ABOUT:
Anna Waldmann
Hi, I’m Anna,
I’m a Movement Instructor in Brighton, teaching Yoga, Pilates, Reformer, and Dance.
I’ve done many things in my life professionally. I’ve been a production manager in TV and a singer-songwriter with a record deal. From a young age, I was also a full-time carer for both my mum and gran.
After caring for my mum, who had Multiple Sclerosis, I watched as she experienced the unimaginable horror of being locked inside her body. This profoundly changed the way I look at movement, how lucky we are to have it, and the freedom that can be cultivated through it.
Through Yoga, I learned that movement is one of the most important ways to release and process what is being stored in your cells.
This is where my journey to creating Yoga Flow Motion began.
QUALIfications
Anna Waldmann has a BSc in the Biomechanics of Sports and Exercise Science, 250 Hours Yoga Teacher Training in Fierce Grace Yoga, 50 Hours CPD In Embodied Flow, and Reformer Pilates training.
Anna has been teaching for XX years throughout Brighton and London (??)
You can currently work with Anna at Humankind Studios in Brighton and 73 Gym in Hove, or live at one of her upcoming events. Click here to find out more.
THE LONGER STORY:
After years of caring for my mum and gran, they both passed away within the space of a week. My life as I knew it began to fall apart.
I started going to Yoga every day. I didn’t really know why, but it was as if my body was taking me there, as it knew it needed to release some of what it had experienced, so that it didn’t “keep the score.” I would stand in the shower afterwards, experiencing very visceral images of what had just happened to my family in the hospital. I first thought this was PTSD, but I came to realise that this was the energy leaving my body.
This was the first time I experienced the importance of Yoga and movement and how it’s one of the most important ways to release and process what is being stored in your cells.
I trained in Fierce Grace Yoga — this intense Hot Yoga was perfect for me at the time, forcing me to inhabit my body instead of dissociating from it.
I now have a BSc in the Biomechanics of Sports and Exercise Science, 250 Hours Yoga Teacher Training in Fierce Grace Yoga, 50 Hours CPD In Embodied Flow, and reformer pilates training.
However - the fact that I was never taught to sequence classes, paired with being a musician and songwriter, inspired me. I’m a creative person, and where I used to conjure up feelings out of thin air as a songwriter, I now hold the space for what is already there.
Music has a big part to play in my classes. It is not in the background, it is very much part of the experience and I always try to match it to the feeling that I’m trying to bring forward.
IN YOGA FLOW MOTION, THERE ARE NO PEAK POSES.
During COVID, I started trying to come up with a class that I wanted to go to. I just wasn’t interested in holding poses on the same limb for ages. Although this kind of thing builds resilience and strength, some classes that I would go to felt like they may have been developed for male bodies.
My interests lie more in allowing my students to ease into their parasympathetic nervous system so that they can relax into the female energy of flowing.
This is where Yoga Flow Motion began. It isn’t just yoga, it isn’t Pilates, it isn’t dance. It is all of those things and more.
Every move that I sequence has flowing movement in paramount importance. There are no peak poses, my sequences write themselves from the intelligence that is developing in my body and I truly believe everyone’s body has the capability to do this. It is through this more vulnerable pathway, we end up building resilience and strength, but without competition, expectation or performance.
My aim is to create an inclusive environment conducive to rest when you walk in.
I am a big advocate for everyone knowing their own body better than a teacher. However, often people will come to a class with a long list of reasons why they aren’t going to be able to join in for some of it. This is, of course, absolutely fine, but there are things that we as teachers can do in order for them as students to free themselves up to move.
Lights and music play a big part in my classes — they are always evocative, and help to bring you into your own space and out of comparison or performance to others. Somehow, once everyone is in this peaceful state, they are all more synchronised than they ever could have been when they were visually comparing themselves to each other.
Although we are moving together, we are moving away from choreography. Together, we are creating a space where everyone feels comfortable enough to let go of expectations, comparison and performance, and this seems to result in us being more in sync than ever.
If you’d like to experience Yoga Flow Motion with me, you can find me at Humankind Studios in Brighton and 73 Gym in Hove, or at one of my regular live events.