Jan Smoak instructs students, faculty in pay-your-own-price lessons
We all have our own ways of unwinding after a long day. Some of us nap, some of us plop down in front of the TV and some might pour a nice glass of wine to take the edge off.
Others, like the students and faculty assembled in the West (Green) Quad Learning Center lounge Monday evening, turn to yoga to relax.
Green Quad yoga, taught on Mondays at 5:45 p.m., is a class for all levels of practice.
Jan Smoak, a registered yoga instructor at the 200 level, has been teaching the class for the past year.
Smoak said she was approached by the director of Green Quad last year about teaching the class after the original instructor could no longer do it. Smoak, who was finishing her yoga teacher training at the time, didn’t hesitate to fill the position.
“I wanted to jump into teaching some way, somehow,” Smoak said. “It wasn’t a paid gig, but I was OK with that because I was a new teacher.”
Smoak teaches basic Hatha yoga with an Anusara style, which focuses on connecting the mind and body through heart-based practice. The most important aspects in Anusara are proper alignment in poses.
Smoak also places emphasis on the spiritual side of yoga, calling out poses in their original Sanskrit names and discussing the philosophical reasoning behind each pose.
“Yoga is a spiritual practice before a physical one,” Smoak said. “For some people, it’s just exercise, and that’s fine, [but] I like appealing to someone’s mental side too.”
In addition to adding an intellectually stimulating component to her instruction, Smoak gently critiques participants’ poses to ensure proper alignment and maximum muscle stimulation.
Sarah Nell Lader, a fourth-year German and psychology student and intern for Green Quad, appreciated such commentary.
“You don’t feel like you’re doing anything wrong if you didn’t do the pose correctly,” Lader said.
Lader also admitted she liked Green Quad yoga more than the yoga classes taught at the Strom Thurmond Wellness and Fitness Center, saying that she “liked the atmosphere more.”
Equally approving of Smoak’s class was Mary Wagner, a USC faculty member in the Admissions Office.
“It’s really convenient here. You get the sense of the university community [and] the balance between effort and feeling good,” Wagner said.
To Smoak, this is the goal.
“The point is to introduce people to yoga and help current students with their practice,” Smoak said.
While Smoak was happy with a smaller turnout for the first class of the fall Monday, she added that numbers generally increase as the semester wears on.
The class is run on a pay-as-you-are-able basis, with participants donating what they can, when they can.
“One way to honor the practice is to invest in it,” Smoak said.
The proceeds from the first class went to Jennifer Wilson’s, a USC professor who was recently killed, foundation A Chance for Literacy.
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