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| I'm going to teacher training in April and I'm trying to get the dialog memorized before I get there. It's very hard for me. So, when I go to class now and hear all the teachers I want to shout, "Does anyone use the freakin' dialog?"
Why do we even have to learn it? Maybe I'm just cranky. 
Edited by veggiepose 2010-02-02 1:48 PM
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| Woot!! I'll see you there!!
I LOVE the freaking dialogue. A lot of teachers don't use it very much anymore, but my original teachers in Boston taught really strong dialogue based classes and those are still my favorite. Anyway... the dialogue gives you a really strong foundation to teach from, because it has all the most important beginning instructions, for all the postures, in order. When you really break it down, it is very precise, complete, and sequential and can answer almost any question about a posture. There's a reason for ALMOST everything in it, including the weird stuff. Pretty cool! My teacher Diane will be at our training and she is the Dialogue Queen. When you take her class, you'll see how well the dialogue works when the teacher understands it really well and knows how to use it.
Anyhoo, you should message me if you wanna chat about training! It is Memorization Central over here at my house these days... and in my car... and when I'm walking around talking to myself like a crazy person, going "in the front mirror, your right leg should look like a perfect upside-down "L" like Linda..." :-D |
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| DJ--you should practice here--give us the monlogue for each asana from memoery and we'll check ya. |
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| I could... but THAT would turn into plagiarism!! Hehe. If you ever swing by my neck of the woods you'll hear aaaallll the dialogue you ever wanted to know. (I think my roommate has learned half of it by osmosis already.)
It's only a monologue if you're saying it when there are no bodies in the room doing the postures... you know the party line! ...though by my own reasoning, I guess it IS kind of a monologue when I'm saying it by myself in my car. Sigh. |
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 574
 
| Dont worry yourself. Just chill out. The worry will reflect onto the students. Its like having a massage by a chilled out relaxed dude or someone who knows all massage details but is so stressed out to get it right. Who would you rather go to? Be yourself and keep cool dude! |
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| DJ--have you given thought to what you're going to do during savasana? I don't know the party line but I love getting folks into savasana--that's where I really get to leverage everything that's in me as a teacher--knowing myself and the students. |
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 574
| I know the question is for DJ. But you can always sneak out during savasana and grab a quick tea in starbucks. |
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| I want to thank DJ. I was looking at the dialog as a chore and something that was cutting into what I wanted to do, but I've decided to accept it and receive it as something beneficial to both me and my future students, and to just go with it... |
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| veggiepose -  !!
About the savasanas... hmm, you think the students would notice if I was missing?!
I think all the time about the little things I want to say during savasanas. That really is the place where you can use the most creativity/personality. I have SO much that I want to say, but I know that I can't get carried away, because it'll just sound like "blah blah blah"! But I think that if you can figure out how to read the room right, you can convey a LOT of meaning with just a few words. I was thinking yesterday about something that Rajashree said once. She said that the yoga, it's like when you're on an airplane and they tell you that you have to put on your own oxygen mask first before trying to help anyone else. Yoga is like that. The reason we do it is because we have to take care of ourselves first, in order to take care of the people around us. You have to give yourself oxygen!
I digress.
The dialogue does actually include instructions for "during savasana," which are kind of hilarious and awesome. "Every physical activity in the world you do, you burn energy, like a car burns gas. Yoga is a gas station. The tank is empty, you need to fill it up. Hatha yoga class is the only activity where you gain energy, instead of burning it... something something something... Hatha yoga is the only natural exercise in the world, because it is scientific. With the help of science, we can explain nature." I dunno if I could say the whole thing verbatim with a straight face, but maybe I'll do it sometime just for shits and giggles! The other teachers would get a kick out of it. |
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| Just checked... that wasn't verbatim but it was surprisingly close, just mixed it up a tiny bit. But I left out the BEST line: "That was the warming up exercise, now the class begins"!!! |
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| HEhehe! Yeah! I love it when instructors talk a little during savasana. I love hearing the "Yoga is the only excercise..." my main teacher often elaborates on that one a little more. I think good teaching is a combination: you need the verbatim "rules" but you learn to adapt and modify as needed.
All in good time!
Edited by Randomfemale 2010-02-03 6:06 PM
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| Sometimes total silence with a foot massage, sometimes a short inspirational reading, sometimes, a wee bit of quitting music, sometimes I play my guitar--just depends |
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| when i was pregnant, i would always pee while the students were in savasana. i couldn't help it. and then it was like a horrible habit to break after i wasn't pregnant. well, actually, for the first few months after, you can't hold anything so you might as well go or you'll be in a (another kind) of puddle. so, i would just go.
people didn't seem to mind, but i much prefer to 'be there' for the savasana even though it's totally silent. |
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| I was in a class once where the teacher said "That was the warming up exercise, now the class begins" during the first savasana, and someone on their first class yelled "WHAT!?!?!?" with a tone of total disbelief. Lightened up the mood quite a bit.
