When we think of yoga, we may think of flowing through poses on the mat, sitting in meditation or focusing on the breath. But we also know that in every moment of every day, without even having to make the effort sometimes, yoga becomes a part of every breath. Sometimes the situations in which yogis finds themselves are ones we might identify as extreme. For the people we profile below, yoga makes them achieve the improbable. For the first of our three profiles, Rob Stewart carries a high definition camera underwater in an effort to document a species’ destruction.
Diving With Sharks
Sharks can sense electrical fields; from a distance they can sense the rate and rhythm of someone’s heartbeat. They’re sensitive underwater. When filmmaker, conservationist and wildlife photographer Rob Stewart goes diving to film sharks, he has to remain relaxed and lower his heart rate so that not only will the animals not be spooked, but they will actually approach him. A lifelong yoga practice is what allows Stewart to accomplish this, a feat seen in his documentary film Sharkwater. Sharkwater, which was released to great acclaim in Canada last spring, opens in the U.S. on September 21.
The impetus to begin the film was inspired by his commitment to conservation. It’s a form of karma yoga that the vegetarian Stewart practices when he gets behind the camera. “One hundred million sharks are dying every year…I realized I needed to make a movie that would bring people closer to sharks than they had ever been before…and care enough to fight for their protection.”
Sharks may not seem like the first casting choice for a starring role, but for this conservationist, it was a natural selection. “I’ve been a shark nerd since I was a kid. They’re the last dragons, the last dinosaurs.” Stewart remarks about the animals that many people see as sinister predators. “People think that sharks are dangerous, that if all the sharks were removed, then the world would be a better place.” But sharks, occupants of the oceans for more than 450 million years, are an integral part of the marine ecosystem. Maintaining a healthy and functional ecosystem is essential to not only the survival of individual animals, it is necessary our own ability to flourish on Planet Earth.
In the midst of shooting the mystery of sharks, what began as a beautiful underwater film about the ancient creatures became an intense human drama, drama spurred by the fact that illegally poaching shark fins is a multibillion-dollar gourmet industry. Stewart and his cohorts, including outspoken conservationist Paul Watson and the crew of the Sea Shepard uncovered a mafia-backed illegal trade in shark fins around the waters of Central and South America including the Galapagos Islands. They fled from Costa Rica, were charged with attempted murder and had to wrap the boat in barbed wire to prevent being boarded. While negotiating for his own life, Stewart was waylaid by a hospital stay with a form of flesh-eating bacteria. He narrowly missed having his legs amputated.
Throughout it all: diving, filming, carrying equipment, dodging machine gun fire and patiently waiting to heal in the hospital, it was his yoga practice that gave him the ability to maintain his connection to his breath. He awakens to a morning practice that incorporates asana, meditation and pranayama (breath control techniques).
Stewart first began doing yoga when only eight years old by practicing pranayama, which he learned to support his love of diving, particularly free diving. Sitting on the dock of a boat, before going beneath the surface, Stewart practices pranayama sequences to prepare his body, mind and spirit for the rigor of holding his breath, maintaining his core temperature in the cold water, lowering his heart rate to interact with sharks and hone his ability to pay attention in the harsh conditions of the ocean.
He’s not the only diver who does so; free divers worldwide incorporate yoga techniques including pranayama into their regular practice for both physical and spiritual benefits. A successful free dive involves holding the breath for an extended period of time, slowing the heart rate and lowering metabolism. Attention goes inward, a form of pratyahara. For Stewart, it is the purest form of meditation. For the viewer watching him in Sharkwater, it is meditation in motion, the visible trail of an internal yoga practice splashed across the screen when he dives and interacts with sharks.
Lights, Camera, Yoga…
In commercials, films or on television, the best stunt performers are often unrecognizable. In a wig and makeup, you’ll see them rolling away from a fire, crashing a speeding car, leaping off of a cliff, bungee-jumping from a hot air balloon, kicking out a car window wearing stilettos or being thrown over a crowd. At the youthful age of 67, stuntwomen Sandy Gimpel still performs all of those feats and more. It may be tempting to ask the question: Why keep at it? But for Gimpel, the answer is simple, “I don’t want to get old.”
There is no way that one could describe Gimpel as old; she’s lively, quick-moving, deceptively tiny, and unsurprisingly spry, with an easy smile. Her more than 40 years as a stuntwoman were not planned when she first pursued her dream to be in the movies. She got her start in Hollywood as a dancer, and performed in several Elvis films. On one of the walls of her home, a signed photo of the King is displayed with his distinctive autograph sitting beneath the image.
Gimpel has played numerous roles in front of and behind the camera: as a stuntwoman, stunt coordinator, actor, dancer and director. She is one of the first women to receive a Director’s Guild card and she’s received credit as a producer. This year, she produced the first of a series of workout DVDs, which reveal the secrets of her longevity allowing her to complete a long list of tough gigs in the life of a stuntwoman.
