I managed to catch up with Noah after his first workshop in Cape Town on Friday 19 October 2012 organised by Gururamdas. So I had a couple of quick questions I wanted to ask this fun and energetic yoga teacher, (whom I had silently cursed at the beginning of class when my toes got their own personal yoga session). I wanted to know how he managed to get into yoga from such a young age, to how he transitioned from ashtanga yoga to anusara yoga and what he primarily teaches at the moment. I also wanted to know what he thinks of South African yoga practitioners compared to elsewhere in the world and then how all the travelling impacts his personal life.
So this is what Noah had to share. He grew up in Colorado where his parents were meditation and yoga practitioners, following eastern philosophies. So he was brought up with this mindset from when he was born. He only started his physical asana based yoga at 14 years old when he started going to classes with his mother. Noah was a very active youngster playing lots of sports but his philosophical and spiritual sides were separate from his physical activities. Only when he started yoga did the two converge and he managed to incorporate his yogic philosophies into everything he did.
Noah started practising ashtanga yoga and then transitioned to Anusara yoga, training with John Friend when he was only 19 years old. He became one of the top Anusara teacher trainers and started travelling and teaching internationally. He no longer teaches pure Anusara yoga, but rather a fusion, a mix of styles that he has practised and trained in over the years to create his own unique blend. His main teachers whom he acknowledges and gives thanks to are Richard Freedman and John Friend, but he has also spent time studying Iyengar and Bikram yoga. So his workshops vary from being very dynamic and flow orientated to looking closer at alignment and dissecting postures to get into the nitty gritty of them.

When it comes to local yoga practitioners compared to yoga practitioners in the States, Noah feels that most teachers and students here follow a more classical training, with South Africa being more closely linked to India so a lot of Ashtanga, Iyengar and Kundalini yoga whereas in the States, there is a lot more diversity and breadth of yoga as people have created their own blends of styles.

On a personal note Noah’s wife is a lawyer and a dedicated yoga practitioner as well. Noah’s interest and passion for yoga has fueled her practice to a new level over the years to where she now also needs to do a daily practice or else she starts to feel unbalanced. Having a lawyer as a wife and two young kids does not make travelling very easy and hence doing what he does is a mixed blessing, he is honoured and grateful to be invited as a guest teacher to teach worldwide as it is an amazing opportunity but he obviously misses time with his family greatly.

Many thanks to Noah for taking the time to answer my questions and for a lovely practice.

With gratitude.

Namaste`
Nina.

“Noah offers classes, workshops, intensives and training courses around the world, and has a home base studio in Los Angeles, called MYoga, where he offers training and intensives, as well as online courses. Visit www.YogaGlo.com, where you can take his online classes and download special workshops.”