Description
It’s my carefully considered opinion that any new instructional material from Angela Farmer (or husband Victor van Kooten for that matter) begs no review. Did Angela make it? That’s reason enough to buy a copy of whatever it is, nothing else is needed. But I agreed to write this anyway, so please read on. A good many yoga teachers nowadays are more like physical fitness coaches than Patanjali. Nothing terribly wrong with that, but I should warn you that Angela doesn’t offer run-of-the-mill right-foot-in left-foot-out or exhale-and-jump-to-whatever instructional script. A practice with her is instead a gradually unfolding self-investigation. Her asanas remind me of improv dance, except slowed way down so that every movement is an authentic revelation of your own body, unlike a typical asanas which are predetermined shapes imposed from without. Her instruction too is extraordinary, weaving personal anecdotes and insights with directive imagery that, while striking and thought provoking, is still down-to-earth (and even rooted in the earth) and immediately relatable. Her intent in all this is the same as it’s been for the long line of yoga masters stretching back two-and-a-half millennia to yoga’s time-shrouded origin: to lead us on a “deep journey inward,” as the CD cover well describes it, and bring us face-to-face with our true Self , the “who you are”(what we do after that, I believe, is up to each of us alone).
