The next Grateful Dead Yoga Hour…

• Thursday, September 20, in New York City at Pure Yoga’s East Location

For updates on The Grateful Dead Yoga Hour TOUR, make sure you’re on my email list by dropping your name below:

It’s been 16 years since the passing of Jerry Garcia and the subsequent break-up of the Grateful Dead. Why not bring them back for an evening of flowing vinyasa yoga set to some of the great musical moments in Grateful Dead history?

You’ll see how a little 1960s psychedelia can further your practice and take you deeper into your backbends, twists, and folds. If you miss Jerry, and it’s been way too long since your last long, strange trip . . .

Next stop on the Grateful Dead Yoga Hour Tour:

• Thursday, September 20, in New York City at Pure Yoga’s East Location

My workshops present yoga in a modern, delicious, ecstatic light using everyday sensibilities (chocolate, wine, olives, exotic cheeses, great tunes) as gateways to the present moment.

View the schedule or check out our workshop descriptions below. To book a workshop or corporate event, contact vyda@yeahdave.com

What is Yeah Dave Yoga?

“My intention is for a Yeah Dave Yoga class to feel one part health club, one part night club, and one part amazing food & wine experience to create just the right emotional cocktail of peace, tranquility, and ecstasy.

Growing up, I had the tendency to ask questions my friends didn’t know how to answer. So they just responded, “Yeah Dave.” I’ve since learned how to convert that inquisitive nature to something more productive than asking hypothetical questions.

The bigger picture questions, when presented to my yoga class, seem much more “in context;” and when combined with great music, amazing chocolate and a fun, flowing, vinyasa yoga experience, the Yeah Dave Yoga formula seems to hit the spot.”

CAN YOU RELATE TO ANY OF THE FOLLOWING?

• You are scared of getting old
• You’d be the first to click on the headline: “Miraculous fountain of youth discovered south of Palermo”
• Even though your hair is gray and your skin is a bit wrinkled, you feel as vibrant as ever!

Following in the footsteps of Yoga + Chocolate, I have teamed up with wine connoisseur and yogini Angela Gargano (www.blissflowyoga.com) to present Yoga + Wine. The aging of wine is a noble process that can serve as a model for the “healthy aging” of a human being.

The Story

In 2005, I was invited to teach Yoga + Chocolate at a intimate, beautiful studio in Madison, Wisconsin. The owner, Angela Gargano, happens to also be a sommelier. She suggested the idea of fusing yoga with wine. We fleshed out the concept and debuted the experience on a retreat to Sonoma in 2006. Our mission: to explore the character, terroir, story, climate, and passion that goes into creating a bottle of wine. When one better understands all that leads up to that first sip, a glass of wine has the potential to become one of life’s great rituals.

View the schedule. To book a workshop or corporate event, contact: vyda@yeahdave.com

Read the NY TIMES article on Yoga + Wine!

DO ANY OF THESE RESONATE WITH YOU?

• you feel you leg buzzing even if you left your cell phone at home
• the first thing you do in the morning is run to your email
• you have a strange feeling that life is not meant to be lived in front of a computer screen

Whether being only partially present at a child’s school play, barely responsive to a spouse’s bad day, or sadly unaware of a full moon’s rays, we are missing important events in our lives…not because we don’t care, but because we’re so busy.

The Yoga + Chocolate experience highlights an exotic Vosges chocolate truffle as a secret gateway to the richer life available in the present moment.  It’s not just chocolate…I’ll show you how great music, yoga, wine, or any everyday passion can become an accessible gateway to the present moment.

The Story

I was seeking a snack at the campus Munchi-Mart my sophomore year in college. There was another student next to me perusing the aisles, and I asked her if she thought the bologna cracker sandwiches were a good choice.

Her response: “Disgusting!”  Little did I realize this other student would one day become celebrity chef, Bon Appetit Magazine‘s Food Artisan of the Year, and Vosges Haut-Chocolat founder Katrina Markoff. We fast became great friends but if I hadn’t asked Katrina that silly question at the college Munchi Mart, I might have never made the connection.

It was easier to strike up a conversation with a stranger in the days before cellphones.  If that were to have taken place in 2009, I’d probably be doing something on my iphone while perusing the aisles in the Munchi-Mart. I often wonder what opportunities, encounters, and moments I may be missing because most every spare moment is spent knocking out a text message or listening to a voicemail.

After college, Katrina began experimenting with chocolate, mixing it with unique ingredients like curry, sea salt, wasabi, and tallegio cheese. And I joined forces with some friends to create a modernized yoga experience, At One Yoga.  In 2003, Katrina and I realized we were both in the business of fusion.

She was fusing chocolate with tastes from every corner of the globe. I was fusing yoga with fashion, music and technology. Considering that for a lot of women, and some men, yoga and chocolate are two of their very favorite things, we realized Yoga + Chocolate was a deliciously natural evolution.

View the schedule. To book a workshop or corporate event, contact: vyda@yeahdave.com

• Have you ever had a meal so delicious you want to physically prepare for it?
• Why not stretch out before indulging in ravioli stuffed with spinach-cashew ricotta, pine nut pesto and sundried tomato sauce?
• Wouldn’t that beloved French Onion Soup with gruyere and potato puree be better after a heart-opening backbend?

In 2010, I toured the nation collaborating with amazing chefs from Ming Tsai in Boston to Joy Pierson in NYC to Dean Fearing in Dallas.

We co-presented, Jam Sessions: Yoga for Foodie, a fresh take on food, sustainability, and those rare moments that are so perfect, you could, well, ah, have an orgasm.

Here’s how it works…

A Yoga for Foodies session begins with my flowing yoga class whose message and music emphasize a more sustainable pace. When we move in a frenzied way through the day, we don’t eat, we “feed.” This high-velocity lifestyle diminishes the flavor and essence of life.

In the process, we’ve grown accustomed to eating on the run often being “nourished” by a bag of chips and a sandwich to go.

Our palates have evolved to crave tastes that are invented in factories by food scientists rather than tastes that grow from the earth and nourish the body and soul.

In your post-yoga splendor, the featured chef will delve into the mystery of their creations while guiding you through a feast.

Yoga for Foodies chefs are some of the very best in the nation all of whom embrace sustainability, eco-friendly practices, local farming, and compassion.

Why yoga before food?

It’s easy to turn a blind eye to the food industry. But take a evening to watch Food Inc and you will learn that what goes on behind the scenes is horrific, barbaric, and endangering to your health. This is not to say you must become a vegan, strap on loin cloth, and move to Sri Lanka. Rather, it’s being aware of what you’re eating, where it comes from, and how it makes you feel. After yoga, we’re more aware and better able to discern fresh food from factory food, grass-fed from corn-fed, nutritious and satiating from filling and depleting. If you are a lover of food and are seeking a new, fresh, fun way to experience meals by some of the nation’s most talented chefs, you’ll love Yoga for Foodies.

I teach yoga in New York City at Exhale’s Central Park South location:

Tuesdays at 6:00pm

Check out my National Tour Schedule

To book an event with Dave, please contact: vyda@yeahdave.com

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