Interview: New York-based yoga teacher, Adi Carter, talks about slacklining and AcroYoga in Japan

Interview by Dylan Robertson
Edited by Kresta Painter

Adi Carter, a yoga teacher from New York, gathered a strong following through her innovative workshops, classes and events during her first stay in Tokyo. Teaching primarily at YogaJaya and Yoga Tree, Adi held workshops on AcroYoga, Slacklining, Asana and detox yoga. She also offered private bodywork sessions that rapidly grew in popularity. I took the chance to interview her in order to expose her work to a wider audience in anticipation of her return to Tokyo in 2011.

How are you enjoying Japan?

Japan is amazing (laughs)! It’s been wonderful to experience such a different culture but at the same time feel very grounded because of the yoga community. The practice of yoga is a wonderful connection and it does not matter where you go – there are so many similarities through the yoga practice. It has also been nice to connect with teachers who come from different backgrounds while having yoga as the common thread to form a connection.

But other than yoga, everything has been completely unique! A week ago, I got really lost and it was nice to be in a country where you can be lost and feel so safe at the same time. I primarily reside in New York City and there it is very different. NYC is very grid-like and you usually know where you’re going, but at the same time, it’s not as safe as Japan. In Japan I just had this wonderful sense of always being on an adventure. I compared living in Japan to being in a video game and trying to navigate and find my way to the next level with all of these wonderful little treasures and people that I met along the way!

What differences have you noticed teaching Japanese students versus American students?

I find Japanese students amazing. They are very focused and want to get all the details and do everything so precisely. I noticed my students trying to figure out not just what to do – but why to do it. They want to know the purpose behind yoga and already understand yoga is not just about doing poses. Japanese students are also very tuned in to meditation and pranayama practice. It’s wonderful to have a class of 20 students meditating and it’s so silent you could hear a pin drop (laughs)! Very rarely does this happen in the States. Oftentimes because it’s just louder outside – you’ll hear horns, alarm clocks and cell phones always seem to go off in my classes. But here, it’s just the stillness and you forget you’re in a city. Everyone really tunes in and you can feel the potential and energy in the room.

What has been the hardest thing for you to teach through a translator?

AcroYoga (laughs)! It has been a new experience learning to work with a translator. I’ve had to change my phrasing and speak as precisely as possible, so nothing (or as little as possible) gets lost in translation. It’s difficult because there are a lot of things to explain in AcroYoga but it has brought me the most pleasure teaching and seeing students experience it for the first time. With AcroYoga there are always at least two people – a base and a flyer, and you often times have a spotter which is a third variable and then everything has to be translated as well. When you’re flying someone and holding them up while explaining what you’re doing and then waiting for the translation as you want to add something but the translator is still translating so you have to wait‚Ķ it can be hard! I learned a lot about patience teaching AcroYoga with translation and it was a good lesson in teaching (laughs)!

I think AcroYoga is one of the most rewarding practices to teach because you give students tools to do the practice, but also new tools to communicate with one another. Oftentimes when we’re practicing on our own, we’re focused on what’s going on inside our own bodies. But with AcroYoga is not just what you can do by yourself, it’s what you have the potential to do with another partner or even multiple partners. Off the yoga mat I think these skills are so practical to life in general and it’s been wonderful to share. At the same time it also gave me a lot of anxiety before I even arrived in Japan. People were asking me “what are you doing – the Japanese don’t even hug – they bow!” The whole idea of touching is not as accepted in Japan as it is in the United States and AcroYoga is a very hands-on practice. I was very nervous and fortunately the students were open to the physical contact and broke through the social norms.

You’re also involved with a group called YogaSlackers, will you be teaching a slack-lining workshop in Japan?

There’s one coming up on Sunday in Yokohama and also a demo session at the Redefining Balance Event. The one in Yokohama is actually at a climbing gym. The difficulty with slack-lining is figuring out a set up structure and since this is my first trip to Japan, it’s really just getting a idea of studio space and students. I hope to return and have a better sense of who to contact to get slackline workshops organized ahead of time because there has been a lot of interest. Hopefully, if I come back, I’ll try to extend the stay a little longer into warmer weather so we could do events outside. The experience of slack-lining or practicing AcroYoga or yoga outdoors is very different. It’s really nice to just be part of the Earth element and to find balance when your point of reference isn’t a wall or a window but it’s a tree or a forest of trees and you’re looking up at the sky when you’re lying on your back. It reminds me of why I practice, which is involvement with the Earth and trying to raise awareness about the planet and what we can do for it.

