In 2006 I left my job in banking and stock trading and moved to London to pursue a new career in photography. In those days, I attended a Vipassana meditation course and travelled to India for the first time. I got “contaminated” by those new experiences, became a regular guest in India and developed a serious interest in oriental philosophies and practices… the next natural step was to become a yoga teacher and start spreading my new knowledge. , being so useful to me, it could have be to others.
To be a teacher is not an end, it is a start… the more you learn, the better you can teach.
After a first 300h TT in Rishikesh, I stayed some months at the Sivananda ashram in Madurai completing the basic Sivananda 200h TT, the advanced Sivananda 300h TT and the Sadhana Intensive, a 2 weeks period of deep practice, as yogis were doing in the Himalaya, in a secluded space, with specific food, direct study under the lineage and 12 hours per day of pranayama.
With a solid understanding of traditional yoga and its Indian philosophical roots, I moved back to London where I had the opportunity to attend workshops and teacher trainings with some of the most famous teachers of the western yoga world, regular guests at London’s most iconic yoga studios.I appreciated how the west dealt with the yoga practice, adding new anatomic topics as the fascial system and the tensegrity architectural concept. They both became my focal interest, because of the clarity of this new anatomical paradigm, perfectly explaining the new ideas I was developing through my personal practice.
I got enthusiast and attended literally myriads of trainings with the highlights of Ashtanga Yoga TT/David Swenson, Budokon Yoga TT/Donato, Rocket Yoga TT/Marie Mussel, iRest Yoga Nidra TT and the peak of Anusara Yoga TT with Bridget Woods Kramer.
Only at that point, I realized that modern western yoga is great but also has limits. I am not discussing them now, but I had to step out of the yoga shell (both indian and western) to learn new contents. Obviously I’m talking in regards to the physical aspects of yoga; to be clear I consider the philosophical explanations of yoga as a peak of clarity in the way the mind, universe and life are described.
In 2014, I have received the 10 sessions of Rolfing/Structural Integration, I studied Thai massage with Ivan Medici and Kira Balaskas, taught my first yoga learning retreats and got attracted by acroyoga: I loved the acrobatic training and the community focused intention of the whole practice, a big step out of the progressive individualism that I was witnessing in those days in London’s yoga scene.
Handstand, acrobatics, movement and gravity became my new primary interests. Development of new skills for the body was possible as the possibility to teach them, in fact I became soon Acroyoga teacher studying with AY-International, meeting the founder Jason Nemer. I grew with the original Italian acroyoga scene, fermenting from 2014, ready to explode and now led by the internationally all-known Italian acro-monster-couples: Luigi-Francesca/Acrobatic Yoga Sicily and Francesco-Valeria/Acroseeds.
In 2017, I organized my knowledge as E-RYT200 in a teacher training program, giving foundation to the Yoga Trains method, RYS200/Yoga Alliance registered.
At that point, I was a yoga geek/philosophy geek/handstand geek/anatomy geek, obsessed by the concepts of verticality and postural interaction with gravity, realizing their influences on health and behaviour. As I deepened my studies in Tom Myers’s Anatomy Trains theory, expanding my body explorations and increasing massage experience, I realized that any solution could be found through the medium of the fascial system, given its role in body-mapping, movement and self-image formation.
My next natural step was to embark myself in a 4 years modular training at the BARSI Academy in London, to become a certified Rolfer/Structural Integrator, under the guidance of the great teacher and extraordinary human being Giovanni Felicioni.
At the moment, march 2020, at the conclusion of the Rolfing training, having fully understood and embraced the rolfing principles, taxonomies and concepts as segmental gravitational relation, having undergone my second very deep rolfing process… my understanding of the physical aspect of yoga has radically transformed; it has been a journey through so many levels of understanding of the body, how it moves, functions, heals and interacts with the mind, originating behaviour.
I currently teach a form of dynamic hatha yoga/vinyasa karma, inspired and rooted by gravitationa principles, with the triple purpose of:
- harmonizing the body with gravity and natural patterns in order to balance and restore
- developing key functions of the body, allowing natural potential and capacity of movement to emerge in order to learn and grow new abilities
- to refine the quality of old and new skills, build integration and gain vitality and energy in order to perform daily life actions with a very comfortable state of mind
I love to spread the beautiful knowledge existing on this planet in the form of yoga or whatever I have learnt in my studies and through my experience.
I taught in a very wide range of scenarios and events, from parks to beaches, yoga studios to London’s squats, from private houses to the beautiful locations in nature of many psy-trance music festivals. From 2013, to teach in electronic music festivals (Tangra festival in Bulgary, Transahara festival in Sahara desert/Morocco, Freqs of Nature festival in Germany, Ozora festival in Hungary, Modem festival in Croatia, Human Evolution and WAO festival in Italy) gave me opportunity to witness the progressive interest about yoga and healing/wellbeing activities in the new and smart generations. That is a strong hope for the future!
Teaching, training, coaching, sharing, allowing beauty to emerge by creation of conditions and cultivation of purpose are all synonyms.
I am lead trainer of YOGA TRAINS, registered yoga school RYS200/Yoga Alliance International, teaching the full yoga teacher training certification program to become registered yoga teacher RYT200 and RYT500/Yoga Alliance International.