Shivers Up the Spine Interviews Mark Singleton: Keynote at Yoga Festival Toronto

I want to warmly invite all Shivers Up the Spine readers to drop in on the keynote interview with scholar Dr. Mark Singleton which will take place in Toronto on Saturday August 20th from 4:30pm - 5:30pm. This would be the very first public interview that Shivers up the Spine has ever done; and the fact that this interview is being hosted by what's possibly the coolest independent yoga festival around makes it that much more special. Oh and did I mention we'd be improvising around Yoga Body: The Origins of Modern Posture Practice, Mark Singleton's book about the history of hatha yoga?? Considered a radical re-examination of hatha yoga's postural roots, this book has been one of the most influential publications to study the hatha yoga narrative by the refracted light of our modern practice. It's nothing short of a global positioning device. So if you don't know it, and you consider yourself a yoga expeditionary, I suggest coming down. It's easy enough, and it's free to sit and listen... Ok so here are the details:

Beautiful Bodies, Broken Bodies: Hatha Yoga's Tricky Lineage and Physical History: 

Shivers Up the Spine Interviews Dr. Mark Singleton

 at the National Ballet School, 400 Jarvis Street

Saturday August 20, 2012

4:30-5:30pm

(Free to the public)

Beautiful Bodies, Broken Bodies: Yoga's Tricky Lineage and Physical History

Mark Singleton's book, Yoga Body: The Origins of Modern Posture Practice (Oxford University Press, 2010) has been cited as a reference time and again by scholars, researchers or practitioners looking to understand their relationship to asana and its tricky lineage. This conversation will give people a chance to explore ideas of yoga's slippery narratives through the shapes that we have come to know in asana practice. Broad themes include: "The Yoga Physique: Bodies Perfected by Posture", "Superman: Yoga and Nation Building" and "Yoga and Sexuality". What aesthetic values are embedded in our physical practice? And how does our understanding of yoga's history impact its continued transmission on North American soil? Attendees are welcome to join in on the chat which will be transcribed and published online here at Shivers Up the Spine!