Welcome to your Decolonizing Yoga: Tracing the History of the Practice Teacher Training! We created this live online yoga teacher training to better support you in an interactive format with discussions along the way. You can either attend the weekly sessions live or watch the recordings to stay on top of the information as it progresses – you will have unlimited access to the live session recordings and resources.
This training has six, 2hr live sessions running every week. Each session will begin with about an hour of lecture, followed by an interactive discussion to prompt deeper inquiry.
Please note that there are no actual “lessons/topics” built into the course. The videos are all on the home portal – so because there aren’t any lessons/topics to mark as complete, the course will continue to say 0% complete until you complete the exam. Once you pass the exam it will say 100% complete.
This yoga teacher training will count as 12 ‘in-person/contact’ hours towards your 500-hour/1000-hour Yoga Medicine certification. Directly following the last live session of the yoga teacher training you will be invited to take an optional online exam – you must pass the exam within 45 days to receive your certificate of completion and training hours. These online hours will also be recognized as 12 continuing education hours (CEUs) by Yoga Alliance.
LIVE Sessions Schedule (8-10am PST | 9-11am MST | 11am – 1pm EST):
- Tuesday, November 5th: Session 1: Yoga & the Epics
- Tuesday, November 12th: Session 2: Yoga & Sound
- Tuesday, November 19th: Session 3: Yoga & Poetry
- Tuesday, November 26th: Session 4: Yoga & Visual Arts
- Tuesday, December 3rd: Session 5: Yoga & Fashion
- Tuesday, December 10th: Session 6: Yoga & Contemporary Representations
LIVE Session Recordings
You can watch the live session recordings using the video player below (once they become available) – each week the new recording will be added to the playlist. Just use the white dropdown arrow in the upper left-hand corner of the video player to toggle between each sessions’ recording. Within this video player, you can go fullscreen, change the speed, add closed captioning, and more.
- Please watch these supplemental videos associated with Session 2:
Completion Policy
Decolonizing Yoga Final Exam – Submissions Due by February 10th
Essay Question #1: What does the term “decolonize” mean to you and how can you apply it in a yoga-specific context? Feel free to draw on any examples from the course material that resonated with you and to draw from your own experiences in explaining both the word and the process of decolonization.
Essay Question #2: Describe the kind of music, readings and/or decor you would enjoy hearing/seeing or teaching in a class based on their historical significance and links to the practice and/or their contemporary links to yoga.
Essay Question #3: A prospective student asks you what kind of clothing will be appropriate to attend a yoga class and asks for detail around yoga clothing over time as well as what kind of clothing other students wear today. How would you explain the way yoga clothing has changed over time, the cultural relevance of certain kinds of clothing and what are your own thoughts over what to wear while practicing today?
Resources:
Session Slides:
Preliminary Readings:
- Decolonization is Not A Metaphor – Tuck & Yang
- Decolonizing Yoga? Is It Going Deep Enough?
- Can the Subaltern Speak – Gayatri Spivak
Other Links Mentioned:
- https://liu.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:1894804/FULLTEXT01.pdf
- https://escholarship.org/content/qt3v8504zx/qt3v8504zx_noSplash_9c0ffe318ea85144e1d3bd553d12818e.pdf
- https://missingperspectives.com/posts/reclaiming-yoga-navigating-decolonization-in-a-spiritual-tradition/
- https://www.oxfordstudent.com/2020/07/11/breathing-deep-and-diving-in-yoga-and-cultural-appropriation/
- https://www.vanityfair.com/style/2021/11/the-second-coming-of-guru-jagat
- https://time.com/7096209/breath-of-fire-hbo-guru-jagat/
- https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0812z285
A personal narrative of my own journey in yoga as well as the questions I have been asking myself about what the meaning of decolonizing yoga is and how can I play a role in it. It has been published by the Race and Yoga journal, Volume 8, Issue 1.
Chat Boards
Go to the Discussion BoardQuestions
If you have any content questions, email them to Katie at info@yogamedicine.com.