Ashtanga Mela: Letters from the Teachers

Read David Swenson’s letter.
Read David Williams’ letter.
Read Danny Paradise’s letter.

Letter from David Swenson

What can I say other than this should be an incredible week! David Williams and Danny Paradise and I do not get the opportunity to see that much of each other with our traveling schedules. On a purely selfish level, I am looking forward to spending time with my lifelong friends and yoga companions as well as attending their classes.

David Williams was my first Ashtanga Teacher and Danny and I practiced alongside each other with David on Maui in the mid-seventies. For the three of us, this is more than a yoga retreat. It is a reunion and celebration of more than three decades of practice and teaching.

I really think that the participants will experience a bit of the magic that the three of us have felt from this journey of a lifetime known as Ashtanga Yoga.

Come and join us for five days of fun, laughter, music, joy, sweat, and breath!

I look forward to seeing you there,

David Swenson

Letter from David Williams

A gathering of the Ashtanga Yoga family is long overdue. Now it’s finally happening. We’ve been practicing Ashtanga Yoga together and separately all over the world for more than 30 years. Since we were together in Lahaina, Maui, the people we taught have taught others. In turn, these people have taught others and the Ashtanga Yoga practice has spread around the planet.

Now it has come full circle. We are all going to get together for the first time in decades and get to the bottom of how Ashtanga Yoga can be practiced to the greatest benefit of ourselves and our students. We are ready to examine and discuss every aspect of Ashtanga Yoga, the practice, and the lifestyle of the practitioners.

Let’s get together and look at this from every angle; no topic will be avoided. We have wanted to do this for years, but the idea was too vast. Until now, there has never been a place that could embrace the scope of what we had envisioned. Now it is possible, because Kripalu is big enough and organized enough to handle such a gathering. Kripalu is ready and so are we.

Ashtanga yogis unite! We finally have an opportunity for a fabulous reunion. We will be there and we want you there, too!

Aloha,

David Williams

Letter from Danny Paradise

Dear Friends,

I first met David Williams on the island of Maui in May of 1975. Since I’d traveled around the world from 1971 to 1972 through Europe and Asia, I felt as though I was meeting a wild, kindred, traveling spirit. Here was a very intelligent, gifted, articulate, and funny young man who had journeyed overland to India in search of yoga. As a champion wrestler in his home state of North Carolina, David was a tremendous athlete looking for the true essence of the ancient teachings of yoga. He knew he had to go to India to discover the root of yoga because at that time in America it did not exist. In the 1970s, Maui, this amazing paradise, was undeveloped and full of young people escaping from the pollution and restrictions of Western society. Very few had any money or even a place to live. David and his wife at the time, Nancy Gilgoff, were carrying the essence of the teachings of Ashtanga Yoga. David was the first adept practitioner of all the sequences, and both he and Nancy taught in a compassionate, intelligent, and humorous way that created an instant community of friends. I never considered teaching yoga until David asked me to assist him on Maui with a new class he was starting. We remain friends always and I am constantly amazed by his perspectives and articulations on the ancient practices.

A few months after David and Nancy arrived on Maui, this other wild, energetic being blew in with the breeze. David Swenson, a beautiful guy with an endless smile on his face, had been studying yoga with David Williams already in California and had studied with his own brother Doug Swenson. Even at the young age of 18, David Swenson had a tremendous practice as well as an understanding of the philosophy and spirit of yoga. Also with great humor, he brought light, wisdom, and new perspectives to our growing community of friends.

To be able to come together for the Ashtanga Mela Gathering with my great friends, David Williams and David Swenson, to teach and share with this constantly growing community of yogis and friends is a great honor for me. I also think it will be hysterically funny to be reunited with my two wild, free brothers in yoga. We are all part of the evolution of the teachings of yoga. There has never been a mass movement of yoga on earth until now and it will be a fantastic opportunity to share our experiences with each other. David Williams and David Swenson are tremendous representatives of the essence of yoga—independence, freedom, integrity, and the creation of personal authority in each of our lives.

In this giant community of yoga everyone expresses their understanding of the teachings in their own unique way. This was the way yoga was designed—to be a constantly evolving exploration and a total evolution for the mind, body, and spirit.

I look forward to the event!

Danny Paradise