Workshop Series with Dylan Bernstein
Saturday May 3rd 2025
Session Program:
8:00-10:00 Ashtanga Led Primary Session
Location: YogaŞala Nişantaşı
Led Session Fee: 800 TL
12:30-14:30 Wildlings, Wild Things and Wildernesses
*FREE EVENT - OPEN TO ALL
Dylan craves something more than the yoga norm — the freedom to be wild, untamed, and unbound. He wants to explore wildernesses both within and without. Through his experiences in Africa’s wild places over the past few years, Dylan has found it vital to rekindle that primal connection.
Yoga used to be outsider dharma. For thousands of years, yogis were strange, ominous folk to be avoided. They slept in the woods – or cemeteries. They made bizarre bargains with obscure deities. They received voices from Beyond. They studied animals and mimicked their fierce bestial wisdom. These untamed and crucial aspects have been forgotten.
The shadowy side of yoga life has been outshined by a very recent bright surface. Now we associate yoga with sultry movements, glowing skin, face creams and gorgeous luxury retreat wear. It's some kind of miracle! Something that came from such an otherworldly place has now become the poster child for polished normalcy and success in current capitalism.
Everyone has the freedom to live and practice as they wish. But Dylan craves something more than the yoga norm — the freedom to be wild, untamed, and unbound. He wants to explore wildernesses both within and without. Through his experiences in Africa’s wild places over the past few years, Dylan has found it vital to rekindle that primal connection.
This afternoon brings us together to hang with Dylan, check out some of his Africa photos, hear captivating travel stories, delve into the art of tracking, and learn about the African Yoga Safari. Hopefully, this gives immediate benefits in your practices and daily life.
Sunday May 4th 2025
Session Program:
8:00-10:00 Mysore Session
Location: YogaŞala Nişantaşı
Session Fee: 800 TL
11:30-13:30 WORKSHOP: Practice as Earth: Grounding Without Guru
Dylan shares essential lessons from time spent with Sharath Jois, Pattabhi Jois, and—most significantly—from over two decades of consistent daily practice and international teaching.
As the lineage evolves and guiding figures pass, the responsibility of practice returns to the individual. This session is not about speculation, politicking or nostalgia. It’s about presence. Grounding. It's about learning to trust experience, what’s underfoot and underhand, even when upsidedown.
Through breathwork, bandha, asana, vinyasa and reflections drawn from studied yogic traditions and time in the wilderness, Dylan offers a practical, mature, and honest space for committed practitioners navigating the path without external authority.
This experience is open to all, especially those with Ashtanga experience. We will work on fundamentals, advanced postures and transitions.
Location: YogaŞala Nişantaşı
Workshop Fee: 1000TL
Dylan Bernstein:
Dylan was fortunate enough to be introduced to yoga and meditation in 1989. These essential tools helped him negotiate the turbulent seas of his teens and twenties as he travelled North America. A lifelong interest in Asian philosophy, culture and poetics brought him to reside in Asia, where he has maintained his home base since 2001. Ashtanga yoga discovered Dylan at the end of his first year in India. He has maintained a daily practice ever since. He has learned immensely both by traveling widely and by living in Vietnam, India and now keeps a base in Hong Kong.
In addition to time spent in Mysore with Shri K Pattabhi, Saraswathi and Sharath Jois, Dylan has been blessed to connect with other dear and brilliant senior teachers from the Ashtanga lineage. Time spent working and residing in the monasteries of Venerable Thích Huyền Diệu has also proven immensely insightful. Dylan regularly teaches on four continents and continues to be influenced by many other teachers and diverse traditions. Perhaps his primary inspiration has become his dynamic and inquisitive students. He is forever indebted to all the teachers, students and fellow practitioners who have helped him along the way.
Dylan has a master’s degree in Buddhist studies, was authorised to teach Ashtanga by the Shri K. Pattabhi Jois Ashtanga Yoga Institute in 2012 and is EYRT-500 certified by Yoga Alliance. A student of teaching techniques, Dylan has a background in pedagogy and cognitive development. His classes are designed to put students into direct contact with their own true internal teachers. Yoga has never been limited to asana for Dylan and yet, he values the critical role that the physical practice can play in bringing light to one’s whole being. Essentially, Dylan remains a pluralist, believing in many kinds of truth and many manners of realization.
Though entertainment is not his focus in teaching, there is always room for laughter in his classroom. Though the land and conditions around him are often shifting, the practices keep him grounded internally, allowing for stability even when in the midst of change. Ashtanga vinyasa coupled with pranayama and other sitting practices continue to be the foundations of his understanding and teachings.
