Starting Young and Sticking with It An Interview with the Youngest U.S. Iyengar Yoga Teacher
R
ose Goldblatt, 25, is the youngest Certified Iyengar Yoga
cb: You live in a fairly isolated area at the border of northern Vermont
Teacher in the U.S. She passed her Introductory II
and New hampshire. What is the demand for Iyengar Yoga there?
assessment last year and lives in northeastern Vermont. rg: I teach at my Dad’s studio in Littleton, NH. I have more than
chris beach: When did you start doing yoga?
70 students, and my classes average about 8-12 students. There seems to be an ongoing interest in our classes. The people in
rose goldblatt: I was 14, and I became a serious student at 15. I
this area do not really distinguish between one form of yoga or
had danced, though not seriously, and my father, David
another. There are a couple of other teachers in the area, but not
Goldblatt, had been teaching yoga since the 1970s. He was a
many. However, there is a demand for yoga. People in this rural
student of Dona Holleman in the early days of Iyengar Yoga in
area tend to be very self-sufficient. They chop their own
this country, and has continued to study regularly with Iyengar
firewood and grow food. Their down-to-earth practicality seems
teachers. The first workshop Patricia Walden taught was at his
to make them interested in the precision of the Iyengar method.
studio in Franconia, NH, around 1981. When my dance teacher
They also don’t have many preconceptions about what yoga is.
moved away, my father was teaching yoga in the studio in our cb: Many younger people find Iyengar Yoga to be less “exciting” or
house, and I began to study with him.
movement-oriented than some other kinds of yoga. We hold poses for a At 16, I went to a workshop with Patricia and fell in love with
long time and work on details. As a younger practitioner and teacher,
yoga. I said to myself, “This is my calling; I know this is what I
how do you feel about Iyengar Yoga versus other kinds of
want to do.” I wanted to study and study, and eventually become
yoga?
a teacher. At 17, I started going to Patricia’s Wednesday class in Cambridge. Then, at around 19, I decided I wanted to start
rg: I haven’t had much
teaching. Patricia told me I was too young to do a teacher
experience with other
training, but said it was all right if I began teaching some small
kinds of yoga, so
classes for young people.
it’s hard for me to
When I was 22, I began a two-year teacher training program with Janice Vien, and at 24 I took my Introductory I assessment. The next year I did my Intro II.
Yoga Samachar
Spring /Summer 2011
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