Chris Saudek: VISITING TEACHER
Chris’s love of yoga inspired her to start The Yoga Place in 1988 and she is especially grateful for the teachers and students who have enthusiastically kept it going. She started teaching Iyengar Yoga through the University of Wisconsin extension program in 1981. Since 1980 Chris has made numerous trips to study at the Ramamani Iyengar Memorial Yoga Institute with BKS Iyengar, Geeta Iyengar, Prashant Iyengar and most recently BKS Iyengar’s granddaughter, Abhijata. On two occasions her family accompanied her and stayed for 5 months.
Chris feels that practicing yoga throughout life is important because it is really about awareness in everything that you do. Though the physical benefits are most apparent in the beginning of a practice, the mental and emotional benefits are what sustain a person through life. Yoga becomes a lifestyle that is enhanced by awareness of habits, motives, and modes of communication that can be changed for the better. Transformation really is possible when we begin to understand ourselves better!
Thanks to her early training with BKS Iyengar in the medical classes, Chris is very adept at modifying poses for students, understanding their specific needs, and helping each student to reach new levels of physical and mental ease and awareness. Her love of teaching and concern for each individual is apparent.
Chris is certified in the Iyengar method at Level IV and has taught workshops at many other studios in the US, Canada, and internationally. She has also helped train dozens of teachers in her over 40 years of teaching. With the help of Geeta Iyengar, Chris made the 6 laminated sequences that address practices for restorative, pregnancy, minor back issues, high blood pressure, menstruation, and headache, as well as published Yoga for Pregnancy. She is also responsible for putting together the rope booklet, Yoga Karunta.
After more than 30 years of teaching yoga, I love practicing and teaching it more than ever. I love the community of yoga students and seeing individuals find how yoga can benefit them in their lives. I enjoy teaching all levels of students, trying to help them discover their potential, and find yoga teaching to be creative and extremely fulfilling as a career.