Cocco Yoga

As promised, I’ve been thinking about the connections between yoga and art. I’ve been thinking about it on and off for years, as so many of my friends, students, and peers are artists of one kind or another. I think that, for me, it has something to do with fearlessness and honesty of expression, an honesty we can easily hide from ourselves without something to keep us awake and disciplined. When a filmmaker student asked me about art and yoga in 2007, I shared this quote, which I’d read years earlier and written down.

I’m not going to tackle the subject now, but I want to share an event in NYC this Saturday. My friend and teacher, Peter, is leading a kirtan at ISHTA yoga near Union Square. Kirtan is “a bhakti (devotional) yoga practice that uses musical chanting to alter the yogis’ energy. The repeated use of a mantra combined with the energy of a group is a powerful tool for transformation and for bringing an immediate sense of well-being.” Peter is a photographer and musician, and has written the music for Saturday’s event (March 13). Good Kirtan can be hard to come by, so try to make it if you’re interested!

I love it. I’m looking at wordpress themes for artists (trying to find a better way to display photo essays), totally unrelated to this topic, and I come across a theme in which the main example is for an artist who has “yoga teaching schedule” as one of his main links, next to his work, CV, and artist statement. Now, you might say, of course artists would be into yoga. They’re loopy that way. But I have far more business and law school students than artists. And, heavens, do they need their yoga.

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