Getting Handsy in Down Dog!

So a couple of years ago, I had taken a partner yoga class, and absolutely LOVED it. Then when I took my teacher training, we were lucky enough to have one evening dedicated to learning different partner yoga poses, only reigniting my interest in it.

So earlier in the winter, I approached the studio owner about teaching a partner themed class around Valentines Day, and she was totally into it, and told me to go for it. So I did more research, got a full sequence ready, made the corny lovey playlist and it was on the calendar for 12 couples to come get their down dog romance on. It helps that we actually have a bunch of guys that come to the studio, so we knew they'd at least be into it.

We did some pre planning of the class, mainly just going through the poses to make sure the three of us knew what each pose was. And she went to town on planning food and the little touches (ie. rose petals on their eyes before the cool towel during savasana).

I got there Friday night, expecting that she would lead the class since she is far more experienced, and it IS a special event for the studio. And immediately I am corrected that no, I will be the one lead teaching. Thank goodness I was the one to actually write the sequence, but it had still been a month since I'd looked at it. Cue cramming. Although, we had gained extra people to help assist. The owner, the only instructor that taught there before me, and then the two newest instructors. One of which was my old instructor from way back in the day at the rec center.

Couples started arriving, the instructors got them signed in and we took their mats to get them all set up before they even entered the studio, because we are full service! They were all really cute. 11 boy/girl combos and one what is guess was mother/daughter (all types of love for valentines!). Some were far more romantic than others. Lots of hand rubbing and back caressing. In fact, a couple of them might have even gone a little overboard, cause it takes a lot to get me blushing, but boy did some of them achieve that.

All different levels of skill. One couple NAILED every pose, despite a solid 2.5 foot height difference. His legs were literally her entire body. Another couple, I almost felt bad for her. He might as well have been a baby deer just born. Had I not seen him walk in successfully, I would have thought he didn't know what legs were for.

18-some poses, and we got through them all! There was a quick warm up, and a nice long savasana (lights off, god only knows what fully happened). It was only supposed to last an hour, but ended up being closer to 75 minutes, but knowing our studio, no one should be shocked by that. And through it all, the owner only interjected a few instructions, and even those were completely helpful and only adding to what I had already said. She did teach two poses, but because i had asked her to, because there were two poses that she added herself, and I really had no idea how to even get a couple started moving in that direction. But otherwise, she was super smiley and happy and bouncing through the whole class. She was like a ninja photographer snapping pictures from every position when not helping assist the poses. At one point, she was in full reclined hero to get the angle she wanted. It was really cute. And it only continued after the class. She took photos of all of us in front of the buffet, and kept giving hugs and high fives and was clearly ELATED with the outcome of the class, making me extremely happy and pleased with my own doing. The couples all seemed to love it too as they finally emerged from the dark savasana. Lots of compliments and saying they would love to do it again. So that was pretty awesome.

And all the compliments were BEFORE the buffet after. Champagne, sparkling green tea (still have to pretend to be yogis ;-) ), truffles, other chocolates, mousse cups, chocolate covered strawberries, the works. And it was all fantastic. Perfect cap to the class. And once everyone left, the instructors all stayed, and it was actually the first time we have all been together, so it became a totally chat time, eventually working into finding two of them boyfriends. We also got to meet the owner's husband and daughter, who I had yet to meet so far.

Overall, a total success. Who wants to wait all the way until next February to do another one? Certainly not me. Although, I think going further into acroyoga might be funner….. :-)