Edited to add:
Oh, and DancingJ - I did a posture clinic with Diane last weekend. That was exactly what I thought at the end of the class we did before clinic - that it was the best dialogue-based class I've ever had. She strayed very little from it, but knew exactly which parts to stress, slow down on, speed up for, etc.. It sounded so dynamic, coming from her! And of course the posture clinic was awesome, too. Same thing, there - she basically just pulled out parts of the dialogue and showed us what they meant. (Like: "We say 'Pick up your foot in front of you.' So why are you all picking up your feet underneath your butt?")
Edited by jtho 2010-02-04 1:01 AM
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| jtho - Yes!! Oh yay. Now I know that at least ONE other person on the boards understands what I'm going on about all the time! Diane is definitely my inspiration and role model as a teacher. And she doesn't need to change the dialogue - she just extracts ALL the relevant information from it. (Interlock your 10 fingers and grab your right foot in front of you, 3 inches below the toes...) It's so simple. That's the way it's DONE!! |
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Veteran
Posts: 243
| "with the help of science we can explain nature" (you know.. scientifically)- that has to be one of the funniest lines in the dialogue! |
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| Nicole, I literally JUST wrote that same sentiment on my facebook page. That line is on my top 10 list for sure... hmmm... a list of most hilarious/awesome dialogue lines... that would be fun. How about...
"Look at your arms, identify which is right, which is left. Don't mix them up."
"Arms back, body back, lean back, FREEZE."
"Quick, right arm stretch up, you're going to touch the ceiling pretty soon!!"
"Exhale breathing and you go down."
"That was the warming up exercise, now the class begins"
"With the help of science, we can explain nature."
"You have only one leg. Like a Cobra."
"97% of the brain cells are sleeping in the cold storage, like the dead meat. You never used it, you never even knew you have it."
"Create pressure with your left foot sole against the right leg bicep of the thigh muscle."
"Everyone have a good day!"
Tomorrow I'll probably have a totally different top 10, but those are all really good. |
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| I'm glad DJ cleared that up. In my dialog stupor, I was saying something like, "You are the empty tank, I am the pump." It conjured up all sorts of images. |
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| look, i can only think of japanese ham sandwich.
i have no clue why it is important, but it makes me laugh every time i hear it.
JAPANESE ham sandwich.
japanese HAM sandwich.
japanese ham SANDWICH.
seriously, it's damn funny and makes so sense to me what so ever.
why not sandwiches from korea? i ask you.  |
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| cause bikram lived in tokyo for a while?
seriously, that's the only explanation i have. it makes perfect sense to him, and no one else. but we LOVE it!!
"i am the pump"?!? ooooohh, SHIT. that is hysterical. way to terrify your students. I AM THE PUMP!! |
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| i know the history, and the japanese and koreans have a little rivalry going on, and of course they both are tourists in each other's countries which is supposedly a big deal...but honestly, i can't imagine that a korean ham sandwich is at all the same.
i mean, afterall, i once had a "philly cheese steak" in canada and it was hilariously not a philly cheese steak. a philly cheese steak (whether Geno's or Pat's) is essentially a large roll (italian bread usually) with some form of velveeta-cheese-whiz sort of sauce with steak and onions. you can get it "hoagie" style with tomato, lettuce, or just plain.
now, in canada, said sandwich is regular old white bread with philadelphia cream cheese and some beef slices and then pressed or grilled panini style.
this, of course, was prior to my vegetarian days. But, i can only imagine that a Japanese Ham Sandwich is incredibly different than any other ham sandwich, and therefore is intrinsically important even if we don't know why. |
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Veteran
Posts: 243
| One of our teachers claimed the first thing he looked for when he went to Japan was a.... japanese ham sandwich and he says he found it right away, although it was my impression that the japanese don't even know what a japanese ham sandwich is. The huge essential difference is that it is just a slice of ham between two pieces of bread (no gap anywhere!). Not like an american ham sandwich which would have lettuce, tomato, etc. creating all kinds of gaps between the bread and the ham.
Other favorites of mine so far...
mouth closed, tongue inside your mouth (additional dialogue, rabbit)
legs should be 90 degrees like L (articles anyone?)
Tuck your chin to your chest, look at your stomach and YOU GO DOWN!!
Cooling down with the breath of fire. (not dialogue, but still funny..)
Edited by yoga-addict 2010-02-05 8:08 AM
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| My "favorite" is 'Arms down side." As a former English teacher, it ain't pretty. Where I practice, we have a wonderful teacher who is from Japan (she is flexible like Gumby), and honestly, I don't think she's ever said the Japanese ham sandwich part. |
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| One time, the director at my studio told a story about how he had just said the "L like Linda," part when someone blurted out, "Who is this Linda everyone keeps talking about? Is she in class today?" |
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| Veggiepose, one of the things I love best about Bikram is hearing the bad grammar! It's so awesome and makes the whole experience unique. I don't know if I would correct anything if I were teaching (I'm an English teacher, too!)
"Grab your opposite elbows each other!" |
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Memorizing the Dialog
