ABOUT:
Anna Waldmann
Hi, I’m Anna,
I’m a Movement Instructor in Brighton, teaching Yoga & Reformer.
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 my 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.
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 10 years throughout the South East of England.
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. Some call this PTSD, but it felt like 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 would otherwise be 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.
After training in many different modalities of movement and learning fascinating things about the body, it was the fact that I was never taught to sequence classes, paired with being a musician and songwriter, that inspired me the most. I’m a creative person, and I wanted to make something that felt beautiful.
as a songwriter, I conjure up feelings out of thin air. as a movement teacher I hold the space for what is already there.
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 flow.
This is where Yoga Flow Motion began.
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 can do this. It is through this more vulnerable pathway that 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 to my class.
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. People always say that my classes feel like a dance.
If you’d like to experience Yoga Flow Motion with me, you can find me at Humankind Studios or the Living Room in Brighton, 73 Gym in Hove, or at one of my regular live events.