Commemorating Derek Ireland

Tribute Weekend | 17 & 18 Nov | with Gingi Lee and Kristina Ireland | Donations to Children with Cancer UK

Have you ever flowed from upward to downward dog? Then your yoga practice has been touched by Derek Ireland’s legacy. Derek was a charismatic yogi pioneer, central in bringing Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga (and the myriad other forms of dynamic yoga) to the West. The Shala is dedicated to Derek, who was the main teacher and inspiration of our Co-Director Gingi.

Derek started out as a semi-professional football player, moved on to become a punk rock promoter and then found his true calling as a yoga teacher. He embodied the yogi lifestyle, inspiring others to live truthfully, ethically and as their own authentic selves.

“Derek was a life-force who could inspire anyone to practice. He blasted yoga out of the mystical and transformed it into something exciting and sexy” Gingi Lee

This weekend will be a coming together on what would have been Derek’s 70th birthday to celebrate Derek and all that he gave to the yoga community. It is also a unique opportunity to practice with two of Derek’s disciples, Derek’s wife Kristina Ireland and Gingi Lee, who have both carried the ashtanga torch since Derek passed away from cancer in 1998. 

Both days include self-practice and taught (led) classes as well as time for reflections on Derek’s life between 1 & 2pm. All welcome.

Please give generously to Children with Cancer UK via this link. 

“Derek grounded yoga in the here and now. He was a renaissance yogi who showed that yoga could be more than a solemn practice but one that you lived and lived with joy.”