The Piedmont Yoga Studio is proud to present our next 10-month intensive yoga study program. We feel our program is unique in a number of ways. First we offer two tracks running side by side, the Teacher Training (TT) track for aspiring teachers and the Advanced Studies (AS) track for intermediate and advanced level students interested in deepening their yoga practice. As with past programs, Deep Yoga 2010-2011 runs for 10 months, beginning in September 2010 and ending in June 2011. But this time, along with the 200 hours required for certification by the Yoga Alliance, we’ve added something not found in standard programs, an extra 25 hours to give our TT track students the opportunity to practice their teaching skills under the watchful eyes of our faculty.

As with our previous programs, our schedule is geared to accommodate our students’ day-to-day responsibilities. We’ll regularly meet on Thursday evenings from 6:00 to 9:00 pm and one Saturday afternoon a month. For the additional 25 hours of this program, we’ve also added two 12-hour weekend intensives–one in January and the other in May. If you choose to join us, you’ll take part in a profound experiential journey of Yoga with 20-plus other students and six dedicated faculty teachers. Together we’ll explore yoga as an ancient discipline with modern relevance, we’ll see how its traditional philosophy and practices have evolved their modern counterparts. The Deep Yoga faculty believes that from this informed, organic understanding yoga takes deep root, benefitting not only our lives but through us, the lives of our students. And you’ll not only learn more about yourself, together with your fellow students you’ll create a unique community of mutual support and lasting friendships.

The faculty and staff of the Deep Yoga program are especially eager to begin this year's program because we’ve all put in many hours of collaborative work–meetings, e-mails, and more meetings! – to enrich this year's curriculum. We asked ourselves two challenging questions:

-What do we want a graduate of our 200-hour program to know and to be able to do?
-How can we help make the program be an even more rewarding experience for our students?

As a result, we have reconfigured the curriculum so that:

-  Anatomy and Kinesiology with Baxter Bell, MD, is scheduled in the fall and alternates with classes on the Anatomy of Asana. This makes the September through December four-month period a focused study of human physiology and yoga asana and an great opportunity for you to concentrate on deepening your personal asana practice.
- Yoga Philosophy with Richard Rosen and Yoko Yoshikawa will be held in the early spring of 2011. We will examine the roots of Classical and Hatha Yoga and compare them to and contrast them with modern yoga practices. We’ll throw a new light on popular notions of Yoga today with groundbreaking historical analysis and modern scientific knowledge. All of this will give you a chance to exercise your critical thinking capacities and make you a more learned and profound yoga teacher and practitioner.

What else makes our DY program unique?
- Each student will have individual mentoring from one of our faculty members throughout the year.
- Through the larger Piedmont Yoga schedule, we offer students access to expert instruction in yoga for a variety of special populations, for people with disabilities, with Parkinson’s disease and multiple sclerosis, for women passing through menopause, and for teenagers, seniors and more.

We’re also pleased to continue our scholarship and work-study programs for another year. This program offers two half-scholarships for people of color, and two work-study positions. At this writing we haven’t yet determined the full fee for the program, but based on last year’s fee, the savings will represent at least $1500.

Please check back to this website towards the end of April for more information. In the meantime reserve Friday, May 14th from 7:00-9:00 pm for our Open House. You will get a chance to meet the core faculty and staff and ask questions as well as be a participant in an asana practice.

DY Program Coordinator: 
- Caryn Dickman, who handles the day-to-day running of the program and will answer general questions about the Deep Yoga program. You can reach her at cldmek@sbcglobal.net or 510.459.4379.

Our faculty includes:
- Baxter Bell, MD, who has many years of training and experience as a Western medical doctor, teaches 30-hours of Applied Anatomy and Kinesiology.
- Ann Dyer, a former professional singer, sounds the depths of Sanskrit chanting and teaches you to unleash your voice in your practice and teaching.
- Mary Paffard relays the meditative power of Yoga with her years of Vipassana practice and explores the deeper, more searching aspects of asana.
- Richard Rosen, the PYS co-founder and director, and who has written extensively on pranayama, will be teaching you pranayama and how to teach beginning level pranayama to others.
- Vickie Russell Bell will teach you how to work in small groups, with guided partnering, touch, and close observation, as well as teaching restorative yoga based on her training with Judith Lasater.
- Yoko Yoshikawa will provide you with a step-to-step entry into the inverted postures–and teach you how to teach them to others safely and effectively.