Workshops 2023

Workshops 2023

Wearing a catsuit in a leopard-animal print and tights in the same pattern, Sri Louise performs a yoga pose on a blanket in the same pattern, with her neck on the ground in a summery, barren meadow, the rest of her body raised, one leg pointing vertically upwards.

Sri Louise
Yoga and Colonial Modernity

© Jessica Hubbard Marr
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Week 3, 24.7.–28.7.2023
09:05–11:35 / XL
Schmelz 10
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Week 4, 31.7.–4.8.2023
09:05–11:35 / XL
Schmelz 10

Yoga and Colonial Modernity investigates the complexities of understanding Yoga, which is an Indigenous path to liberation, in an era defined by post-colonial modernity and mass extinction.
This body-based investigation intends to find meaning in seemingly meaningless times.

There are three main inquiries guiding the workshop.
1. What are the epistemic genealogies that will determine how we see, participate and disseminate the practice/knowledge of Yoga in the West?

2. If we see colonial modernity as a European construct, what do we deprive Yoga of in terms of its own identity and meaning, especially when Yoga is converted by Euro-Christian universalism and then dismissed by the same universalism because of Western Monotheism? 

3. What can we learn from Indigenous pluralism, including pre-Christian Pagan traditions of Europe, which could help us meet the on-going challenge of global climate collapse?

We will take the first half hour to dive into conceptual material, please see resource list below. Then we will explore the full range of Asanas, looking deeply into anatomical function, while focusing on the somatics of breath to soothe the nervous system.

Resource list:
The Darker Side of Western Modernity - Global Futures, Decolonial Options, by Walter Mignolo
Decolonizing Methodologies - Research and Indigenous Peoples, by Linda Tuhiwai Smith
Decolonizing Wealth - Indigenous Wisdom to Heal Divides & Restore Balance, by Edgar Villanueva
The Way of the Gods - Polytheism Around the World, by Edward P. Butler
Selected Articles from Swami Dayananda Saraswati

Sri will also lead workshops in the frame of Country Retreats right after the festival!

Sri Louise
© Jessica Hubbard Marr
© Jessica Hubbard Marr