About

Teachers of The Yoga Room Orange

Welcome to The Yoga Room!  We offer classes for beginners as well as experienced yoga practitioners in a friendly environment. 

The method of Yoga we teach at The Yoga Room is Iyengar Yoga. Iyengar Yoga is a form of Hatha Yoga using the poses, applied to the physical body, as a way of studying the self. Since its opening in 1997, The Yoga Room has grown alongside the Orange yoga community and we offer classes, courses and workshops 

All teachers at The Yoga Room are certified Iyengar Yoga teachers who attend ongoing training and maintain a daily home practice. Please contact us for more information.

Class structure

Classes at The Yoga Room emphasise building a strong foundation at the Introductory, and Beginner Levels.  Once you have a solid foundation, you are free to move up the levels as you are ready.  We encourage regular attendance which leads to steady progression, as you learn about the subject of Yoga, also about yourself.  Our classes run continuously throughout the year, except at Christmas when we close for a few weeks.  If you are new to yoga or have done very little yoga, we recommend an Introductory Course.

Enrolling in an Introductory Course encourages regular attendance and establishes a solid foundation from the outset. At these early levels, the teacher is interested in building a level of knowledge in each student so that they work safely, being mindful of any injured or stiff areas within the body. In line with this philosophy, the Introductory Course is not open to casual attendance.

We offer a range of options for attendance, including memberships and passes.  Please see the Membership page for further details.

beginners pose shoulder openers

Class levels

We offer the following levels:

  • Yoga Basics weekends;
  • Introductory;
  • Gentle;
  • General;
  • Beginner;
  • Intermediate/Developing;
  • Experienced.

Yoga Basics

Designed for students with little or no experience of Yoga. These classes are run over four weekends per year.   The next Yoga Basics is Saturday 29 and Sunday 30 January 2022.  They are ideal for those wising to 'try yoga'.  The Classes work through some of the basic yoga poses (asanas), posture, alignment of the muscular-skeletal body, and how to practice with awareness.  We finish each class with a  relaxation segment which will leave you feeling energized and grounded.  Students learn how to use the equipment to support their learning, particularly if working with an injured area. If you haven't practiced yoga before, this is the best place to start.

Gentle Yoga

Both these levels are open to beginner students as well as students with a general level of experience.  The Gentle class is suited to students who have arthritis, are stiff in the joints and muscles, who have sustained, or are recovering from an injury, a hip or knee replacement, or who simply wish to start slowly and work at a more relaxed pace.

Introductory Course

The 10 Week Introductory Course allows new students to start from the very beginning and build up methodically and steadily over the 10 weeks.  There is no presumed level of knowledge and we welcome everyone.  At the conclusion of the  10 weeks, the course will become a Beginner level class.

 

Beginners Yoga

Beginner students who have less than 12 months experience of yoga, or those who have completed a Yoga Basics Class, continue developing the basic poses and working with the skill of observation.  Each week the teacher takes you through a sequence of poses (called asanas) which include standing poses, seated poses, twists and some simple inversions.  This gives you a solid foundation across all the categories of poses and allows you to have the confidence to monitor your yoga practice around injuries and tight areas in the body, so that you can eventually practice yoga safely at home.  We encourage all our students to eventually be independent practitioners of yoga.  At this level we introduce basic philosophy alongside the asanas, together with breath awareness.  If you haven't practiced Iyengar Yoga before, we recommend you start at this level, or attend the 10 Week Introductory Course.

Intermediate/Developing Yoga Practitioners

For students with at least 12 months experience of yoga.  Students learn how to develop a capacity for self study by learning to get focused and quiet.  Pranayama is taught at this level and some of the classic texts are introduced as part of the philosophy syllabus, which continues to be applied to the asanas. Headstand is introduced and taught along with other inversions, baby balancings and backbends.  Students benefit from a solid foundation at beginner level to progress and develop a more complex and intuitive practice at this level.

Experienced Yoga Practitioners

The Established level requires that students have a home practice and can work independently of a teacher. Level 2 students have a deeper understanding of yoga, including philosophy such as the 8 limbs. Head stand and other more challenging inversions are taught and developed at this level, along with more dynamic asanas that require strength, focus and commitment.  The emphasis at this level is on Svadhya, or self study.  Pranayama also continues to be developed at this level.  Level 2 is not open to casual attendance.

revolved side angle pose at The Yoga Room Orange

Led Practice

Led Practice is a great way to start to become an independent yoga practitioner.  Led Practice is currently taught online each Wednesday morning.   An experienced student or a teacher, leads the group through a sequence of asanas.  The leader calls the poses, and we all do them as a group.  Led Practice requires that you can monitor and adjust your practice to work sensibly and independently.  Please ask your teacher for further details.  

Workshops

We offer workshops in a range of areas including women's yoga and starting a home practice.  Workshops help students to deepen their understanding of the subject of Yoga.  Please see the blog for details of upcoming workshops. 

Yoga for Children and Young Adults

In school holidays we offer workshops and classes for the following age groups:

3-6yrs:  The children are taken on an adventure over rolling oceans, through lush, green, damp forests, over hills, into caves and other locations to stimulate the imagination and senses.  Along the way they encounter animals and objects that introduce them to some of the yoga poses.  We sometimes go on a bear hunt, and after numerous yoga poses to build balance, focus, coordination and self confidence, we eventually arrive at the bear cave!  Take a look at our Facebook page to see video footage and photos of previous classes.

7-12yrs:  We continue to teach yoga poses to this age group to build confidence, balance and awareness.  We work with stories and imagery, particularly animals, to introduce the shape and action of poses in a fun and nonjudgmental environment.  Children love to contribute to the class at this age as they develop their knowledge of yoga, their self worth and identity.

13yrs+:  In the Young Adult's class we work with flowing and dynamic poses to introduce 'meditation in action'.  Many of the poses we teach to this age group are energetic but not held for long periods of time so as to engage and challenge the mind.  We also include yoga poses that correct poor posture from sitting at a desk studying, or looking at devices for periods of time.  We teach inversions as well as restorative yoga to this group to refresh the brain and quieten the nervous system.  It is a perfect antidote to the potential stress of Years 11 and 12.

Kids Yoga Stories

We have developed and filmed 30min Yoga Stories for  3-6yrs children. Fiona Hawke, who you may know from StoryTime at Orange City Library, writes and presents her own stories for children. These stories use imagination, fables, well known songs and nature to take the children on a journey of learning and discovery. They are suitable for children and kidults and are loads of fun.