Poetry through yoga

A good stretch will lead eventually to
an everlasting art, instructor claims

by CHRIS BARRY

Name: Nicolas Adeline

Age: 26

Occupation: Poet/yoga instructor

Bio: This cocksure Vieux Montreal stud first realized he was put on this earth to compose poetry and “take care of mother nature” at age six, “while walking through the beautiful forests of Seychelles with my father at sunset, connecting with nature.” Nicolas says he only really “discovered culture, particularly the finer arts like architecture and music,” after relocating to Budapest as a teenager. “That’s where it solidified in my mind that I was to become an artist—in what form I did not know yet, but I knew then that I needed to express the beauty of the human heart in some form or another.” Today Nicolas describes himself as a poet expressing said lyrical beauty through the yoga classes he gives both privately and at Club LaCité (clublacite.net) in Place du Parc.

Where Nicolas’s poetry is published: Nowhere. “I’m thinking of only publishing after I die, like Walt Whitman. I won’t write just any poem or play. I want to write something that’s really, really great. So I’m taking my time, taking notes, thinking of a scene here, a little poem there. And then, when I have enough material, I will create a great piece of art. For now, my heart is expressed when I’m teaching yoga—which I do using a specific language.”

Might that language be Esperanto? “No, by nature the language is metaphorical. My classes are very spontaneous—much in the way John Cage might work. I’m not just teaching people to stretch, I’m providing an experience. Yes, there are scriptures we reference but my yoga classes aren’t so much of a student/teacher nature but more a matter of mankind learning about himself and passing this knowledge on. I want my yoga class to be what rock ’n’ roll was to people in the late ’60s, like opera was to people at one time, or the way religion was even further back. I want my yoga class to be a powerful experience.”

What a powerful private yoga experience with Nicolas will cost you: $100. “I work on a sliding scale though. I do quite well for myself, you know, I have a beautiful home and consider myself both privileged and blessed. That’s why I feel this need to give back through my Karma yoga class, where admission is a voluntary donation that goes entirely to the David Suzuki Foundation.” For schedule info, go to nicolasadeline.com.

Why do yoga classes cost so much money when all that’s required is a few mats and a hippie with good karma to tell people what to do? “Oh come on! Students always look to me and say, ‘What? $100, that’s all it is?!’ When you consider the value of yoga, what it’s doing for you on so many levels, then the cost is a joke. Anyway, you can also do yoga very cheaply. At Club LaCité, for something like $50 a month, you not only get yoga classes seven days a week but access to their pool, gym, all their facilities. I mean, that’s ridiculously cheap by any standard.”

Musical preferences: Philip Glass, Penelope Fortier.

Last book read: The Yoga of the Bhagavad Gita, by Paramahansa Yogananda.

Words of wisdom: “Why are you thinking?”

Comments: dimwit@hdot.net