Guided primary series and Tea&Talk with Lisa Lalér and Jens Bache

On Sunday 5 March we have the honour of welcoming Lisa Lalér (Yogashala Stockholm) and Jens Bache (Astanga Yoga of Copenhagen) to Ashtanga Yoga Malmö. Lisa will teach the regular guided primary series class in the morning and Jens will on the following tea&talk speak about his academic research on the histories of modern yoga and yoga-asana. It’s a great opportunity for practitioners to meet and learn from two prominent Scandinavian Ashtanga yoga teachers.

PROGRAMME

9-10:45 Led primary series class traditionally guided by calling asana and vinyasa in Sanskrit. (Lisa)

11-12.15 Tea&Talk: “The Stories of Modern Yoga - History or Myth?" (Jens)

Jens Bache, has during his studies at Copenhagen University, researched the story that over the last decade has been popularized in the West claiming that Modern Postural Yoga, including Ashtanga yoga, is built upon Scandinavian gymnastics. This Sunday he will share the major findings in his analysis of how the stories of Yoga in India and in the West are told in Cultural conflicting views.

"In the West, yoga of today is practiced with a strong focus on the physical exercises; whilst in India yoga is generally understood to be a mainstream ancient spiritual philosophy.  This is at the core of a rigorous ongoing debate of historical arguments about what yoga, its practices and origins really are. Arguments with implied assertions that form fundamental presumptions in which there appears to be an incompatibility between a fundamental Indian belief in the eternal truth in comparison with Western faith with its reality of documented facts."

Jens will present the cultural differences in the understanding of time, the divergent interpretations as cultural and social narratives, and how they can be understood as history, myth, and legend.

An abstract and the full thesis is available on: https://ku-dk.academia.edu/JBache.

Jens first presented his findings on January 14th, 2022 at Yogashala Stockholm in an online discussion with Eddie Stern from NYC and a further elaboration on the topic of Yogācārya Krishnamacharya as a cultural hero with Raghu Ananthanarayanan from Chennai, India on February 11th.

DATE: Sunday 5 March 2023

TIME: Guided class 9am, Lecture 11am

PRICE and BOOKINGS:

• our current card holders use their practice cards to attend and do not need to sign up for class in advance
• external/visiting students may sign up for guided class and/or the following tea&talk lecture to a drop-in price 200 SEK through our partner Medborgarskolan (click this link)

ABOUT LISA LALÉR
Lisa is the main teacher at Yogashala Stockholm which she runs together with her sister Lotta Lalér since 2009. Lisa has been teaching since 2005 and is an authorised (Level 2) Ashtanga yoga teacher at the Sharath Yoga Centre in Mysore, India. She has also translated Sharath Jois’ books Astanga Yoga Anusthana and Ageless into Swedish. Read more about Lisa and Yogashala Stockholm here

ABOUT JENS BACHE
Jens Bache is one of the founders of the first Astanga yoga school in Denmark: Astanga Yoga Skole København, in the year 2000. In 2013 Jens began studies at Copenhagen University where he subsequently obtained an M.A. in Cross-Cultural Studies and a B.A. in Indology specialising in classical India and Indo-Danish cross-cultural relations. Jens is also an authorised (Level 1) Ashtanga yoga teacher at the Sharath Yoga Centre in Mysore, India. Read more about Jens here