Telluride Yoga Fest: Gina Caputo, Yogini on the Loose

18 Jul Telluride Yoga Fest: Gina Caputo, Yogini on the Loose

Telluride Yoga Fest takes place July 21 – July 24, 2016. Tickets here.

Gina Caputo

It’s no big secret.

Yoga is now mainstream in the West, particularly in urban centers: everywhere people who drive Priuses and Teslas and eat organic veggies are practicing one of the many flavors of Hatha Yoga, the yoga of action. Devotees tend to be divided into tribes: Iyengar students obsess about building precisely articulated poses with straps, blocks and bolsters. Ashtangis who go for it they to be ripped from all the stretching, toning, and balancing moves in each series. And so on…

Literally and metaphorically the diversity of yoga experiences offered across our country could leave you standing on your head: for many, yoga is an exacting physical and spiritual discipline, a journey inward that can lead to an ineffable, blissful state described as “enlightenment” (there are many degrees); for others, the practice is simply a hip way to stay fit and reduce stress.

And for Gina Caputo?

For this wild and passionate yogini and uplifting, empathetic instructor, her clear and playful approach to a practice is a way for her students to find their edge, open up their minds, and fearlessly go where they have not gone before.

“Gina Caputo loves yoga with a passion rarely seen. She is incredibly smart, sensitive, and alive with inspiration. A gifted teacher,” said Max Strom, a global teacher, speaker and author (“A Life Worth Breathing” and “There is No App for Happiness”).

At the 9th Telluride Yoga Festival, Thursday, July 21 – Sunday, July 24, Gina Caputo is one of the lead presenters, on a short list that also includes Dr. Alanna Kaivalya, Tias Little, Eric Paskel,Coby Kozlowski, Tymi Howard, and Mas Vidal, plus returning favorites, Vincent Bolletta, Lara Catone, Karl Straub, Allison English, Maria Garre.

Gina Caputo describes her passionate and inspired style of teaching as Integrated Vinyasa. The emphasis is on alignment and flow, anatomy and energetics, focus and release, work and play.

Gina recognizes and embodies the fact that creative movement and self-exploration are essential methods of conscious evolution and ways of discovering our limitless potential. Because she came to the mat from an office chair, Gina understands how to speak to the modern-day householder yogi. Her four intensives, including workshops and classes that emphasize mind-body awareness as the foundation for holistic health, clarity, and equanimity in our lives. – one of them to the sounds of the Grateful Dead.

Gina’s classes are

• Friday, July 22, 8 – 10 a.m.: Soul Flow: Nourish and Active Body & Mind, a practice which merges mindfulness with asana;

• Friday, 3 – 4 p.m., “Fire on the Mountain: Flow (to the Grateful Dead)”; 

• Saturday, July 23, 3 – 5 p.m., “Alpenflow: Mountain Wisdom Yoga,” which goes deep into legs, hips and core;

• and Sunday, “Sky Above Me, Earth Below Me, Fire Within Me,” all about a definition of yoga as a journey from outer envelope to our inner core, our soul.

On Friday, 5:30 p.m., Gina, along with Tias, Alana, Tymi, Mas, Karl, Eric, and Coby, will share enlighening and light-hearted stories of what it means to be on the yogic path.

Since her last appearance at the Telluride Yoga Festival, Gina Caputo has not let any grass grow under her feet. In March, she opened the Colorado School of Yoga in Boulder, with programs in Boulder, Vail, and Aspen emphasizing yoga education, continuing education, and building community and activism among yogis.

Gina also initiated a thorough and high-quality system for creating online yoga content that includes live classes, regular classes, tutorials, and tips.

In the past, Gina owned and directed yoga studios in Venice, CA., and Kansas City, MO.

When not teaching in her beloved Colorado, she travels around the world as the Yogini On The Loose.

An experienced registered yoga teacher (ERYT-500) through Yoga Alliance, Gina’s greatest influences have been Shiva Rea (Prana Flow®), Max Strom (Vinyasa), Erich Schiffmann (Vinyasa), and Denise Kaufmann (Yin). Her deepest learning experiences came in the traditional manner of teacher/student apprenticeships with both Shiva Rea and Max Strom to whom she offers deep, humble pranams for their trust and confidence.

To learn more, watch Gina’s video interview.

https://youtu.be/TKcBM5U-Zps