Student Interview - Robin Williams

When students arrive in the yoga studio, they often don’t have the chance to get acquainted with the person on the next mat. It is my pleasure to introduce to you one of our steadfast Yoga students, Robin Williams.

Robin is a native Baltimorean who attended to Park School where her interest was in visual arts.  She was encouraged to enrich her artistic talent at the Maryland Institute, College of Art and began her college career there.  Although she really liked it, she developed a love for Modern Dance which seemed to take precedence over all else. So she transferred to Goucher College where she became a part of their rigorous dance program.  Robin earned a BA degree in Creative Arts.

In August 1987, Robin’s interest in dance led her to a workshop in California with the Bella Lewitsky Dance Company. While there, she noticed that virtually all of the dancers/ teachers had studied Iyengar Yoga as well as modern dance technique. Their enthusiasm for Iyengar proliferated and became part of her regimen.

A year later, Robin moved to Atlanta to take a job teaching dance at a Performing Arts Magnet School. In addition, she taught at a few dance companies whose members also studied yoga at Stillwater Yoga Studio with Kathleen Pringle. While in Atlanta Robin received her BF in Art Education at Georgia State University.

In 1996, Robin decided to study in New York City where she enrolled in the Laban Movement Studies Program. There, yoga was pervasive and Iyengar Yoga was reintroduced to her.

One of the key principles in the Laban Program is that movement involves exertion, as well as an equal balance of recuperation.  Robin saw that this philosophy went well with those in Yoga.  Because of this connection Robin decided to stay in the area to study further.  She landed a job in Bridgeport, Connecticut teaching art in an elementary school and continued yoga there studying with several Iyengar Yoga instructors, including Mary Dunn in Manhattan.

Robin currently teaches art at the St. James Academy in Monkton.  Upon her return to Baltimore, she looked into available yoga classes.  She chose Susquehanna Yoga for many reasons. The studio hours fit into her work schedule and also the classes are of the caliber to which she is accustomed.

According to Robin, she sticks with the Iyengar-specific studios is because the teachers are excellent.  Over the years, she has found the instructors to be well trained in the assimilation of moving the body in and out of postures and the objective adjustments Iyengar yoga instructors make are an invaluable resource for the care of the body, no matter what the age.  Also, Iyengar instructors have an understanding of how to build a class through sequences of postures, both regular and restorative, which coincide with the tenets she learned from Laban.

Robin has observed colleagues, friends etc. who lead active lives who have been injured due to overwork of the muscles, bones, joints to the point where replacement surgery is necessary.  Iyengar Yoga keeps the bones, joints and muscles healthy when practiced routinely.  While Robin is a firm believer in the fun of active movement, whether it be in athletics, dance, boating, hiking etc., she also attests to the fact that overdoing anything, no matter how much you love it does more harm than good. Her advice is to know the joy of exertion, as long as it is balanced by the inner peace of restorative actions.

Many thanks to Robin for connecting us with the Laban-based Movement and Dance Program. For more information on how it is used in communities and as therapy, please check your favorite web browser.  It’s fascinating!


By Bonnie Caslow Allan