“], “filter”: { “nextExceptions”: “img, blockquote, div”, “nextContainsExceptions”: “img, blockquote, a.btn, a.o-button”} }”>
Heading out the door? Read this article on the new Outside+ app available now on iOS devices for members!
>”,”name”:”in-content-cta”,”type”:”link”}}”>Download the app.
“Hello! How’s your breath?”
It’s not exactly common for a conference event to begin with that query. But when Sundar Balasubramanian, PhD, posed that question to attendees at the Sedona Yoga Festival last weekend, everyone understood exactly what was being asked of them. Long, slow exhalations followed.
Dr. Balasubramanian, a cell biology researcher and TEDx speaker, was one of dozens of presenters at the five-day festival, which was launched in 2013 and quickly became a respected and anticipated event where dozens of teachers share the tradition and science of yoga. The recent gathering drew more than 700 attendees of all ages—including beginners with no yoga experience as well as those who have been teaching for decades—who could access 160 workshops, panel discussions, immersions, classes, concerts, and trainings.
Sessions included discussions of neuroplasticity, Ayurveda, how to teach chair yoga with the founder of the Accessible Yoga Association, Jivana Heyman, as well as a panel discussion of sacred activism with Reggie Hubbard, Saul David Raye, and Ana Camacho-Hansen. The event also offered a 20-hour trauma consciousness yoga training led by Lara Land.
“There’s so much diversity—all backgrounds are here, all shapes and sizes are here, every teacher here is offering adaptations,” explains Arundhati Baitmangalkar, yoga teacher trainer and founder of the Let’s Talk Yoga podcast, who served on the program team for the festival. In one of her talks, she shared with teachers her first rule for creating a supportive environment for students, which is a reminder that “Teachers, it’s not about you.”
It’s that understanding of students’ needs and expectations that prompted Baitmangalkar to rethink one aspect of the festival. “I think students have an understanding of a yoga festival as this big party,” she explains. Although there’s nothing wrong with that, she says, the term may limit one’s understanding of the education taking place during the four days.
Heather Sherée Sanders, longtime producer of the Sedona Yoga Festival, feels the same. “I think you hear ‘yoga festival’ and you think barefoot and spinning around on the ground,” she says with a laugh. “But it’s really more of conference with a festival vibe. We’re all here studying, practicing together, honoring the traditions of yoga, and exploring it really deeply.”
Sanders considers the event more of a “conscious evolution conference,” which has been its tagline in recent years. “I always said you could get a masters in yoga reading about all the classes on your schedule,” she says.
The better part of a year is spent working planning the theme and taking applications for speakers as well as reaching out to teachers who aren’t drawing a lot of attention but are doing amazing things, explains Sanders. She coordinates speakers and the schedule in conjunction with her small programming team, including communications director Lisette Cheresson, who help ensure the content is diverse in all ways. The details of the event are finalized in conjunction with a crew of talented volunteers.
Sanders emphasizes that it is possible to attend the conference and still receive a very deep understanding of yoga without doing any asana, or physical poses. Approximately one third of attendees aren’t yoga teachers. They vary from beginners to regulars at studios who want to understand more about yoga without becoming a teacher. “We’re all here with one another and adding to each other’s understanding,” she explains.
That understanding takes many shapes. “This conference is so special since there are so many small workshops,” says Molly Nixon, director of the Yoga Mandala Project, which leads trauma-informed training for yoga teachers who support refugees.
However, Nixon’s learning wasn’t limited to the sessions. After three days attending scheduled events, she spent her fourth day not attending any of the classes she’d intended. Instead, she found herself drawn into conversation after conversation with other teachers and panelists with similar and opposing viewpoints, which she considered to be just as educational. As Nixon explained, “It’s just magic.”
Next year’s Sedona Yoga Festival will take place May 1-4, 2025. Discounted tickets are available until March 31, 2024.
Photography by Ty Dobbs.
