We live and work in the Prospect Park neighborhood of Minneapolis — it’s this incredible little neighborhood of winding roads, 100-year-old houses, 200-year-old trees, and a hilly landscape not often found in the middle of a major city. Most locals don’t even know we’re here — tucked away just blocks from light rail and the up-and-coming Malcom Yards development.
One of our favorite features of our neighborhood is our proximity to the TCF Bank Stadium (Minnesota Golden Gopher Football) and Surley Brewery (possibly our city’s most famous export after Prince and Bob Dylan). Both of these venues (before Covid-19) had full summer schedules of live music. From our porch we’ve heard performances from so many talented artists including Beyoncé, the Rolling Stones, Courtney Barnett, and even the Preservation Hall Jazz Band.
Last summer the live music wafting through my neighborhood from Surley Brewery was that of the talented Leon Bridges. Who, in collaboration with one of my favorite groups, ODESZA, released into the world the song Across the Room — an absolute favorite of mine for a fluid and flowy vinyasa practice.
ODESZA is an eclectic brew of hip-hop, electronic dance music, ambient sounds, and all-purpose happiness. The duo is comprised of two friends from college, Harrison Mills and Clayton Knight, known individually as Catacombkid and BeachesBeaches. Harrison and Clayton have created something wonderful with ODESZA — they are collaborative, conscious, and compassionate. Their YouTube channel is a constant source of entertainment and enjoyment for me, and their three albums and remixes — ever-present on my playlists. Their collaboration with Leon Bridges is a favorite yoga sequence when I’ve got 4:44 seconds to reconnect with my practice and move with fluidity and ease.
So I, Joleen Emery, the founder of Big Raven Yoga loves ODESZA — for so many reasons.
Now imagine the emotion of collaborating with ODESZA to bring their album art from In Return and A Moment Apart to you and our community of yoga lovers.
Honestly, it’s hard to type. It’s hard to find words big enough to encompass how exciting, how purposeful, and how wonderful this announcement is — and not just for me but for all of us.
The artwork from both album covers is unique — it’s complex and simple, colorful and understated, straightforward and multilayered. In Return shows what appears to be the sun setting over a complicated skyline while the image of self looms large in the mind’s eye. A Moment Apart depicts a woman looking over a rocky terrain while an orange burst of light covers her eyes. The more you look — the more you see. There are metaphors and lessons aplenty for both designs.
Here are just a few of mine:
- The more work we do inward the farther outward we are able to go.
- Calming the mind can be taxing when stimulated by so many external variables and sources of influence.
- Cherish each moment — each one is unique and doesn’t last long.
- Look for peace — even when you’re standing among the rocks.
- When the sun sets on today welcome tomorrow with an open heart.
Big Raven Yoga’s 5-Minute Flowy Vinyasa to ODESZA’s “Across the Room” featuring Leon Bridges
When you have five minutes this gentle flow has a generous heart opening and spinal stretch to start and a grounding finish.
Our good friend Zach Warren was instrumental in assisting with this collaboration — he too is a big fan of ODESZA, and he was kind enough to help us demonstrate my favorite yoga flow to Across the Room.
You can follow along with Zach either using the YouTube video or the text sequence.
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Standing Mountain — hands at heart center.
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Transition to Standing Backbend/Heart Opener with Cactus Arms — On a big inhale swoop arms down toward your knees and then overhead to rest in cactus (or “goalpost arms”), exhale to standing back bend with cactus arms — gently come up back to Standing Mountain.
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Repeat/flow above 4 times.
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Standing Mountain pose with side stretch to the right.
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Standing Mountain pose with side stretch to the left.
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Repeat/Flow above 3 times.
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Standing Mountain pose to Forward Fold — On a big inhale swoop arms down toward your knees and then overhead — swan dive to Forward Fold.
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Half Lift
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Forward Fold
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Half Lift
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Rag Doll to Forward Fold Spiral Twist Right — Put your left hand in the center of your mat — reach your right arm to the sky — bend and straighten your knees — roll out your wrist.
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Forward Fold Spiral Twist Left
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Rag Doll
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Come up one vertebra at a time.
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Standing Mountain
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Standing Back Bend/Heart Opener with Cactus Arms
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Standing Mountain
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Sun A
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From Downdog right leg high step through to Crescent Lunge
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Warrior 2
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Reverse Warrior
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Warrior 2
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Reverse Triangle
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Warrior 2
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Vinyasa
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Repeat above on the left:
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From Downdog left leg high step through to Crescent Lunge.
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Warrior 2
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Reverse Warrior
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Warrior 2
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Reverse Triangle
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Warrior 2
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Vinyasa
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From Downdog transition to Child’s Pose
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Table Top
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Cat Cow
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Child’s Pose
It is with great enthusiasm and joy that we welcome ODESZA to our Guest Artist collection!
To learn more about ODESZA check out their website, YouTube channel, or find them on iTunes. You can see our ODESZA Collection at Big Raven Yoga by clicking here.