LISA HEBERT
Lisa’s long history with dance and performance (over 25 years exploring jazz, tap, ballet, swing, hip-hop, acro, salsa, and even musicals!) shows up in her classes through rich imagery and the vocabulary of dance training. As a full-time single mom and entrepreneur, juggling is a big part of her skill set! She is the founder of Movement Evolution Lab and one of only two Canadians qualified to offer Yoga Tune-Up Core Immersion trainings. For information on Lisa’s Master Class workshops series, private sessions, group classes, Movement Evolution Teacher Trainings, and Yoga Tune-Up immersions, email her directly at lisa.hebert@gmail.com or go to movementevolutionlab.com.
- If you had a dollar for every time a person asked you this, you’d be rich:
“Do you know why I have pain here?” (Fill in the body part!)
2. Most influential book ever written and why:
Wherever You Go, There You Are, by Jon Kabat-Zinn.
I first read this when I was 18, and it changed my life at the time. It slowed me down, helped me calm and harness the fire within me. It introduced me to mindfulness. I still read it every year. It seems simple now. It’s an easy read, but the messages are deep, and it’s interesting to see how my interpretation changes over time.
3. Two things on your nightstand right now:
1) Fujifilm X-Pro1 camera (it’s my daughter’s, but photography is another passion of mine).
2) The Art of Being Alive, by Ella Wheeler Wilcox. It’s a first printing of the book, from 1914! It comes from my grandfather’s massive library of books, and it smells the way all 100-year-old-plus books should smell!
4. Your source of motivation; what keeps you practicing:
The students. The more teacher trainings I lead and co-lead, the more I see the impact on peoples’ lives and the more I feel a part of something larger. I want to give my students the best of me in each moment, the best of what I’ve gathered, interpreted, and carried forward from my movement past and all my brilliant teachers and movement peers. The more I keep practicing myself (especially in new ways), the more I have to discover and share.
5. The biggest change since starting yoga:
As a dancer, I was naturally very flexible. I was drawn to the more extreme postures that required almost super-human bendiness! But I was coming to [the practice] very badly injured from a car accident and had lost my dance career (or so I thought at the time) and, worse, my identity. So, I was drawn to postures requiring flexibility, because they gave me a sense of accomplishment: I could be “good at” something again.
I got stuck there for a while, until I started learning to build on my strength and stability, as well as flexibility. I’ve learned that poses that I loved in my twenties no longer serve me well, that I feel more grounded, more solid as a human, when I learn to stabilize my ever-mobile joints. Now I aim for balance, in my own practice and certainly in my teaching.
6. Your worst “non-yogic” habit:
It’s funny what students are surprised to hear we do as yoga teachers. Hey, we’re humans, too!
One thing people seem to be surprised by is my love of wine. I worked in an Ontario winery for a time, giving tours and wine tastings. It’s a love affair with the senses and the nuances of the art of wine-making that makes me think I would have loved to be a sommelier in a parallel universe.
7. Your least favourite pose, and do you still practice it anyway?
Oh boy. Simhasana (Lion’s Pose). This posture is all about the ego and the fear of looking silly. So no, I don’t usually practice it, but I suppose now I will revisit it and see what happens!
8. Define “yoga” in one word only:
Subtlety
Your favourite day of the year:
December 14. The day my daughter was born. The day I learned about my power as a woman, a creator. The day I learned about perspective and selflessness.
“If you can tap into peoples’ memories of a physical experience, or visual cues and familiar imagery, they can better sense their own physical expression, and it often brings with it an atmosphere of playfulness or joy.”
“Teaching is my therapy. Sharing my love of movement is the best medicine.”
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