Yoga means “union”, be that of body and mind or of breath with movement while a rodeo is defined as “a public exhibition of cowboy skills.” The two make an unlikely combination but by coincidence the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo and the Texas Yoga Conference happened to fall on the same February weekend. While backs arched and arms were raised in an effort to keep balance, one scenario unfolded on a bucking bronco, the other on a rectangle of squishy mat.

More habituated to tie-dyed bellbottoms than rhinestone belt buckles, I committed to the yoga conference. The three days of events opened with Dana Flynn beckoning, “Come a little closer family.” We meditated upon our being as she stroked the vibraphone keys and squeezed the belly to make it sing like a harmonica. Administered light-heartedly, the vinyasa yoga that followed was a dance set to music and infused with laughter, thus fitting that her New York studio be called Laughing Lotus. It was the kind of class that leaves you sweaty, feeling like a million dollars, but achy in places you didn’t even know existed the next day. As we rolled up our mats an opening ceremony of drumbeats and devotional chanting began.

Over the next two days I had to go easy. The body can only handle so many asanas before it begs for shivasana, the posture that so closely resembles sleep that many times there is actually someone that breaks off into snores during the “nap” at the end of class.

There were a sampling of different teacher personalities. “Unleash your inner Goddess” was Sierra Bender’s catch phrase as she led the group through a series about empowerment. The shouting of affirmations was reflective of the militant mood set in her publicity posters where she dressed in camouflage pants and dog tags. The other extreme was Sean Johnson who lead a Bakti flow, his voice like a hypnotist’s guiding us while the Wild Lotus Band played in circular loops.

There were lectures introducing Ayurvedic medicine, the principle that what and how you eat should correspond with your body type, as well as presentations introducing yoga as a classroom management tool. Marita Gardner-Anopol who runs the Yoga 4 Kids studio in Kingwood, Texas trains teachers to integrate yoga into the classroom. I didn’t need selling having already seen firsthand how my students benefited from yoga stretch breaks, that it wasn’t quite so hard to sit still after a few wiggles. Led through the board game she developed, cards were read aloud before we’d all practice the movement together. I liked that included with the description and image of each posture were its health benefits, empowering students to access it again in a time of need.

The best discovery of all might have been the introduction to a bounty of local teachers. Roger and Albina Rippey who run the YogaOne branch of studios and co-organized the conference led a sunset flow set to a live mix of jazzy grooves. It was “hands on” with a generous helping of adjustments from their young staff that circulated and coaxed us all a little farther into the positions. Jennifer Buergermeister, conference organizer and founder of Houston’s Curayoga also led a flow class with a live DJ set. She is the kind of yogi that inspires, currently lobbying to get yoga teachers health care coverage while her foundation Breathecure experiments with yoga as therapy for illness.

Participating in a yoga gathering is a way to expand your view of the practice and try on other facets. Each teacher you encounter has a different definition of yoga. I have been practicing a lot of Iyengar centered around absolute precision of alignment in the postures, while the style most heavily represented at the conference was its polar opposite, more focused on the journey than remaining at the destination. Each version offers you something different and in one you might find your niche.

The fast pace and large numbers would have been overwhelming for a beginner but a large demographic of attendees were teachers themselves. Costs ranged from one-session for 35 dollars to 250 dollars for true masochists or devotees choosing the weekend pass. In the future I would fall somewhere in between and opt to spend a day or two at the Texas Yoga Conference.

These are a few of the goodies I went home with:


Texas Yoga Conference