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Morning Ashtanga Routine Moments, Not Instructions

Zeina Durra

Photography by Anthony St Leger; Gaffing by Charlie Nahas

Zeina Durra is the ultimate cosmopolitan. Born to a Jordanian-Lebanese father and Bosnian Palestinian ancestry, the Oxford-educated filmmaker spent most of the last decade in New York before settling in London. Her most recent film, THE IMPERIALISTS ARE STILL ALIVE (a line from Jean-Luc Godard’s La Chinoise), depicts a ravishing young artist, played by Élodie Bouchez, whose childhood friend disappears. Perhaps he has been abducted by the CIA? A sort of Bidouni emigre urban romance, the film is an intelligent and moving riff on some of the prevalent paranoias of our times. Hot off the heels of the THE IMPERIALISTS! debut at the IFC Center in New York, we asked Durra to take a break to launch our exercise column for this special issue devoted to SPORTS.

—The Editors

I first came across Ashtanga yoga in New York. There’s a yoga place in a building off Tompkins Square Park in the East Village where Jimi Hendrix is said to have lived. Maybe that explains the headband I’m always wearing. (I made it myself from an old black T-shirt!)

Ashtanga is great for building strength and flexibility. The proven links between stress and flexibility make me wonder about Middle Eastern people. Maybe there’s a direct correlation between our stiffness and our constant political stress. At school in London, the Arab and Iranian girls were always the worst at gymnastics. The Nordic girls made backflips look effortless. (The Middle Easterners at our school were great at tennis and swimming, thanks to summers on the French Riviera.)

One of the most important things to remember when you practice yoga, especially if you’re not especially flexible, like me, is to breathe and extend from your core. That helps a lot, I find. Yoga is all about breathing.

Concentrate on how your “inhale” ends and becomes your “exhale.” When you’re in your seated poses, try and fill your back up with air, envision your back full of breath, as you move forward.

Series 1Sun SalutationSurya Namaskara

Inhale and raise your arms over your head. Keep your feet together and your legs straight

*Uttanasana A*: Exhale and fold forward, hands to the ground, *Uttanasana B*: Inhale and come halfway up, straightening your spine and lifting your head

*Urdhva Mukha Shvanasana*: Roll forward on your feet, inhale. Open your chest and straighten your arms

*Adho Mukha Shvanasana*: Exhale and shift your weight to your back feet, lifting your hips and straightening your arms. Imagine your lower spine is being pulled up in the air. Hold for five breaths, then finish pose by jumping back and doing reverse of how you started

Series 2From basic sequence Prasarita Padottanasana

Feet wide apart, hands to waist, and inhale

*Psararita Padottanasana C*: Exhale, interlace fingers behind back, inhale, open your chest and extend your spine to the floor, lifting your hands gently upward for maximum stretch. Exhale when the crown of your head reaches the floor. Try and let your hands fall over your head. Hold for five breaths

Inhale and lift up to the standing position you started in. Exhale with your hands behind your back, fingers still interlaced. Inhale, extending your arms. Exhale, big toes together, for *Samasthitih*

Series 3Part of the Primary Series, Marichyasana (right side)

Inhale and put your right arm around your right knee and clasp hands behind your back. Straighten your back. Tip is to breathe in and move your breast out of the way so you can clasp your hands

Exhale and try and get your chin to your skin, careful to bend from the waist. Hold for five breaths. Repeat sequence using your left side

Series 4Part of the finishing poses

*Padmasana*: Exhale and fold your legs. You can then inhale

*Utplutih*: Exhale and put your hands on the floor. Lift yourself from your core. Hold position for fifteen breaths