Relieve Stress and Work Out in Yoga for All Levels Series

Beat the winter blues and introduce balance into your life in The Marblehead School of Ballet's new yoga class, Yoga for All Levels. With a focus on alignment based flow yoga, the five-week series runs from Thursdays, February 7 through March 7, 2019 from 10:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. The series takes place at the MSB studio located at 115 Pleasant Street in Marblehead, Massachusetts.

Yoga Provides Benefits

"Yoga is a wonderful addition to our curriculum. This will aid the development of a dancer, as well as the non-dancers, who are interested in improving their health and well-being.

"People from a range of backgrounds can benefit from yoga. For example, yoga provides a good workout for children, stay-at-home parents, and caregivers. Seniors can enhance their mobility and balance. Yoga also helps workers sitting or standing in one position for extended periods of time improve their flexibility and range of motion, while improving muscle tone," explained Paula K. Shiff, Director of the Marblehead School of Ballet.

The class is open to adults and youngsters, ages 12 and up. No previous yoga experience is necessary. Beginners or seasoned yogis are welcome.

Yoga: A Natural Stress Reliever

Deborah Leahy joins the MSB's faculty as the school's new yoga instructor. “Whether new to yoga or a seasoned practitioner, yoga gives you an opportunity to start fresh, reset and balance your day. Yoga is a mind and body workout, a natural stress reliever. Leave class feeling stretched, strengthened and lengthened," explained Leahy.

She brings several years of experience as a dancer to her position having studied for 12 years a range of dance styles, including ballet, tap, and jazz. Adding yoga to her fitness repertoire came easily. "I truly enjoyed the discipline of the point shoes. Yoga was a natural next step for me to take for fitness and health. I love to share my passion and enthusiasm of yoga linking movement to breath and inviting the breath into every day life," said Leahy.

Her experience includes extensive study of yoga in a 200-hour teacher training course with Larisa Forman and Vito Politano. Other training includes a Reiki 1 certificate with Gurdeep Bhogel from the Usui Ryoho lineage. She continues her studies in a 300-hour yoga teacher training course with Natasha Rizopoulos in Boston. In addition to teaching at the Marblehead School of Ballet, Leahy participated in the Nantucket Yoga Festival and has worked in several venues in the North Shore region.

To register for the yoga class or for more information, call the school's office at 781-631-6262. The tuition is $65 for the series or $15 to drop-in. Students, who own a yoga mat, are asked to bring one. For a class schedule, visit the organization online.