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Summer 1990
NAMASTE,
The big news, of course, pertains to Mr. Iyengar’s visit to Washington this July, which was announced in the spring newsletter. As I said then, information regarding his visit was sketchy and tentative, but I wanted to let you know about it enough in advance that if you wanted to take advantage of this rare (once-in-a-lifetime for many) opportunity to see B.K.S. Iyengar in person, you could make your plans.
Since then some changes have occurred. Rather than being in Washington July 9-11 as previously announced, Mr. Iyengar and his entourage will arrive on Sunday, July 8 and leave Tuesday, July 10. For that reason we have shifted the public program from Tuesday to Sunday, July 8. This will have the added advantage of combining all of the public activities, including the workshops at Unity Woods, within the weekend. Hopefully this will be more convenient for everyone.
The Sunday evening program will be held at the Main Auditorium, Building #46, of the University of the District of Columbia (UDC), 4200 Connecticut Ave., NW. It will begin at 7:30 p.m. and end around 10:00 p.m. The cost is $15 per ticket. These are general admission tickets, and seating will be on a first come basis. The doors will open at 7:00 p.m.
UDC is conveniently located directly adjacent to the Van Ness Metro stop on the Red Line. We’ll have arrows posted to guide the way to the Main Auditorium, which is a five minute walk from the Metro stop. The auditorium is an attractive new facility with seating for 930 people. Tickets will be strictly limited to that number, so please obtain yours early to avoid disappointment. A reservation form for tickets and for the weekend workshops can be found on the flyer on the last page of the newsletter. You can pick up your tickets at Unity Woods, at the door, or we’ll mail them to you, as you wish.
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The program will consist of an opening talk by Mr. Iyengar on an aspect of Yoga that he chooses. Following that will be a question-and-answer session. We are asking people to submit their questions in writing in advance, so that Mr. Iyengar can select the ones he feels address the most interesting and important subjects. The questions need not be limited to abstract or philosophical issues. In fact, my experience is that Mr. Iyengar would prefer to deal with more concrete things, so the questions may be about specific problems regarding an asana, a particular physical condition you may have, and so on. Be prepared to come on stage to demonstrate whatever you are asking about, and please don’t raise hypothetical questions. If you are a teacher with a question about a particular student, have the student there to demonstrate the problem. You can send your questions to Unity Woods between now and July 6.
The weekend workshops, Friday night and Saturday and Sunday mornings, are being held to raise money to help cover the costs of providing for transportation and expenses for Mr. Iyengar and his entourage (some nine or so people, including his daughter, Sunita). I also thought that some of you coming from out of town who are arriving early to do some sightseeing in Washington might enjoy the chance to attend a class or two at Unity Woods while you’re in the neighborhood. Registration forms for the workshops are on the same flyer at the end of the newsletter.
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I might add at this point that any money that is received from the workshops and the public program beyond that needed to defray the costs of the visit will be sent to the Ramamani Iyengar Memorial Yoga Institute in Pune, India to further the humanitarian projects that they undertake and to help them to continue to offer their powerful gift of yoga to the world.
There are, of course, a thousand and one things to be taken care of regarding this visit. The staff in the office and the teachers have already been making plans and preparations, but we will definitely need help. Some of you have already been gracious enough to offer your assistance, and we appreciate it. We will need housing for out-of-town visitors, people to run errands (read “gophers”), ticket takers, ushers, set-up people for the evening program, clean-up people and so on. If you can help in some way and wish to do so, please give Esther a call at the office.
I suppose there is really no need to say what a thrill and an honor it is for me to have Mr. Iyengar make this visit. But I will anyway. Thrill is kind of a funny word. I associate it with teenagerish sort of stuff or maybe the hyperbole of movie advertisements (Thrilling Tales of…!!!). But my little Office Edition of Webster’s II New Riverside Dictionary defines thrill as “to experience or cause to experience sudden intense excitement, joy, fear, etc." Boy, is that right on or what!? That’s exactly what happens to me when I think about Mr. Iyengar’s visit. I hope that you can share some of the excitement by coming to the Sunday evening program and seeing Mr. Iyengar for yourself.
If it weren’t for Mr. Iyengar’s visit the following new would be the headline story, because it, too, is thrilling.
Unity Woods is moving into a new studio.
By the time you receive this the move will be complete (I hope). Fortunately the move itself should not be that difficult, since we’re staying in the same building, relocating from the third floor to a penthouse suite on the sixteenth floor. The space has been built completely from scratch to our specifications, and if I do say so myself, it really is beautiful.
There is a small, attractive waiting room where the library and Beyondananda Boutique are located. Men and women will have their own dressing rooms. Office space has been increased substantially. But the most dramatic change, as it should be, is in the studio itself.
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The actual floor space is somewhat larger, but the sense of space in the room has expanded significantly. The ceilings are nearly ten feet high; there is no pillar in the middle of the room as there was in the old studio; and the north wall is all glass from floor to ceiling, affording a sensational view of Bethesda from 160 feet up. At night it is truly dazzling. This is the “excitement” part of the thrill of the new studio.
Speaking of affording, not only have we enlarged our total space by over fifty per cent, but we have increased our rent by more than two hundred and thirty percent. That is the “fear” part of the thrill. Classes have grown both in number and size since we first moved into Triangle Towers, which enables us to make the current move, but that’s a huge jump in cost. Even though the space is larger, it is my preference not to increase class size in any substantial way. The classes which are currently full are large enough as it is, and there is hardly any space left in the schedule to add any classes. So I’ve decided to cover the added expense by raising the cost of asana classes from $9 per class for a full session to $10. The drop-in rate will continue to be $12. To tell you the truth, that’s not all that outrageous an increase, and I do believe that once you’ve seen the studio, you’ll think it’s worth it, too.
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And then there is the “joy” part of the thrill. That comes from having watched these classes, this group of people, this community, expand and blossom the way it has in the past ten years. It comes from the feeling that for a growing number of us, yoga and everything that comes with it are becoming more and more an integral part of our lives, of the way we move and feel and think and are. The new studio is a part of that blossoming, a recognition of what has taken place. And Mr. Iyengar’s visit is a recognition of that, too. That’s the “joy” part of the thrill of his coming – and the “honor” part, as well. Certainly I feel honored by his visit, but I think you should also feel honored, because he’s not coming here to see one person or the city of Washington so much as he's coming to see a community that has sprung ultimately from his teaching and from the tremendous generosity of his heart.
It truly is a thrill and an honor to welcome him to our community. And it is also a thrill to share the move into the new studio with all of you. Thanks for making it possible.
Best wishes,
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