Press release for my first Stellenbosch Gymnasium classes, 2001

After many years of obscure small classes at less than ideal venues around town Stellenbosch is finally catching up with the rest of the world: Yoga came to the Gymnasiums of this sometimes strangely conservative town during the Spring of 2000 and is getting ever more popular.

Johann Kotze has been offering classes in this town for almost 10 years now. "Of course the buzz of the gym is not perfect for yoga and not at all suited to meditation but it is a great way to bring some of the lifestyle benefits to the public. And for me it is a great challenge as a teacher to make it accessible and sensible to people who are not necessarily interested in the finer detail".

Yoga in this form can become a vehicle for change of attitudes to the health of the body and mind to a broader number of people, rather than a few serious followers of a marginalised esoteric practice.

Controversy comes naturally to yoga and in some societies where it is often seen as a religious practice and a threat by orthodox Christians. Hopefully the classes at the gym will advance the aims of this very holistic form of exercise and combine ordinary fitness with real health and consciousness for everyone.

January, 2001

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