| Member Spotlight: Laguna Madre Yoga, Meditation & Dance Center | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MIND, SPIRIT AND BODY; THE YOGA AND MEDITATION EXPERIENCE
Spend a few moments with Charlotte Aziza Barker and the whole idea of the mind/body healing connection comes into sharp focus. You sense Aziza's passion and joy that seems to spill out and permeate all her endeavors.
It's hard to know where to begin when describing what Aziza does and the training and experience she brings to the Laguna Madre Yoga and Meditation Center. She danced professionally with a regional modern dance company in Ohio touring as a performer, choreographer and teacher throughout the country. She studied movement and the spinal column in Toronto at the Mitzvah Technique Center with Nehemia Cohen. Although born in Texas, as a child her father made his living in the oil business traveling the world. Aziza grew up in Europe, Africa, Iran and Brazil and has always had an outlook of unity. As a student of yoga and meditation since 1970 this theme of unity and harmony has prevailed in her life. She was inspired and catapulted by having the great fortune to have studied with Oxford scholar and teacher Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan who taught the psychology and science of meditation. In 1985 a growth in her career ambitions led to a massage therapy national license with 20 years of experience in teaching and bodywork specializing in alignment, shiatsu, sports and restorative massage. Since 1996 Aziza has been self employed. While still maintaining her massage therapy practice, Center Pivot, she saw the need to expand into what is now Laguna Madre Yoga & Meditation Center and opened in the fall of 2005.
Aziza has been teaching yoga on South Padre Island since 1987 and offers her gratitude for friends, students and businesses that have been instrumental in giving yoga a temporary home until the time was ripe for a permanent location. She has opened the center with her husband Kevin Stanton and friend Deborah McCoy. The fact that the island was in need of a yoga studio for locals and tourists was inspired while she and Deborah were on a yoga retreat in Hawaii last spring. The studio offers a peaceful and vibrant atmosphere for learning and is a laboratory for the body and spirit where students of all ages can come and learn about themselves and enjoy the journey with others. The studio boasts a sprung wooden floor, gentle on the joints for all types of movement exploration from the healing effects of Yoga, Tai Chi and Qi Gong to Dance Movement. For the more adventurous souls, Tango lessons are available weekly.
Aziza has created a teaching environment that celebrates and honors students of all abilities and body types and has an astutely keen eye for alignment offering individuals a practice that is both challenging and deeply rewarding. The classes offer a wide variety of postures and techniques for flexibility, suppleness and healing of body, mind and spirit. Classes and individual instruction in Hatha Yoga, Meditation, Qi Gong,Tai Chi and Dance are available at the studio or onsite for area schools, conferences, corporate seminars, group or family gatherings.
Laguna Madre Yoga and Meditation Center provides Yoga Teacher Certification and provides Continuing Education Certification for Massage Therapist in the areas of massage therapy, hydrotherapy and spa treatments. Aziza is a Texas Department of Health Approved Continuing Education Provider and Massage Therapy Instructor and can be contacted for individual appointments.
Deborah McCoy works with Laguna Madre Yoga and Meditation Center and is Cooper Clinic certified in Nutrition and Working with Older Adults. She is currently teaching the centering effects of Qi Gong practices, dance, children’s yoga classes and will be offering a children’s yoga summer camp in June & July.
Whether you are interested in Intregal Yoga, Power Yoga, Dance, Meditation, teacher certification, or continuing education in massage and related spa treatments, Laguna Madre Yoga and Meditation Center has everything you need right here on South Padre Island. For more information please call 956-761-9642 (761-YOGA).
| ||||
Copyright@ 2010, South Padre Island Chamber
(956) 761-4412