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ARTS & CULTURE
11
Alumna starts free yoga classes at Public Library
FRANK WEIRICH/KANSAN
Sarah Trowbridge-Alford performs yoga before a free class held at the Lawrence Public Library. Trowbridge-Alford was certified to teach through a 200-hour course at Westside Yoga.
MADI SCHULZ
@Mad_Dawgg
When Sarah Trowbridge-Alford first discovered yoga during a class at the University, she experienced something that she never had before; a quieted mind.
"That was the first time my brain ever just shut up, and I was just like, 'Where has this been all my life?' " she said.
From this first positive experience came the inspiration to continue on and teach yoga — and perhaps even help others to reach that same moment of peace.
Now, once a month, Trowbridge-Alford, a 2003 graduate, teaches a free yoga class at the Lawrence Public Library for those of all ages and skill levels. Held in the auditorium and various meeting rooms, the class sizes vary each month.
"Honestly, I'm always a little nervous at the beginning of each class," she said. "When I focus on my breathing and become mindful of my intention, which at its very base is to transform the suffering of others, my anxiety fades."
For Trowbridge-Alford, it was important to have a free class where her
students could try yoga because that was how she started.
"Because it was paid for in my campus fee, that's what kind of got me going," she said. "So that's one of the reasons I'm so adamant about making sure that I can offer a free class."
She earned her yoga certification in 2014 through a 200-hour course from Westside Yoga in Lawrence under teacher Gopi Sandal.
Now, Trowbridge-Alford teaches Hatha yoga involving sun salutations and a dancing warrior sequence. By mixing basic moves that beginners can master and some challenging balance exercises, she said she keeps her students on their toes while also adhering to their needs as students who want to learn.
Kim Heck of Lawrence has participated in the free class three times and said she comes to the sessions to relax. Another participant from Lawrence, Lauren Krivoshia, has found that yoga is "the best way [she has] found to relax, and it's also a great way to keep [her] body engaged and active and feeling better."
In each of her classes, Trowbridge Alford hands out information on other free yoga classes in Lawrence acting as an advocate for her students to find good teachers and classes that will work for them.
Trowbridge-Alford also works in the Teen Zone at the library five days a week. She finds the Teen Zone helpful as a place for kids to hang out and socialize without their little brothers and sisters or their parents. As a teen growing up in Lawrence, she remembers having limited places to hang out at night that her parents felt were safe.
Now, with the Teen Zone in the library and with her yoga, she said there's an opportunity to connect and help with the issues young people can have.
Whether it has been teaching at the Boys and Girls Club or at one of her free classes at the library, Trowbridge-Alford has been able to share her love of yoga, and help her students get rid of "monkey-mind" a yoga term that refers to the chatter that can clutter minds — the chatter that was silenced on her first day trying yoga.
"All of the conditions for my happiness are present in [yoga]." Trowbridge-Alford said. "I have no reason to be unhappy. I'm supported, I'm warm, I'm well-fed. I just feel so much gratitude when I'm doing it."
'Love & Mercy' biopic honest, refreshing
VICKY DÍAZ-CAMACHO
@vickyd_c
"Love & Mercy," the biopic on Beach Boys' frontman Brian Wilson, artistically showed the inner workings of the mind behind the sunny sounds of the Beach Boys. Its star-studded cast shreds through the mysteries and drama of becoming a billboard sensation. Viewers also get to see the hidden truths of music production in the 1960s.
Although the beginning of the
film opens with bright, colorful scenes, there's a somber undertone.
When the camera focuses on a young Wilson (played by Paul Dano, known for films such as "Little Miss Sunshine" and most recently, "12 Years a Slave"), viewers get an inside look at a distraught and damaged individual. His father's verbal and physical abuse echoes throughout Wilson's adult life (played by John Cusack).
Even though he has a supportive wife, family and band mates, Wilson detaches himself to escape reality and entertain the songs swimming in his mind. Here, the camerawork and sound editing express Wilson's momentary madness, which flux throughout the film一a rhythmic, mysterious bunch of good and bad vibrations.
Dano's performance as the young Wilson is compelling. We're enveloped in a world where the Beach Boys' music is an escape for listeners, yet its mastermind troubled with what we can only understand as mental illness. He is swallowed by social anxiety and—as we see early on in the film —the voices in his head. No spoilers here, but Dano sells the part of a mysterious songwriter battling his demons and his past.
So does Cusack. As an older Wilson, Cusack leaves his sweet rom-com box and lends his acting chops in the dramatic territory. We're able to empathize with a talented, yet stifled, songwriter who wants a normal life but who's dictated by an opportunist doctor, Dr. Eugene Landy (played by Paul Giamatti).
Wilson's love interest, Melinda Ledbetter (played by Elizabeth Banks), acts as the compassionate, persistent savior.
For a musical biopic, "Love & Mercy" was refreshing and dynamic. Viewers are exposed to the raw method behind the madness, which is beautifully curated and steered by director Bill Pohlad.