BIOGRAPHY  I first encountered yoga in 1981, at university, where I attended a weekly Iyengar yoga class for three years. In the meantime, I became involved in classical dance, and went on to take ballet and contemporary classes daily for many years; however, I maintained a connection with yoga, exploring Sivananda and other hatha styles. In 2001, having arrived at a point where performance dance techniques seemed to have nothing more to offer me, I discovered astanga vinyasa. I hung up my ballet shoes to become a dedicated astanga practitioner, finding in this intensely physical, moving form of yoga a deep sense of spirit immanent in the body.

I trained to teach astanga vinyasa with Abby Daniel in 2002, and completed a second astanga teacher training with Tim Miller in 2003, becoming registered as a yoga teacher with the Yoga Alliance in 2004. In 2003, I also undertook the Phoenix Rising Yoga Therapy training in the USA and am now one of a small number of certified Phoenix Rising practitioners in the UK.

For me, however dynamic its form, yoga is first and foremost a meditation. Its particular strength and beauty as a tool of awareness is that it works through (rather than around or in spite of) the body and therefore has the potential to move us directly into states of consciousness that exist beneath the level of the cognitive mind. Central to this process is the ongoing enquiry into what it means to be ‘on the edge’, perhaps best described as a situation in which we can expand our understanding and gain greater insight into the nature of our being.

I have been fortunate enough to study with many wonderful teachers, both the sung and the unsung; however, my main teacher currently is my body on the mat. While astanga vinyasa (first and second series) remains for me a core practice, more recently I have also evolved a slower, more eclectic hatha yoga practice in which I can respond to the present-moment needs of my own individual body more fully.

My relationship with yoga has been both challenged and enriched by the fact that I have Ehlers Danlos (hypermobility) Syndrome, as a result of which I have a particular interest in teaching people with hypermobility issues. (If you have the advantage of a less flexible body, though, don't worry, you are equally welcome to my classes!)

Aside from practising yoga, I have been studying Sanskrit for the past four years. Having taken refuge with the Karma Kagyu lineage of Tibetan Buddhism in 2005, last year I began the Kagyu ngondro and at the same time started learning classical Tibetan. Apart from astanga, my other regular moving meditation practice is Gabrielle Roth’s 5Rhythms, which I have been dancing since 2001. I am 45 years old, hold a doctorate in English Literature, and live with my eight-year-old son in south-east London.

I feel privileged to be able to pass on the little I have learnt of these wonderful transformative practices and hope that you will be as blessed by them as I continue to be. Om shanti.

(Ali's practice blog is at http://practiceblog.blogware.com/blog.)

Last updated 08/05/08