What is something new that you discovered in Japan?

Hoshi imo (dried sweet potato) (laughs). That was my favorite discovery from a student. But aside from food, I guess I was amazed at how many holidays there were! I also enjoyed getting outside of Tokyo and going up into the mountains. I had heard about snowboarding here but I had no idea how amazing it was. Snowboarding in the backcountry and riding in powder again, climbing to the top of a mountain and riding down to me is like yoga. I also got to take a few rock climbing trips which was really nice and also unexpected but fortunately I brought my climbing shoes and harness with me. The experience you get away from the city, when you’re just there connecting with nature, is for me taking the practice out of the studio and back to where it originated. Japan is beautiful and there’s so much to see and do and I feel like I just scratched the surface! I’d definitely love to come back and visit Hokkaido and go out to the beach and see more of the cherry blossoms. I knew Tokyo would be an amazing city and I love connecting with the energy and the pulse of an urban environment, but I really connect with places when I’m outdoors and I can experience the nature a country has to offer. Oh, and onsens (laughs). I didn’t know anything about them actually! But I think onsens are probably the single most wonderful discovery I’ve had here! I’ve been in thermal hot springs before but there’s something about the experience of onsen and just connecting with other people that is really nice. It has a very wonderful feel that I will always hold in my heart when I think of Japan.

Is there something you’ll be taking back with you? Did you buy anything interesting?

I got a bunch of souvenirs for friends. I got these little packets of bath salts that have little pictures of onsens on them. Other than that, I did some shopping at Kitty Land yesterday and bought Hello Kitty key chains, like little ninja Hello Kitties with ninja stars on them to give to some of my friends as well. But personally, what I’m taking back is a wonderful introduction to leg warmers (laughs). Which is great for me because my ankles and wrists always get very cold. One of my students took me to get leg warmers in the first couple of weeks I was here when it was so cold and I was hooked from the beginning!

Are leg warmers not popular in the US?

I guess in the dance world they are, but not so much in yoga. Japan is such a culture of layering and the temperature changes so much as well it is nice to have something extra stashed in your bag. So I think leg warmers are my main practical souvenir (laughs). I really wanted to get a samurai sword but it wasn’t in the budget to make it happen this time and you have pay a lot to ship it home. So, maybe on the next trip I’ll go into the mountains and find a samurai master to make a custom made sword!

If you were to meet a yoga instructor thinking of coming to Japan, what advice would you give them or what would you tell them to expect?

Do it (laughs)! I think anytime you have the opportunity to travel and connect with other yogis and to travel through the experience of yoga, it’s one of the most wonderful ways to really learn about yourself and learn about the practice. I started to have an anxiety attack before I left because the only person I knew here (fellow YogaJaya guest teacher Demian McKinley) was going to be working a lot. I knew he was going to be really busy and I basically was like, “I don’t know anyone and I’m going to teach a practice (AcroYoga) that has never really been taught consistently here and is all about touching and supposedly the culture doesn’t like that,” and then I thought, “On top of it, I’m a vegetarian and I don’t even eat fish,” and “What am I doing going to Japan?” and all these voices came up in my head and I had to tune in and remember, “Oh, yeah. That’s fear. That’s just fear,” and the yoga practice is also one of overcoming fear and of learning to control those voices in your head. Because oftentimes, those voices are what prevent you from taking amazing opportunities and experiences where the only thing that holds you back is yourself.

So it has been a wonderful practice for me to be reminded to just take a deep breath! Particularly in the railway systems, trying to navigate through Shibuya and figure out what train I was supposed to take and deal with a language barrier and the whole concept of being a foreigner. On top of that to have the yoga practice as my grounding force to everything I was doing, not only teaching but also practicing it in action, having patience, learning to just accept a culture that is very different has been uniquely beautiful and a wonderful experience in its own way.

I think traveling is one of the most wonderful ways to diversify everything you have in your mind and to challenge preconceived notions. There is what we believe to be the “right” way and then different cultures show their own take on how to live life, how to eat, how to connect and even how to practice yoga. So I think it’s a wonderful experience particularly because Tokyo is such a safe city and because Japan is fairly easy for a foreigner to get around. I think a society that operates on karma is noticeable in the people and the strangers you meet. How they treat you and react to you. It’s very different. Sometimes in the west, people will just be like, “I don’t have time for you,” and in Japan, people go out of the way to help you and that is such a wonderful way to live.

For more information about Adi Carter and her yoga classes, workshops and events, please see www.adicarter.com.