Ottawa Yoga Teacher Profile - Janice Tokaryk

Back in 06/07, I used to start my Saturday mornings off with Janice's Ashtanga class at Santosha Westboro on Richmond Rd. When I started my Ashtanga practice, I was sweating like I'd been in a heated room and usually needed a two-hour nap following class to recover. I loved the discipline and simplicity of Ashtanga, simplicity not to be confused with ease - it was a challenging practice, one we see much less of on the Ottawa yoga scene today. It was the original "flow" practice: no frills, no music - just you, your breath and your body.

Janice was the teacher who, after weeks of practicing my headstand with the help of a wall, ever so casually walked by me in class one day and said, without any kind of aggression or force, "You're ready." I knew exactly what she meant. I stepped away from the wall. And did my very first unassisted headstand successfully. I was indeed ready but I didn't know it or was too afraid to try. To me, that's the mark of a great teacher. Observant, kind and ready to gently push you forward past your fears and show you your true potential.

Luckily for the Ottawa yoga community, Janice is still teaching. What's important to her? She loves teaching at different places and helping students of different capabilities, levels and needs, whether they are a beginner, intermediate or advanced yogi. She derives great satisfaction as a teacher and in watching students progress. She's also a lead trainer for Adi Shesha Yoga Zone's 200-hour Hatha Yoga teacher training courses, along with Basia Going, and has been for about 10 years. She finds this facet of her teaching extremely rewarding.

As a teacher, she feels what's most important is being who you are and sharing what you have to offer. Her first love was Ashtanga Yoga and her classes are Ashtanga-based so they tend to be more on the strong side. That being said, she also likes meditation and incorporates this aspect into her workshops. She started taking yoga classes at the age of 16, and according to her mother, had a fascination with India as a young child. Janice has been practicing for about 25 years and teaching for 20 years.

Her first teacher training was an intensive with Bryan Kest in California. She then studied with David Swenson and completed five teacher trainings with Richard Freeman so it goes without saying that her classes are heavily influenced by Freeman's approach to yoga.

As mentioned in previous profiles, I'm asking my interviewees how they feel the Ottawa yoga scene has changed over the last decade. In Janice's view, there are more studios opening up but she's not sure what we're currently teaching is yoga. She suspects we're a little too busy "entertaining" our students with marketing gimmicks and music. Are we yoga teachers or entertainers? Are we stripping yoga of its rituals and discipline to appeal to a mass market? Just as the introduction of the 24-hour news cycle blurred the lines between news and entertainment, are we blurring the lines between this ancient science we call yoga and a perceived need to coddle or impress our students?

A traditional yoga practice is now viewed as something foreign or "un-hip" and a certain depth of knowledge is quickly eroding. There is more "copying" than experiencing and learning. What have we given up in the name of yoga's newfound popularity?

After my conversation with Janice, I felt compelled to re-examine my own approach to teaching, and for the past few months, I've adopted a "back to basics" attitude, reintroducing certain key aspects of a traditional yoga practice in my classes. What have I learned so far? We underestimate our students when we pander to them, and we do them a disservice by withholding certain teachings and techniques for fear of not appearing "trendy". Thank you, Janice, for teaching me some very important lessons off the mat.

I certainly consider Janice a senior teacher in the Ottawa yoga community and anyone looking for a truly authentic and knowledgeable approach to yoga will find it with her. Janice teaches two weekly classes at Adi Shesha Yoga Zone (99 Fourth Ave. in the Glebe) - Wednesdays and Fridays: 10-11:30 am, and at her own home studio (17 O'Meara St. in Hintonburg). Classes at her studio are set up in sessions of two or three months and pre-registration is required. She also offers workshops at her studio and pre-registration is also required for these. You can find more info on her website and you can also find her on Facebook and Twitter: @yogajstudio.