).
5. DANCE FLAMENCO! Above all let your hearts be free, it will help you digest your food and you will feel great!

Here is a past post of mine called "Smell The Roses In Your Poses" 

Wishing you all a Happy Thanksgiving!
¡Ole! ¡Namaste!

Wednesday, November 20, 2013

My yoga classes of late....


Recently, my yoga classes have been based on the idea of subliminal messaging that is found in ads, movies etc. By adding affirmations subliminally to each pose/pranyama/meditation (in the descriptions), these subliminal messages will in turn affect the "yogi" to feel a certain way...these are the affirmations I am basing my affirmations on : happy, lucky, grateful and peaceful (these branch out to trusting, trustworthy, rooted, grounded, brave etc...love my thesaurus).



For art work, we have been making pictures of trees and in the branches and along the roots we have been writing our own affirmations. Also, focus wheels, with the center circle stating "I AM" and then the external circles embracing our qualities of goodness, trustworthiness, bravado etc...


I have also created a sound track for my upcoming Brighton High School classes:

1. Transform by TJ Rehmi (sorry no YouTube for this one)
2. Om Namah Shivaya by Sheila Chandra http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QiN6lX4RPMM
3. Sleep Tonight (Jr Boys Remix) by Stars http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXbxbMUZUsE
4. The Sun Can't COmpare by Larry Heard ft. Mr White http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zN0dsZOBQec
5. The Garden by Cut Chemist http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHhlaspXVgo
6. The Rain Falls And The Sky Shudders by Moby http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_dMhGBXj6MU
7. Rock On Hanuman (Omstrumental) by MC Yogi http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d4bCMqGmjAU
8. Give Me The Sunshine by Leo's Sunshipp http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svpLLvctiY0
9. Lost Ine The World by Chamberlain (Kanye West/ Bon Iver cover) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_pK1dcCdY-0 

Friday, November 1, 2013

Day One of PiBoIdMo 2013 & Sevillanas Presentation and Holiday Party


Day One of PiBoIdMo (Picture Book Idea Month) 2013 runs concurrently with NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). I am working on bending my loves of teaching children, flamenco, yoga and writing kids to young adults books. Mostly they are non fictional but this month I will be working my kid lit angle and trying my hand at picture book writing. I have a voice recorder with about 10 ideas already...still 20 more to go!
My first idea runs along the idea of a non fictional trip to Spain and the ensuing flamenco fun that arises. The family (in the stage version, my lucky husband and son will be participants) travels to Spain, learns about the history of flamenco and then joins in the fun during Feria week in Seville. That's all I am telling you right now. If you want to see the first run of this travel adventure/story book as it comes alive, please join me, Eve Costarelli and my wonderful youth flamenco dancers (and some fun loving adults):

Sevillanas Presentation and Holiday Party
  • Sunday, December 1st
  • 3:00-4:30PM
  • $10 adult/ $5 children 
Come and enjoy a Spanish Fiesta and the Sevillanas by the Always Be Dancing Youth Flamenco dancers. Eve Costarelli's students will each perform Sevillanas in this fun travel story that takes a family to Moorish Granada and then to Sevilla, the heart of flamenco Spain. They arrive in Seville in time for the Seville Fair. On the way they visit the the grand old city of Granada, a gypsy family in the caves of Sacramonte and then arrive in Seville and enjoy the festivities surrounding Feria week . The fun adventure culminates with an all out Sevillanas fest, where members of the audience are welcomed to join the performers in an all age presentation of the Sevillanas. Great fun for the whole family!



Open Spirit, on the grounds of Edwards Church, 39 Edwards Street, Framingham, MA. For more information, contact Eve Costarelli, 617-216-1643 or AdamAnt_Eve@hotmail.com; www.AlwaysBeDancing.com

¡Ole! ¡Namaste!
Eve