05 Jul Telluride Yoga Fest: Denise Druce
Please scroll down to bottom of post to hear an interview with Denise Druce.
Tickets/passes for the Telluride Yoga Festival here.
Yoga instructor Denise Druce taught at Telluride WOW Fest, returns to Telluride Yoga Festival.
Full disclosure: I was a Telluride WOW virgin until this year. But Telluride’s Weekend of Wellness turned out to be a boldfaced event chock full of athletic and health dazzle: TRX with Neil Malinson; psychology behind good nutrition and overall health with Dr. Haley Perlus; an overview of the hip and how to keep muscles and joints in the area safe by Bill Fabrocini; restorative and Thai yoga therapy with Ansley Herndon; and “Yoga for Athletes” with Denise Druce.
Missed the fun? The good news is Haley, a Ph.D is Sport and Exercise Psychology will be blogging on Telluride Inside.. and Out, perhaps Bill too; Ansley (see related post) and Denise return to town for the 8th annual Telluride Yoga Festival, July 9 – July 12.
At Yoga Fest, Denise will be teaching two classes: Chakra Art for Self Discovery, Saturday, July 11, 11 a.m. and Yoga for Athletes, a class I intended at WOW, Sunday, July 12, 8 a.m.
Yoga for Athletes is not what you think. It is not about gnarlyasana. Quite the opposite. The class is about turning away from shiny new objects and muscular tension and going inward for a change, using the breath to create a moving meditation.
Denise Druce, who holds a BS in Health education from Utah State and a Masters of Public Health from the University of Utah School of Medicine, taught group fitness – step to slide to indoor cycling – for 15 years before stumbling onto a weekend yoga training course. With 200-hour and 500-hour certifications from YogaFit, she has served as head of Yoga Teacher Training at the University of Utah for five years and has been a member of the faculty for Exercise and Sport Science for 15-years, teaching students, fitness instructors, and athletes, integrating yoga into the training programs for the University of Utah football, basketball, baseball, gymnastics, volleyball and ski teams. As a Master Trainer for YogaFit, Schwinn and 24-Hour Fitness, Denise has trained hundreds of fitness instructors as a Master Trainer for Schwinn cycling and 24-Hour Fitness. She is director of yoga teacher training at Yoga Assets.
“I teach yoga because at the heart of the practice is the idea of connection. Union. Joining together. We join our mind and our body. Our breath and our movement. We connect with each other and with all that is. I love being a connecter. I love being a part of the golden chain that helps humans connect with each other and with something greater. I find so much joy in seeing my students find their inner strength.”
On the subject of inner strength and how yoga has changed her life, recently Denise Druce used her practice to get her through one of the greatest challenges of her life: a cancer diagnosis. Yoga (and the support of her loving family, husband Michael and three boys) allowed Denise to “find the soft edge of a hard place” and move on.
To learn more from this inspiring yoga instructor, click the “play” button and listen to my conversation with Denise Druce.
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