It was one beautiful morning on Saturday, November 22nd, Jakarta International Namaste Festival, where Yoga, Healing and Well Being was celebrated.
At podium 3, Jules Febre was standing, ready to lead his class themed “Twist All Night”. The title doesn’t only mean his class would involve a significant portion of physical twisting poses but it had more than that to offer. While focusing on twists and giving a balanced and complete experience of asanas, Jules also led the students to experiment further with meditation, chanting and breath awareness to create more complete experience of a yoga class.
“It's a song’s name actually. But for the night, you need the different twist, more relaxing twist," explained our jovial Jules. He’s an internationally acclaimed, advanced and certified Jivamukti yoga teacher widely known for his knack for lighting up any crowd he’s in. The Jivamukti method itself is one of nine Internationally recognized of Hatha Yoga schools.
Jule’s “Twist All Night” aimed to let yogis and yoginis experience twisting with enlightenment as the goal. Starting with some simple rules for twisting, they’d move through a series of asanas that would let its students you twisting in many variations; i.e. standing, seated, reclining, and inverted ones.
The dynamic and rejuvenating effect of this class, as Jules told us, is supposed to positively impact internal organs and spinal health.
Despite being rigorous, the Jivamukti Yoga class was designed for students of all practice levels. That said, no participants of Namaste Festival 2014 felt inhibited by the practice.
Tini, one of the students of this class, mentioned the importance of twists in our yoga practice. "Because I once got injured after twisting. And today, after 5 years, I know how a twisting pose should be properly done.”
Jules supposed that he enjoyed so much teaching in Indonesia and being part of the faculty of Namaste Festival 2014. “The only thing that I would say is ‘thank you for letting me teach in Indonesia and thank you for coming to my classes’. I’ve found that all Indonesian people I have met very happy, very outgoing, very generous, and so in that way they’re already yogis and yoginis. […] (It’s) a good community here.”
As Jules headed for New York City the day after the festival (November 24th), we know he’d bring with him Indonesia’s best laughs, jokes, and enriching experience in his very heart. (Written by Rohmah Sugiarti/ Edited by Akhlis Purnomo/ Photo credit: Andi Gunawan)
