Derek Beres is the creator of EarthRise YogaTM, a rigorous Vinyasa-based practice pulling from his decade of study in various yogic practices, as well as studies in various martial arts and dance disciplines, including certifications in Budokon and Thai Yoga Massage. He currently teaches twelve weekly classes at Equinox Fitness and two at Pure Yoga in New York City, and travels internationally as an instructor and lecturer on yoga, as well as his work in international music as a journalist, DJ, and music producer. He has taught successful workshops at Exhale Spa and East West Yoga, among others. His book Sound Against Flame: The Process of Yoga and Atheism in America condensed and crystallized his lifelong philosophical pursuits.
Derek writes about music for Yoga Journal, and his column, Beyond Postures: The Art of Yoga, is a featured blog on the Gaiam-owned websites lime.com and Yogamates. His music playlist was featured in the November 2009 issue of Yoga Journal, as well as the 2008 and 2009 year-end issues of Fitness. Derek is an Lululemon ambassador for their store on Manhattan's Upper East Side. He co-founded the Sacred Strength EarthRise Yoga teacher training program with Stephanie Culen in 2008. He is getting set for the release of EarthRise SoundSystem: The Yoga Sessions with his production partner, Duke Mushroom. He strongly adheres to the tried and tested idea that a sound mind is accomplished with the maintenance of a sound body, as those two ideas are aspects of the same process - namely, that of being human.
The Roots of EarthRise Yoga
Black Elk’s word, “The center is everywhere,” is matched by a statement from a hermetic, medieval text, The Book of Twenty-four Philosophers: “God is an infinite sphere, whose center is everywhere and circumference nowhere.” The idea, it seems to me, is in a most appropriate way illustrated in that stunning photograph taken from the moon, and now frequently reproduced, of an earthrise, the earth rising as a radiant celestial orb, strewing light over a lunar landscape. Is the center the earth? Is the center the moon? The center is anywhere you like. Moreover, in that photograph from its own satellite, the rising earth shows none of those divisive territorial lines that on our maps are so conspicuous and important. The chosen center may be anywhere. The Holy Land is no special place. It is every place that has ever been recognized and mythologized by any people as home.—Joseph Campbell, The Inner Reaches of Outer Space
Hip-Hop Yoga
With Hip-Hop Yoga, Derek continues his exploration of modern global music in the context of a strong, Vinyasa-based yoga practice. A veteran music journalist, he has been writing about hip-hop for sixteen years, and will be able to share with his students not only American-born rap, but also the freshest sounds from the Middle East, Africa, Latin America, the Balkans and beyond. Influenced by his backgrounds in Budokon, martial arts, and dance, Derek's signature EarthRise Yoga classes at Equinox Fitness borrow from numerous movement forms in a physically challenging and soulfully uplifting experience. With Hip-Hop Yoga, he will also weave this music’s roots into this exciting new class: Jamaican soundsystem-age reggae, jazz, and blues, all forefathers of rap.
