Les Leventhal in Vienna, February 2017

“We often find our­selves on the edge. But if you step back from the edge, you can start to enjoy the view”. (Les Lev­en­thal)

We are very hap­py that Les Lev­en­thal has accept­ed our invi­ta­tion to join us for a week­end in Feb­ru­ary 2017 (24. — 26.2.2017) here @ Feel­go­od­stu­dio Vien­na.

Yoga with Les is like yoga with no oth­er. Rich, raw and real, you are left amazed by his abil­i­ty to reach your mind, body and soul. Les has found his unique flow which is deeply root­ed in self-dis­cov­ery; and he invites you to find your own. You are tak­en on a per­son­al jour­ney filled with sur­prise and delight, vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty and accep­tance. You’ll be empow­ered to unearth answers for your­self through embod­i­ment, intu­ition and self-study; and to have fun along the way. Be pre­pared to move, and be moved.

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Les’ yoga will give you an oppor­tu­ni­ty to heal your heart and laugh, cry, dance and just let go. Some class­es flow freely, while oth­ers will explore hold­ing pos­tures a bit longer. Many class­es have music. Most of all, is that in Les’ class­es, you have an oppor­tu­ni­ty to mod­i­fy and do what you need to do in order to take care of your prac­tice and that in learn­ing to take bet­ter care of your­self, you can then take bet­ter care of those around you and they might then take bet­ter care of those around them.
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“What I’m teach­ing comes from my stud­ies and how I incor­po­rate that into my body and my spir­it. My voice should only be a guide for you to explore your body and spir­it and that the voice of your spir­it will speak more clear­ly than any­thing I would ever have to say”, says Les.

Les class­es and pod­casts are filled with all the basic tech­nique and align­ment cues you will need to get your yoga prac­tice start­ed. They are also filled with lots of vari­a­tions and occa­sion­al longer sequences to chal­lenge the more sea­soned prac­ti­tion­er. The prana (life force) comes from with­in. So be pre­pared to sweat and let the rasa (the sap and the juice) flow freely.

From New York to San Fran­cis­co, New Zealand to Aus­tralia and Bali to Sin­ga­pore, Les has made a pro­found effect on those his yoga has reached to date.

Sched­ule:

Fri­day, 24.2.2017: 18.00 — 20.00 ::: MASTERCLASS : Rock n Roll Vinyasa

This mas­ter­class is the per­fect oppor­tu­ni­ty for stu­dents, from begin­ning prac­ti­tion­er to intermediate/advanced stu­dents and teach­ers, to drop in, dive in and go deep­er into explor­ing every­thing that is pos­si­ble with their practice.

The asana prac­tice is mind­ful­ly sequenced so that the basics are cov­ered for new­er stu­dents and the sea­soned prac­ti­tion­er can play on their edges with many vari­a­tions and up­-lev­els to prac­tice throughout.

Les tends to begin his mas­ter­class on a Fri­day evening, serv­ing as the open­ing to a week­end of work­shops. As stu­dents become famil­iar with his play­ful yet pow­er­ful teach­ing style, they are tak­en on a per­son­al jour­ney over the course of a few days of inter­est­ing and sur­pris­ing trans­for­ma­tion, that has no limits.

Great rock n roll sing along tunes (maybe a good dis­co beat here and there) to lift the spir­it, is often times a link and con­nec­tion to the pure joy that is innate­ly inside each of us.

A fun filled vinyasa class for all lev­els of prac­ti­tion­er to come and play and dance and sing, where you are in your body and in your practice.

Sat­ur­day, 25.2.2017: 10.00 — 12.30 ::: Work­shop I: Chan­nel­ing the Chakras 1 & 2

A pow­er­ful stand­ing sequence to ground and lib­er­ate the hips, and free the spine to relieve ten­sion in these areas of the body. This is key to cul­ti­vat­ing more har­mo­nious rela­tion­ships with our­selves and oth­ers. Where rela­tion­ships flow freely. This prac­tice will infuse the body with vital­i­ty and well­being, releas­ing ten­sion and fear.

Incor­po­rat­ing a focus on Hips and Twists will tone and reju­ve­nate the abdom­i­nal and pelvic regions. When these regions are engaged, blood flow nat­u­ral­ly increas­es and tox­ins are released – a nat­ur­al inter­nal mas­sage. Once we relax and strength­en these areas, we can approach ques­tions regard­ing belief pat­terns, super­sti­tions, heal­ing com­pro­mis­ing behav­iors, unfin­ished busi­ness, cre­ativ­i­ty, codes of hon­or, author­i­ty and control.

Tribe, Arche­types, Con­nec­tion to Earth, Man­i­fest­ing, Cre­ativ­i­ty, Sen­su­al­i­ty, Sex­u­al­i­ty, Per­son­al Pow­er, Mon­ey. These are many of the ingre­di­ents asso­ci­at­ed with first and sec­ond chakra.

