This week I caught up with Anastasia Shevchenko, founder of the Berlin Yoga Conference which is coming to Germany this May 24-26, 2019. Anyone have a hankering for Europe in the spring?Anastasia Shevchenko is the founder and the managing director behind the Berlin Yoga Conference and is a freelance yoga teacher. She is a proponent of authentic yoga experience for self-healing and self-transformation. Her special interest lies in the creation of bridges between yoga, philosophy, science, art, and spirituality. Anastasia’s newest passion is to teach yoga teachers how to best apply themselves in this industry.
As a gesture of appreciation, Ana is offering our community a 10% discount on tickets! Promo code: Rachel-yoga
1. Tell us about this conference – why did you create it?
I put together the Berlin Yoga Conference coming May 24-26 2019 because I wanted to create a transformation space for people to experience yoga in an authentic and life-changing way, no matter what level of practice or personal background. This is why all yoga methods are celebrated, without emphasizing any specific one over others, and there is a strong focus on modern yoga philosophy and its connection to the sciences, although the yoga tradition is respected and put into a proper perspective.
Moreover, I wanted to create conditions for socializing, making friends, networking, and just meeting and connecting to people, with or without any specific goals in mind, enjoying the cultural and musical programs together, the communal food breaks, learning and getting inspired from each other, joining and enriching this expanding international yoga community. This basically covers the motto for the Berlin Yoga Conference: Breath – Learn – Connect.
2. What can visitors expect?
I don’t like the word “expectation”, because it almost always involves some kind of faulty precognition, which then makes it more difficult to experience the true present moment in all of its richness. Of course when one is looking at the website and making a decision whether to come or not, one naturally makes some kind of guesses about what the event is going to be about and if it is worth coming or not!
All I can say that at this point is that I’m trying my best to create and communicate a set of circumstances that are behind the project: the vision, the goals, the venue, the presenting teachers, the program, but how it will all play out at the Berlin Yoga Conference in May 2019 is ultimately a mystery, and I would like to leave room for this mystery to unfold and for true magic to happen. I’m absolutely sure that everyone who comes to the event will experience what they ought to experience, depending where they are on their yoga path and what lessons they need to learn about themselves and others.
3. How is this conference different from other events?
Since the Berlin Yoga Conference will happen for the first time in May 2019, it’s hard for me to speak about how it is “different” from other events – since it hasn’t happened yet. However, we did run already two pop up events in the frames of the conference in May, and they were very special events, according to the energy in the room and the subsequent positive feedback that we’ve got. First, each event featured high-quality programming that was very well though-out in terms of the flow and the fit, as well as in terms of the person leading the sessions. Second, these events came across as were touching, moving, and inspirational, across various yoga methods and formats (yoga workshop, meditation sitting, panel discussion, healing session, performance, and communal meals). Third, the community bonding element always did it’s job: people were gently motivated to leave their protective shells behind, and to naturally open up to others, without being forced or persuaded to do so in a “open your heart” kind of way. For me personally, this last point is very important.
4. What makes this conference unique?
To me, it is this sacred transformational community space that I’m set out to create (and that I have created at the Pop up events previously). Coming from a personal background of migration (Ukraine -> Canada -> Germany), living between cultures, languages, and different value systems (Socialist vs. Capitalist), having cured myself from scoliosis and a broken and paralyzed arm, my yoga path was characterized by self-healing, self-empowerment, and subsequent self-transformation. Now, I’m ready to share what I learned, and also to create a space for others to share what they have learned, in a safe, inclusive, diverse, open-minded, well-organized, well-though out (with attention to detail), and friendly kind of environment.
I think of course that the person behind the project has a very strong influence on setting the intention, values, and culture for the project, but I see my task primarily as that of being a hostess, a “holder of space”, a reader of faces and energies, and this is why I decided against teaching at my own event, so that I can dedicate myself entirely to others.
5. What do you think the future of yoga is looking like in Europe?
Wow, that’s a truly great question that I haven’t been asked by anyone yet, and I really appreciate it! I’m so blessed (or cursed, depending on the day) to work on this project and to learn about the yoga industry on the local, national, and international levels. Because I constantly try to connect and collaborate with people, I get a pretty good sense for where the yoga community is at these days: what are the challenges and what are the really cool and inspiring developments. So to answer your question, here’s what I think based on my experiences so far:
- I see a tendency towards working with the pool of local teachers that are not “international” yoga stars, because the local teachers have much value to offer and are more pleasant to work with, while the “yoga stars” command fees that are too high for the European market. Sure you will still have a couple of very well-established teachers giving workshops here and there, but these will be the people who will have to adopt to the new circumstances and humble down.
- I think that the Instagram Influencer days are almost over and that the concept is outliving itself and is becoming boring. People are tuning out of the same old pictures of handstands on the beach or arm balances on the top of a mountain, with some quote pasted on top of it and sponsored yoga clothing. On top of that, the new algorithms are making it progressively more difficult to reach people “organically”, and the companies are cutting down their “influencer” budgets.
- I’m guessing there will be more and more yoga methods and styles created, with all kind of fusions and cross-disciplinary connections (yoga and dance, music, Eastern philosophy and various healing modalities, fitness directions, etc), because of the need of the teachers to, on the one hand, create a unique offer and occupy a niche in the market, and on the other hand – to express themselves creatively and according to their personal background, talents, and skills.
- I am positive that because there are just too many (and constantly growing in numbers) yoga teachers out there, there will be many more products and services geared towards them and they would quite naturally have to find others ways of supporting themselves by maybe creating their own yoga brands, products, and services as well. There will be an expansion of yoga entrepreneurship and more funds available to this cause, since it is a booming industry, and all-in-all, that’s creating a positive change for the world, in many ways!
6. How can we find out more?
- For information about the project, the presenters, and the programming, the best is to access the website.
- To really get updates, news, and exclusive discounts, the best way is still the Newsletter
- For cool features on the presenters and the programming: Facebook & Instagram
- And for any questions and offers to work together, always per e-mail: info@berlinyogaconference.org