Her secret formula includes yoga. In addition to wearing a fourth degree Tae Kwon Do black belt, who teaches the martial art to children, her regimen includes a regular yoga practice. She attends classes in the Valley, and incorporates the discipline into her home routine as well as the workout programs that she teaches. Gimpel credits yoga with honing her ability to focus her attention, particularly in the midst of tense and often dangerous situations. She’s lent her talent to dangerous situations in an impressive resume full of films. Con Air, The Truman Show, The Rock, Joe Versus the Volcano and Airplane! are only a few of the flicks in which Gimpel’s name appears in the credits.
While executing a stunt, “the adrenaline rush and the body have to be controlled,” Gimpel points out. Focus, attention and complete control are necessary. To be thrown over a crowd of people (as she was in a scene in the recent film Norbit, she has to hold her body carefully, both to make the stunt work and to protect her own body from getting hurt. Like Stewart underwater, on set she must consciously lower her heart rate and prevent herself from panicking in situations that are beyond the extreme. It’s all yoga, all the time.
Spinning Under the Top
“I was always intrigued by Cirque de Soleil, I always thought the athleticism was amazing, but I never thought I could do it.” It was a somewhat surprising event that convinced former current yoga teacher Jamie Corydon that she possessed an inner – and outer – circus performer. Corydon was watching an episode of Trading Spaces where one of the featured couples had a set of silks hanging in their house. Hanging silks are becoming more common in dance, performance and even fitness. Watching television, Corydon thought to herself, if they can play with the silks in their house, than so can I.
Searching for somewhere to learn aerial dance, Corydon traipsed off to Las Vegas. She found the Sandou Brothers School, a newer circus school Vegas opened by some ex-Cirque de Soleil members. While she entered the big top with the intention to master the silks, fate intervened, and she has instead become a lyra performer. The lyra is the spinning hoop, set high in the air as a prop for the acrobatic twists and turns. This gives the performer the illusion of weightlessness and a literal air of beauty. Recruited by Paula Lord of the Panamerican Gala Union, Corydon packed up her newly wrought skills and went off to perform under the big top.
Her lyra debut was at nothing less than one of the world’s greatest acrobatics events. The Austrian town of Dornbirn hosted this summer’s World Gymnaestrada. Imagine a week of Cirque, with outrageously costumed performers from around the world setting up stages indoors and out. Olympians and amateurs perform side by side. Corydon described the experience as amazing, and insisted, “No way could I have done it without yoga.”
Yoga allowed Corydon to develop the upper body and core strength necessary to fly through the air with the greatest of ease. In addition, yoga allowed her to actually perform on an aerial apparatus. “I have always had an intense fear of heights. Through yoga I could stay in the moment, breathe and concentrate.” Yoga taught Corydon not just breath but trust. Through trusting herself – body, breath, mind and spirit – she could enjoy the experience. The focus and joy Corydon experiences while performing on the lyra reminds Corydon of the focus inherent in meditation.
Between stints training in the gym and preparing to soar in the sky, Corydon continues to teach yoga. Her time in the air informs her practice and teaching on the ground. “With my teaching, it has added more creativity, particularly with how to assist people with practicing inversions and facing their own fears.” In her own practice, she said, “I have a renewed belief that if I put my mind to it, I can achieve it.”
The Extreme in the Everyday
We don’t necessarily have to join the circus, bungee jump for a cereal bowl or dive the seven seas on a crusade to save maligned creatures to put our own practice to the extreme. Sometimes, meeting a deadline, negotiating the freeway, getting along with colleagues and taking the time to stop and listen to family and friends all require what may seem like extreme efforts of attention, patience and fortitude. The truest aspects of yoga practice are those that inform our every waking moments.
And in those moments that stretch us to our limits, we can return to the foundation of our practice. Pause, breathe, feel our feet and remember our spirit. This can give us strength and focus when we are sitting in a hospital bed, as Rob Stewart did, wondering if we would recover; maintaining focus and awareness without panicking while being set aflame on a movie set, as Sandy Gimpel has done in the pursuit of her craft; or whether we rise to great heights to pursue a new dream, as Jamie Corydon did when she packed her bags and her lyra for Austria. The extreme is in the everyday and events that may seem extreme are in fact, mundane, since they are all united by the breath and by the power of our attention and awareness.
Sandy Gimpel’s DVD, Stuntblasters, was just released.
Find it at stuntblastersworkout.com.
Rob Stewart’s highly anticipated film Sharkwater opens in U.S. theaters September 21. www.sharkwater.com.
For more information about the World Gymnestrada, visit: wg2007.com.
