When I was 8 I couldn't sit cross-legged in school assembly - tight hips! At 32 I had a herniated disc. At 43 I severed my Achilles tendon. At 48 I took up dance.

The challenge was to open up my body safely and that meant gradually. Dance teachers were often supportive but even basic classes were taught at break-neck speed. My body was unresponsive to ballet, jazz involved too much choreography and not enough basic technique, and modern seemed a form of body suicide!

I was delighted, therefore, to discover Ron Navarre's yoga class. Here was a class with no ceiling and no floor: a carefully orchestrated series of poses which challenged all, from the top professional students at the Ailey School, where the class was taught, to older newcomers like me, yet were very safe. I would often enter the class tired and stiff and leave with whole sections of my body released and my mind alive. It was strange and liberating to feel an area permanently locked, such as a section of my upper torso, free to "breathe" and move about. The freedom also felt eerie and more than a little unnerving.

Ron's teaching is holistic in nature. It is more than just a well-designed series of poses. Ron talks and engages the class in conversation throughout each session, sometimes speaking more and sometimes less, according to the mood and needs of the class. He teaches how to use the breath to free the body and focus the mind, and emphasizes the importance of focus and intention, both as performance tools and as necessary ingredients of safe yoga or dance practice. The class is now available on an excellent DVD.

Ron began dancing in his late teens and, after training as a classical ballet dancer in Canada, spent many years performing on Broadway. His career was at times interrupted by a series of injuries, some serious, so he understands from experience how injuries occur, how devastating they can be, and how best to recover from them. He will often diagnose and identify both the immediate cause of students' aches and pains, and injuries, and recommend modified poses where appropriate. He also teaches how certain mental and emotional states can inevitably lead to injury and the importance of recognizing, accepting and incorporating emotion into yoga, dance and all other aspects of our lives, which will otherwise be boring to us and to those who watch us.

Ron cares about his students and has been very helpful to and supportive of me from the very first class. He has helped me to identify my objectives as a student dancer, assess how realistic they are, and discover how best they can be achieved. It is hard to ask more from any teacher or, for that matter, from any friend.

Graham Daw

Attorney and Student Dancer, NYC