Sat­ur­day, 25.2.2017: 14.00 — 16.30 ::: Work­shop II: Yamas & Niyamas

How do these first two Limbs of the 8 Limbed prac­tice affect the asana prac­tice on the mat and every­day life off the mat?

We will explore what the 8 limbs are, and where the Yamas and Niya­mas fit in along with their application.

We will dis­cuss how these ideals can be themes or inten­tions for the prac­tice. We’ll take some time to review our ethics and how we might shift our per­spec­tive on how we see things cul­tur­al­ly and/or per­son­al­ly and then weave all that into an asana prac­tice to cul­ti­vate awareness.

Our lives are for­ev­er shift­ing and some­times we need to make tough deci­sions about how to love our­selves and oth­ers, compassionately.

Sun­day, 26.2.2017: 10.00 — 12.30 ::: Work­shop III: Chan­nel­ing the Chakras 3 & 4

A place to come home, to uti­lize our per­son­al pow­er, and radi­ate out through our limbs, feel­ing sup­port­ed by what’s con­nect­ed to the earth and equal­ly sup­port­ed by that which is not.

Wel­com­ing our knowl­edge of when and where we are able, or stuck, in our col­lab­o­ra­tions or emo­tion­al per­cep­tions. Work­ing the fire ingre­di­ent, we invite the play­ful­ness of Arm Bal­ances and Inver­sions, danc­ing with some fear, chal­lenge, yet very fun pos­es to prac­tice. Strength­en­ing the core to sup­port arm bal­ances; build­ing upper body strength to sup­port and build health­i­er wrists, elbows and shoul­ders, engag­ing legs, so they don’t take refuge in Savasana.

The col­lab­o­ra­tion pieces are heart open­ers (back­bends), some of yoga’s most exhil­a­rat­ing pos­tures. We will open the front body, with empha­sis on the heart cen­ter. The weav­ing of these pos­tures will bring your heart chakra back into bal­ance and har­mo­ny. We will explore many dif­fer­ent ways of work­ing with and with­out props, along with phys­i­cal, psy­cho­log­i­cal and spir­i­tu­al aspects of a back­bend and effort­less surrender.

Dan­ce­play with Arm Bal­ances and Backbends.

Per­son­al Pow­er, Emo­tion­al Pow­er and Collaboration.

This fun and lib­er­at­ing work­shop opens us up to how we treat our­selves and how we might present our­selves to make it appear as if all of our rela­tion­ships are always in per­fect align­ment with our own desires.

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Loca­tion: Feel­go­od­stu­dio, Paulan­er­gasse 13, 2nd Floor, Loft, 1040 Vienna

Cost:

Whole Week­end (Fri­day — Sun­day, all 4 class­es): 140 €

if paid seperately:

Fri­day Mas­ter­class: 32 €

Work­shops I, II, III: 45 € each

Contact&Booking: feelgoodstudio@gmail.com

Your spot will be con­firmed upon receipt of payment.

Please reserve your spot as soon as pos­si­ble as we will only accept a lim­it­ed num­ber of stu­dents for this unique occa­sion to prac­tice with Les.

 

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About Les:

Les’ stud­ies and cer­e­monies are steeped in For­rest tra­di­tion, hav­ing com­plet­ed Ana Forrest’s teacher train­ing. Les has also assist­ed Ana’s teacher train­ing and stud­ied many addi­tion­al hours with her. Also, Les has com­plet­ed sev­er­al train­ings with Tias Lit­tle and has learned much of his align­ment and tech­nique cues from Tias, as well as a firm foun­da­tion in the 8 Fold path of Bud­dhism which com­pli­ments the asana prac­tice with a sense of grace and ele­gance that allow you to take class­es what­ev­er your yoga expe­ri­ence and what­ev­er tra­di­tions you have in your own life. Les pays care­ful atten­tion to weave in the 8 limbs of yoga and keep the tra­di­tion­al styles and inten­tions of yoga a part of his class­es while mak­ing great strides into open­ing a win­dow into our glob­al cul­tur­al shift.

Les has been fea­tured twice in Yoga Jour­nal mag­a­zine and inter­viewed by Dar­ren Main, author of Yoga and The Path of The Urban Mys­tic and by Voice Amer­i­ca – Your Life With­out Lim­its, Joe Sarti.

“Les’ coura­geous intro­spec­tion, unabashed hon­esty and play­ful wit breathe new life into age-old yoga phi­los­o­phy.” Tiffany Cruik­shank, L.Ac, MAOM, E‑RYT. Founder of Yoga Med­i­cine and renowned expert.

For more infor­ma­tion about Les please vis­it his web­site.

Les is also the author of the book “Two Lifestyles, One Life­time: An Inspir­ing Jour­ney From Rock-Bot­tom Hope­less­ness to Wild­ly Extrav­a­gant Possibility”