#50 - Keen on Yoga Podcast with Angela Jamison

Welcome to the Keen on Yoga Podcast with Angela Jamison. Angela is
the founder and director of Ashtanga Yoga Ann Arbor, located in
Michigan, USA. 

She grew up on an isolated farm / intentional community in rural
Montana, a remote mountain area of the northern US. From there, she
was lucky to receive a scholarship to attend college to study
Philosophy and Journalism in Oregon. In the year 2000 Angela
discovered ashtanga in Seattle. The primary series helped her to
heal from severe intestinal parasites acquired while living in
Central America. 

In 2001 she moved to Los Angeles to attend grad school at UCLA.
Soon afterwards she was hit by a car in a crosswalk. This near
fatal accident resulted in a day of full body paralysis.
Subsequently her commitment to ashtanga to heal from that trauma
was firmed.

She spent the rest of her 20s studying two very different topics
with equal intensity – the sociology of American empire, and the
practice of ashtanga yoga. It was a wonderful time and place for
ashtanga. Of the many practitioners and teachers who helped her,
the strongest influences were Maty Ezraty and Chuck Miller. In
addition, their student Heather, now Radha Carlisi. However,
Dominic Corigliano is the teacher who most impacted her during
that time. He taught her to assist him in 2007.
Mysore

In 2009, Angela moved to Ann Arbor for a visiting assistant
professor position at the university there. In the same year she
travelled to Mysore for the first time to study with R Sharath
Jois. After strong encouragement from him, she finally left the
university and started teaching yoga full time in 2011. She spent
her 30s slowly building community and teaching, with 2-4 months
each year in India studying the yoga tradition. Sharath gave her
his blessing as a certified teacher in 2017.

The best preparation she had for directing a shala was working a
variety of jobs. Including union organizing, waiting tables,
administrative positions at Amnesty International and a library,
and teaching undergraduates at UCLA. This background led her to
see her work both as directing a school – just as our teachers in
India model  – and also as a form of community building.
Growing up “off the grid” surrounded by survivalists has shaped
her idea that ashtanga can be a key resource during times of
social upheaval. This is because it helps us cultivate both
robust physical health, and robust communities. Thereby allowing
us to learn complex forms of empathy and cooperation, which help
us in difficult times.
Online Covid Impact

During Covid, her work has mostly migrated online – to a digital
platform students built to facilitate ongoing connection and
learning. Dozens of students from the early years of the
 her work have found their way back to what they call the
shadowshala. In addition, new people have found it too. The
chance to re-connect with early students who now live around the
world, and see people learn to sustain a home practice in the
midst of great challenges, has been extremely meaningful. But she
is eager to return to the sort of real-live practice that can
only happen in a Mysore room with everyone breathing and moving
together. 


You can find out more about Angela on her website.