Master teacher Michelle Gigante has been guiding people toward energetic openings through a blend of yoga, breathing, and mindfulness techniques for nearly 25 years. The founder and director of Shakti Yoga in Buffalo, Michelle has an extensive background in theatre and dance, which contributes to her ability to execute classes with clarity and precision, improvising sequences that are creative and playful. I have appreciated her classes since becoming a member of the Shakti community when I returned to Buffalo in 2018. Deeply versed in healing modalities from yoga to Reiki to Qigong, Michelle is not generally, however, a fan of communications technologies, so when she decided to start offering centering sessions over Facebook Live and yoga sessions via Zoom, I sensed the opportunity for a wonderful conversation about how and why to learn to care for the self during a global health crisis.
To provide a glimpse of one of Michelle’s online sessions, I cut a short video from one of her 60-minute Zoom sessions that includes three typical segments: a breathing exercise, child’s pose, and a gentle shake derived from Qigong. Check it out, and get in where you fit in. If you’re not drawing a paycheck these days, Michelle welcomes you as her guest. If you are, there are plenty of options to donate to this good work. For more information about current offerings and more, visit shaktibuffalo.com.
Because Michelle has students (and fans) in many time zones, I offered to edit a few hour-long sessions of different styles so that yogis could practice on their own schedules. A typical chair-based practice, Shakti flow, and gentle flow are available in the PRACTICE section of the home page for Michelle’s YouTube Channel.
It’s an honor that the podcast gets quoted and cited sometimes, and also that some folk like to read along. Here’s what we said:
SOUNDTRACK
Ravi Padmanabha is a composer, improviser, and multi-instrumentalist who has performed at Shakti throughout the years, and accompanied many of Michelle’s classes. He studies and plays a wide range of music, from jazz to Indian to experimental styles from many parts of the globe. Ravi has studied with many Indian masters, including Pandit Samar Saha, Pandit Sharda Sahai, and Pankaj Misra. Featured on many recordings, Ravi has led various musical projects such as My Nada Brahma, the Bul-Bul Tarang Gang, and more recently the Transindental Karmacist and Americana Raga. His collaborators include: Steve Baczkowski, Tom Chess, Alex Glenfield, William Parker, William Cole, Junni Booth, Robert Dick, Daniel Carter, Cooper Moore, Arrignton DeDionyso, and Paul Flarherty. To purchase his Meditations Vol. 1 featured on this episode, here’s the Bandcamp page.
