Category: Workshops

AcroYoga in Eastbourne

Now there is a now way to 'hang out'!

An AcroYoga indulgence weekend with Jaqui and Tobias

When: 26th & 26th September 2010

Where: The Yoga Life Studio Eastbourne

Price: £100

Devoted to healing Saturday, September 25th, 10-1pm & 2.30-5.30pm

This will be an all day bodywork extravaganza. We will introduce you to the art of healing touch and work with ‘Metta’ loving kindness. It will be a real treat for our achey and tired bodies. You will practice the principles of mutual support, giving and receiving. We will introduce you to a blend of Thai massage sequences and therapeutic flying flows blended with massage. This one day offering is aimed as an introduction to the yummy side of AcroYoga. No experience or no partner necessary do come with an open mind & a willingness to have fun!

Embodying the physical form Sunday, September 26th, 10-1pm & 2.30-5.30pm

A day to tap into your source of strength, flexibility and creative will. We will explore the qualities of embodying the acrobatic, beginning with conditioning & strength exercises followed by a strong vinyasa practice before working on various inversions to turn your world upside down (headstand, forearm balance and handstands). You will be working progressively in pairs and in small groups towards partner balancing, group pyramids and trios involving a base, flyer and spotter with a focus toward basic flying transitions. No partner necessary by a willingness to explore your fearless inner child required.

About Jaqui and Tobias

Both are fearless acrobatic junkies with teaching experience across Europe and recently across North America. Their teaching style is compassionate ‘boot camp’ yoga. They are able to blend clear instruction with humour and playfulness. Using a ‘kick ass’ music playlist they are both creative spontaneous and receptive to the different needs of students. Both are passionate practitioners and community builders.

Participants can attend Saturday as a one off event. However, to attend the Sunday offering we require you to either attend all day Saturday or have some experience of AcroYoga and or have an intermediate yoga asana practice and are comfortable with inversions (assisted headstands/handstands against a wall).

For bookings or more information please contact the studio on

AcroYoga tourists in Norway

A Norwegian Adventure

Always the potential to be a tourist attraction

What a beautiful country is Norway! After spending ten days with a most generous host Thomas Horgen, a budding AcroYoga enthusiast and professional climber, both Tobias and I could not have been in better hands. What did we get up to? In between weekend workshops in Oslo and Trondheim, we managed to head up into the mountains to practice our yoga, rock climb in the big outdoors, taught teenage children AcroYoga, swam but in my case paddle in freezing clear river water and all under the canopy of glorious sunshine!!

It felt like holiday! Absolutely fabulous or ‘fantastiske’ in Norwegian. It was a great opportunity to be out in the glorious county a lovely change from metropolitan urbanite living, ‘Man I am so blessed!!’

Chips with peanut sauce and an upside down weekend

Running to the airport, as usual (I must thrive on the stress of nearly missing a plane) my friend Claudette and I were on our way to Amsterdam for a weekend of Acroyoga with Jaqui Wan and her teaching partner Tobias Frank from Germany. We were too late at Gatwick for any proper lunch so it was a quick juice to take on EasyJet and chips with mayonaise and peanut sauce at Schipol Airport (tried and tested my Claudette on a trip to Holland at new year.)

We only knew the hotel was on a ringroad (so figured not in central Amsterdam) however it was a 15 minute bus ride to Rasa Lila the yoga studio housed in an old school building, along with lots of other creative businesses. So it was a train to Central Station and then a taxi. We discovered on the way back that we were actually two stops from the airport, on the way the centre of the city: doh!

No time to try out the delights of the spa as we had to rush off to the first session of the weekend at Rasa Lila.  Luckily we met Jaqui and Tobi on the way in as we were a bit perplexed at the address and they carefully steered us the back way into the studio to avoid the hall floors that had just been polished.  The studio was small but perfectly formed with a beautiful mural on one wall, wood floor, low lighting and a cup of tea on arrival.  Friday night was focused on spotting – or how to ensure the flyer is safe at all times and was a great way for the group to bond and build trust.  I think Claudette and I had travelled furthest – though one student had driven from Belgium and was going to Barcelona the following weekend since there are no classes in her home town!  Yes, this Acroyoga business is worth travelling for.

Saturday we started with meditation and group check in and were soon launching into Jaqui and Tobi’s famous “bootcamp” conditioning exercises – think arm training first thing in the morning – but totally necessary to built up strength especially in the core muscles…”dry noodle!” being Jaqui’s cry all weekend.  By mid morning I could definitely “feel my body” and in a good way, especially as I tend to spend far too much time in front of a computer.

Then the acrobatics started in earnest with handstand practice in small groups to build our strength and balance in preparation for the partner acro for the rest of the day.  Lunch (nicked leftover breakfast from our hotel!) was suitably light so we could keep up for the afternoon. Claudette and I spent most of the afternoon developing our basing skills – you have to be flexible, strong and very present (as of course do the flyer and spotter) to balance your partner in a series of yogic/acrobatic moves on your hands and feet whilst you are lying on the floor with your legs at 90 degrees.  We had amazing fun and at the end of the day (even after a great Thai massage) we were definitely ready for the hotel spa which was most certainly worth it!

Sunday morning I could really “feel my body” and wasn’t sure I was going to keep up until 5pm…but with my usual determination I kept going.  We started with a chanted meditation to come together as a group, and after our usual check in we went into a hardcore asana sequence for the next 45 minutes.  Then into different groups to learn more moves from Jaqui and Tobi.  Before lunch it was announced we’d be performing at the end of the day – the clue should have been the question at the beginning of the day “what has been your experience of performing in the past”!

A delicious lunch at a local café was followed by an afternoon of working out what our group’s sequence was going to be for the end of the day.  We all took turns in both basing and flying at some point which kept us on our toes…and amazingly it all came together, especially as the first time we heard the music was when we were “on stage”!  The skills  in the room were really impressive and we had obviously all developed a lot and had a great deal of fun over the course of the weekend.  The day finished with the group carrying each person individually over our heads to give them a massage to go home with!  It now feels like I have a whole new Acroyoga community in Holland and I hope to re-connect very soon and turn my world upside down.

By Kate Bacon

Juggling Adventures

Happy New Year!

Last year, Tobias Frank and I co instructed acroyoga at Buddhafield. This was only the first of our collaborations and over the festive period Tobias and I joined forces again at the annual Jugglers Festival in Regensburg, Germany. This intimate event is held ever year between Christmas Day and New Year.  Over the years, I’ve become more and more entranced with acrobatics and circus skills, and I knew sooner or later I would come head to head with the challenge of juggling. So in some ways you can say this was my juggling judgment day, but what better environment than being surrounded by juggling experts and aficionados to provide inspiration, passion and experience to set my butter fingers to task. The Festival was located at ‘Utopia’; it was to be our place of work, rest and play for the whole duration. Not only was it a privilege to learn under the guidance of masters, but to watch close up such talent at work was a joy. One of the virtuosos at work was Manne Hanke who’s ability is nothing less than art and had me dumbfounded. Watch him in action hereand for more go to his YouTube channel.

My attempt at juggling was pitiful and bordered on the comical.  After epic fail after epic fail, my sanity and credibility was rescued by a poorly disguised desperate play of showmanship in the form of handstands – executed only to remind my  all too frail ego that I can do something of worth. It was good to leave with the aide memoir that practice, practice and practice make perfect. What a great end to 2009 and start to 2010.

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