Comments to Rodney Yee about his Workshop

These are some comments and observations on your workshop at the Sun and Moon Studio. I want to open with telling you how much I enjoyed the workshop. As with all of the yoga workshops I have attended I found it a mixture of things, I found it educational, enlightening and disturbing as I will explain further. I had signed up for the workshop last November more from hearing about you from word of mouth from my teachers and other students then from knowing anything about you. With the new year I began to find that your reputation has grown. I found that when I mentioned that I was going to a "Rodney Yee Workshop" several people said they had your videos which I had myself never seen. Then there was your recently being on Opra and then the week of the workshop being mentioned in Time as "the stud muffin". The week before the workshop I begin to wonder how much I was taking a workshop from a serious yoga instructor vs. the latest fad. 

I came away from the workshop with mixed feelings, and what a range of feelings. Such as:

Wow, I did a workshop with Rodney Yee.
I didn't learn much about asanas and yoga as I expected.
What a wonderful outlook on life he has.
I learned what I did not expect.
His attitude on life is most wonderful.
What is with all the "groupies" wanting autographs ?
This guy is in touch with himself and his life.

These were but only a few of my thoughts. Where I had expected to gain knowledge about the physical aspects of asanas I found what I learned most was more about attitude and life. Where I had expected to learn more about movement I learn the most about how to view life.
I was particularly touched when I had learned you had previously studied dance. This had particular meaning for me for I, in my younger days, was deeply involved in dance. I had studied and practiced modern dance (Cunningham style) with a little jazz and ballet. This formed some sort of connection, however tenuous, with you.

I found I did not really learn much about the asanas as I had expected but this was not as much as to your teaching but as to the learning from teachers that I have had. I have had many wonderful teachers, most of all Susan Van Nuys but also Doug Keller and workshops with JJ, Jenny Otto, Betsy Dowling, Jamie Allison to name a few. While I did, as I always do, found that there were some new and interesting things I had learned, I did not find your teaching of the asanas provide much additional information or detail. 

On the other hand you greatly touched me with your attitude, your outlook, your view on life. It is these things that I found most refreshing, most interesting, most wonderful. For someone to be in such limelight to maintain such a down to earth and positive outlook was heart touching. It is this that you touched me most deeply and I am most thankful for. It is also some of these things I found most disturbing for they touched something deeply within me. I know not where yoga is leading me but I feel drawn down a path that I feel compelled to follow.
I look forward to the time that I paths may cross again.

Namaste

Larry Mixson April 22, 2001