Workshop classes in Florianópolis
A longer session to learn something new.
A workshop is a one-off class, usually two to three hours long, built around a single theme. It might be arm balances, a breath technique, hips, or one pose taken apart properly. You sign up for that date only, not a series.
No classes scheduled in the next two weeks.
What Workshop does for you
You get time to go slowly into something a regular class can only touch on. With more time, the facilitator can break a movement into steps, let you try variations and answer questions. Many people leave with one or two things they keep using in every class afterwards. It is also a good way to meet a visiting facilitator or try a style without committing to a course.
It suits you if
- you are curious about one specific thing, like inversions or breath
- you like understanding why, not just following along
- a weekly class feels too rushed to ask questions
- you want to practice with a visiting facilitator
- you prefer a one-off date to a weekly commitment
Read the full guide to WorkshopWhat a class is like, your first time, history and the words you will hear
What a class is like
Most workshops run two to three hours, often on a weekend afternoon, and some stretch over a whole weekend. Expect more talking than in a regular class: explanation, demonstration, practice in pairs and time for questions. The pace is slower and you repeat things until they land. Props get used a lot, and there may be a short break in the middle. You usually book and pay in advance, since places are limited and the price is higher than a single class.
Your first time
- Read the description for level and what to bring; some workshops suggest a notebook as well as a mat.
- Eat something light an hour or two before, since you will be practicing longer than usual.
- Bring water and an extra layer for the slower or seated parts.
- Tell the facilitator about injuries at the start, since a workshop may spend a long time on one area of the body.
Good to know
- Workshops on arm balances, backbends or inversions can be more demanding than an "all levels" note suggests, so read the description or ask before booking.
- Many studios have stricter cancellation rules for workshops than for regular classes.
Where it comes from
The workshop has been one of the main ways yoga traveled. Before studios with full timetables, many people met a method through a visiting facilitator who taught intensively for a few days and moved on. A well-known example is B. K. S. Iyengar: the violinist Yehudi Menuhin met him in India in 1952 and invited him to Switzerland in 1954, the start of regular trips to Europe and the United States that brought his method to students who otherwise only had books.
The format stuck. Guest facilitators still tour studios across Europe, and studios build workshops around themes that need more time than a 75-minute class allows: anatomy, philosophy, pranayama, a sequence taken apart pose by pose. Workshops also work as a doorway: many courses and teacher trainings start life as a single afternoon that people kept asking for.
In Berlin, workshops fill weekends year round, in German and English, from handstands and backbends to sound, breath and yoga philosophy. Because the city has a large international practice scene, facilitators from abroad pass through often, and a weekend workshop is usually the way to practice with them.
Words you will hear
- Intensive
- A longer, focused format; sometimes another word for a workshop.
- Breakdown
- Taking a pose or transition apart step by step before putting it back together.
- Partner work
- Practicing in pairs to feel alignment or support each other in a pose.
- Pranayama
- Sanskrit for breath practice: prana means breath or life force, ayama means extending it.
- Inversion
- Any pose with your head below your heart, such as headstand or shoulderstand.