What is Big Dog Little Dog?
Big Dog Little Dog is a unique 45 minute yoga-based class for a parents/carers and children (between the ages of 4-8). The aim of the class is to build connection and trust between parent/carer and child.
How is Big Dog Little Dog unique?
Big Dog Little Dog is a class that children do with their parents/carers. Usually by age 4 children are already being dropped off at classes and the long spell of the 'parent taxi service' begins. Big Dog Little Dog sets up the relationship between parent/carer and child as "partners". Children help their parent/carer accomplish poses and vice versa. Each class starts with a breath connection between parent/carer and their child. The class provides an opportunity for children and their parents/carers to slow down and just be with each other.
Big Dog Little Dog doesn't suffer immature content. The curriculum for Big Dog Little Dog is a serious game. Although we have lots of fun in class parents don't have to pretend to go on jungle journeys, act like an ass (unless they choose to!) or sing silly songs. The class is based on accessing a pure love connection between parent/carer and child through real physical problem solving and bonding ... you're in it together. It is a shared experience which is nurturing, supportive and real.
See www.bdld.co.uk
Last updated Oct. 26, 2016, 3:28 p.m. UTC
I have a PhD in dance and expertise in human movement analysis. My Master's degree came from Laban Centre in London and my BA from University of California Irvine.
My yoga training began in 1994 when I was introduced to Classical Ashtanga Yoga by the silent monk Baba Hari Dass. I spent four years living in his yoga community the Mount Madonna Center in the mountains above Santa Cruz, California. Babaji (as his students call him) granted me permission to teach Ashtanga yoga asana, pranayama, hand mudras and meditation in 1996.
Since this time I have been teaching yoga for nearly 20 years.
In 2003 I began studying the Ashtanga Vinyasa yoga form as developed by Pattabhi Jois under the guidance of John Scott and Lucy Crawford and I continue to study regularly with Lucy. I have a deep love for the Ashtanga practice and for these truly inspiring teachers. In 2012 I started offering Ashtanga self-practice classes.
Also in 2003 I met Norman Blair who had started running the first Yin yoga classes in London. Since this time I have studied Yin yoga regularly with him and I started teaching Yin yoga in 2005. I have recently completed Norman's Advanced Training for Yin yoga teachers.
Baba Hari Dass, John Scott, Lucy Crawford and Norman Blair are my most influential teachers and their teachings are embedded in mine.
In 2007 I felt it would be valuable to hold a UK recognised teacher training and was selected as one of the first intake of students on Triyoga London's Teacher Training that they piloted in the year 2007. I graduated from this training in 2008.
My most recent undertaking has been to uniquely design a parent-child yoga class called Big Dog Little Dog. The class has been running since 2012 and it has become so popular that I am now looking to train more teachers. The next training will run 25&26 March 2017 in Brighton. For more info see www.bdld.co.uk
