Eric Shaw is a scholar, yogi, and creator of Prasana Yoga. He shares his unique and innovative style of asana and lecturing on the history, philosophy and science of yoga with dynamic multimedia presentations worldwide.
A lifelong athlete, Eric has always loved pushing his body to its physical limits, and has excelled in a variety of sports, competing in swimming and triathlons. Raised in a physically active, religious, and academically-oriented household, throughout his life Eric cultivated a love for art, academics, and contemplative study of philosophy, as well as sports. He found his calling in yoga, combining physical disciplined practice with meditation, creativity, and the academically rigorous study of yoga philosophy and history.
Eric created Prasana Yoga by bringing 25 years of movement, meditation and teaching practices together with novel styles of vinyasa and still yoga, and infusing his students’ physical practice with meaningful, traditional yogic philosophy. Eric offers students knowledge of the ancient yoga tradition attuned to the modern experience in upbeat, energetic classes informed by excellent knowledge of posture, meditation and breathwork. In 2004 and 2010 he studied and taught in India. With certifications from Kripalu Yoga and Yogaworks, he is an E-500 Registered Yoga Teacher .
A working visual and performance artist until 2004, Eric has graduate degrees in Art, Teaching, Religious Studies and Asian Studies. He taught college for 4 years and special education for nine years. He is a regular contributor to Yoga Journal and other magazines, and consults, researches and writes for movies, phone apps, yoga teacher training manuals, and other worthy projects in the field.
In 2009, John Friend invited Eric to participate in scholarly activities with Anusara and to began work on a book for Anusara Press called Yoga Unfolding: The History of Yoga in America, which will be published in 2012. He has since moved closer to the Anusara community, its styles of teaching, and its life-affirming practice of Tantra in the world.
Teachers
Over the last 25 years, Eric has studied with a variety of teachers while pursuing yoga’s practice, philosophy, history, and science. His main training was with Zhander Remete and the related teachers Matt Huish and Arkady Shirin for 8 years. He spent a year working with Timo Jiminez in Ashtanga and two years with Tony Briggs in Iyengar Yoga. Yogi Pramod was his teacher in India.
Most recently, he has been exploring Anusara Yoga with a variety of local and not-so-local teachers.
Outside of these investments, he has workshopped with many of yoga’s foremost teachers, partly to gain experiential understanding of the modern scene and partly to learn all that he can! With this intent, he’s studied under Jane Austin, Barbara Benaugh, Scott Blossom, Douglas Brooks, Seane Corn, Amrit Desai, T.K.V. Desikachar, Anna Forest, Richard Freeman, John Friend, Sharon Gannon, Paul Grilley, Julie Gudmestad, Joan Harrigan, Wendy Hambridge, Kate Holcombe, Matt Huish, K. Pattabhi Jois, Gurmukh Kaur Khalsa, Gary Kraftsow, Joel Kramer, Andre Lappa, Judith Lasater, David Life, Tias Little, Noah Maze, Dharma Mitra, Paul Muller-Ortega, Aadil Palkhavala, Carlos Pomeda, Sarah Powers, Srivasta Ramaswami, Desiree Rambaugh, Saul David Ray, Shiva Rea, Richard Rosen, Jim Ryan, Sianna Sherman, Arkady Shirin, Rod Stryker, Patricia Sullivan, Robert Svoboda, David Swenson, Chris Tompkins, Chris Wallis, and Ian Whicher.
He is profoundly grateful to all of them for their understanding, guidance, and integrity in the practice.
