Wednesday, August 06, 2008

 



Here’s a good combination. Pregnant, and making a children’s yoga DVD. And yes, that was me a few weeks ago. Every time I wanted to complain I just had to look at the Director of the film, Alessandra, who is about two days more pregnant then I! We weren’t quite at the waddling stage… but close enough. I still can’t believe there is a point when you can’t see your feet when you are walking. Anyway… back to the DVD….

To give you a little background, this DVD is a combination of a yoga class, a story, and songs set to celestial communication. For those of you who haven’t heard of celestial communication, this is a kind of dance to bring emphasis to the words of a song, and incorporate the energy into the body, and in this way “communicate” with God, the angels, and divine energy. In a way, this combination of story, yoga, and movement is how I grew up doing yoga. My spiritual teacher once said that children’s yoga should be first and foremost fun. As you’ll see in the DVD we have some pretty ridiculous moments.

As we toured around the country these past seven years, children kept coming to our concerts. We would invite them up on stage to sing with us at times, because they just were so cute and beautiful. I admit it, I couldn’t resist. Pretty soon, I began to realize how much the kids were connecting with the spirit in the music, so we developed a whole children’s yoga program to give them a more direct experience of that spirit. We delivered this program all over the world, and so we decided to make a DVD out of it for kids that couldn’t make it to our programs.

We looked around our home town of Espanola and neighboring Santa Fe to find children to be in our DVD. Fortunately, the kids who came to do the video were in top form on the day of filming. A few days before the filming, we had a set of rehearsals with the kids. Mind you, I believe (in my haven’t really experienced being a mom sort of way) that we had very good children. But, it was the combination of probably our adult nerves, and the sheer fun of being kids, that created a slightly unruly rehearsal situation. We quickly realized that the sheepskins for the yoga class would become airborne on the day of the filming if we didn’t tape them down. Already, one boy had a dirt mark on his nice white yoga pants after only wearing them for 5 minutes for our fitting. My niece Siri Atma was doing the Def Leppard hand symbol (we think it came from her father) during the celestial communication for the song “I am Happy, I am Good”. At one point I told myself “At least the kids were bonding and having a good time”… as all of the children were on the floor in a massive wrestling pile completely ignoring my adult implorations to have them come sitting up to do more yoga.

The night before the filming, I earnestly looked at my husband over dinner and said, “We should probably reschedule everything, give a few more weeks to practice with the children.” I know, I probably shouldn’t be telling you this… you probably would just like to see the finished DVD and just see it as a yoga class. But, hey, I thought I’d take you behind the scenes… get a little personal with it.

Anyway, my husband looked at me with his big blue eyes, and said with all of the confidence that I wish I had, “the kids will be fine, you’ll see.”

On the day of the filming, the crew showed up, and set up the lights and cameras. The kids arrived at 8:30 in the morning, and let me just say it was a new day. They walked in with all of the confidence and calm that I had imagined that they would have all of these months in preparation, and we began filming. We went through each posture, and celestial communication movement, sometimes more then once, and the children were beautiful. I couldn’t believe it… that’s why in the video I’m smiling so much… it really was because of the children… and maybe because I’m pregnant. Alessandra, in her very cheerful yet authoritative voice led us through the whole day. We finally let the children go that evening, after awarding them with special crystals.

Currently, our music producer, Krishan, is working in LA to create the final music mixes. We have some very talented children singers that came into his studio to sing. We also have an illustrator working on some amazing illustrations for the story. I can’t really tell you any more then this… top secret stuff. No just kidding. But, look out for our new DVD which plan to release this October.

Sat Nam!

Comments:
Sat Nam and hello from New York- what a precious post! I'm not yet a Mom, but will be some day, and I cherish these personal insights and stories your share. Thank for offering such a beautiful and reflective view into your project's creation. It's a lovely piece offering us a glimpse of the reality into what I'm sure will ultimately look like an effortless flow on video.

I look forward to watching and gifting your final dvd to many families I know and love.

Best wishes and congratulations on your pregnancy. And many blessings and gratitude for all of your lovely posts and beautiful music. I listen to some of your songs when I practice bound lotus.

Sat nam.
 
I am looking very forward to your children's DVD. My daughter Rhiannon was one of the little girls on stage with you for 1 song during your beautiful concert at "The Body" in Santa Fe.
 
Thats hilarious. We're really looking forward to the finish products. You guys are awesome. Keep posting Snatam, your writing is very enjoyable.

Satnam,
Jai Dev, Simrit & Siri Amrit
 
Sat Nam~
Dearest Snatam,
I am happy to see you posting again and that you are making a children's dvd :)
Congratulations with your pregnancy- I am sure you have a blessed divine soul in your holy womb.
Please keep us posted-
With Love,
Karuna
 
Sat Shri Akaal Snatam Kaur ji :-)

I see God in You

smiles,
Gurjit Singh
 
Congratulations Snatam :)
 
Congratulations on your pregnency! I've seen you in concert the last 2 times you perfomed in Sacramento. I had the pleasure to meet you after the Waldorf concert, (I mentioned that I had studied with Yogi Bhajan in 1969 - my first introductin to yoga.) I do pray you tour here or near here as I loved the concerts and have many friends I want to bring.

Namaste - Kevin
 
Sat Nam Snatam,

I'm looking forward to buying the DVD! Thanks for your honesty about teaching kids - it is a beautiful challenging gift.

If people know it gets easier, hopefully more will bring the joy of yoga to kids.
 
LOL, that is great!!! Congradulations on the baby as well. You are awesome.
Sat Nam & Aum Shanti ~(-_-)~
Piper
 
Satnam ji,

Congrats on your pregnancy. I am so happy for you dearest sister ji. And I am looking forward to the childrens DVD..

You will be a superb mom.. Love you dear.

Susheel
 
Post a Comment



<< Home

This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?