ByronYoga

Can you imagine moving house across three continents and four countries in less than a year, from a temperate to tropical climate, all for the love of yoga? How much more challenging is it when you consider the move also meant a major shift from a successful career in dance to life as a yoga teacher in a country more renowned for tea than yoga!

From North America to Byron Bay, Leigh Allardyce's life has been anything but predictable over the past 12 months. A chance meeting after completing her yoga teacher training in 2009 with Byron Yoga Centre has seen Leigh since relocate to the lush beauty of Sri Lanka, taking her new found devotion of yoga with her. 

Native to Columbus, Ohio in the US, Leigh says she was born a dreamer. “My first career choice at age six was to be an astronaut,” she recalls. “I guess you could say, even though I was so young, I already had my sights set on something heavenly.” Her self confessed stargazing days though soon gave way to something more earthly. “At age eight, I managed to merge my desire for physical fitness and performance into a new passion, dance.” And it was through ballet that Leigh’s life turned a corner.  

Her break in dance came at the age of 14, when she secured a scholarship to undergo professional training. By the time she became an adult, Leigh had signed her first professional dance contract, putting that training to good use. The next decade saw her travel across the world from the US to Asia and the UK as well as spending six years as principal dancer with Canada’s Alberta Ballet.  

Then, as Leigh recalls, “came the day every dancer dread: retirement.” Showing a yogic approach beyond her training, she says she was ready to leave her dance career behind, “on both a professional and personal level” but had no idea what to do next.

She soon discovered that taking her passion for yoga to the next level was a natural choice. “I started practicing (yoga) in 2000 after a ballet coach of mine suggested it would help me with dance performance related anxiety.  I fell in love with it right away.”  To Leigh, it was the nurturing, non competitive and grounding feel of her practice which helped her start to adapt to life beyond dance. “It was so different to the dance studio.  I learned a deeper respect for my body and mind and used it as part of my pre-performance ritual along with applying my stage make-up and putting on my costume.”

Leigh continued practicing yoga throughout her final years as a dancer. “I remember the other dancers used to stare and wonder what I was doing, but soon enough they were asking me to show them some postures and they loved it as well.” 

When she eventually retired, Leigh took the opportunity to deepen her practice and take a yoga teacher training program, coming upon Byron Yoga Centre via the internet. “The Byron Yoga program had everything I was looking for and provided a seven week full time option, for full immersion.  I thought this was the best way to go about teacher training.” 

Well used to travel, Leigh decided to take the plunge and move to Byron Bay where “I knew I’d have plenty of opportunity to engage in my love of floating on my back in a warm, pristine blue ocean.”  She enrolled in her teacher training at Byron Yoga Centre’s Belongil studio in April 2009, with the weather and the ocean yet to take on a winter chill, and completed her training seven weeks later, when she embarked upon and embraced another of her chance life opportunities.

Leigh recalls arriving on a Sunday night, settling into her room at the ashram, and getting ready to be in John Ogilvie's class at 8am the next morning.  “All the TT participants were supposed to be there as it was our introduction to Purna yoga. John is such an animated character in class, teaching to all levels with a sense of joy and fun.  It was a great introduction to the next seven weeks”.

She took up residence at the Byron centre, and when not ‘giving back’ in the way of offering low cost and free yoga classes at Belongil,  Leigh embraced the Byron lifestyle of sun, sand and coffee, working at local café Mokha, completely unaware that her whirlwind year so far was about to turn a new and exciting corner.  

Leigh became friendly with Mokha owner and longtime Byron resident, Laurie Rose. He along with eight other Australians were the owners of Talalla Retreat, a boutique hotel located on the southern tip of Sri Lanka that specialises in yoga and surfing. Laurie saw potential for Leigh’s newly acquired training as a yoga teacher and asked her whether she’d be interested in moving to Sri Lanka and teaching at his Talalla retreat centre. As Leigh says, “While I had some knowledge of and interest in Sri Lanka, I had no idea how yoga was taught as a practice there, so naturally I jumped at the chance!”

Leigh was soon fully immersed in her tropical yoga, teaching daily, and busily organizing yoga retreats for resort guests from Europe, Russia, and Australia. “I love that yoga is such a global community!” she enthuses.  “Wherever you go, you're bound to find that warm, welcoming community.”

She’s grateful for the way in which her Byron Yoga Centre teacher training helped prepared her for this role. “We covered many topics in seven weeks, from philosophy to correct alignment in asanas.  I feel confident teaching new beginners to experienced yogis.  I also particularly enjoyed all the classes on anatomy and physiology and always bring that into my classes”.     

So what’s Leigh’s advice to those considering undertaking a teacher training, or to recent graduates? “It really is a personal thing. If teaching is your goal it's important to find teaching opportunities soon after your training and so gain the experience of handling different types and levels of classes,” she says. “I was very fortunate to have the opportunity to start by teaching many of the public classes at Byron Yoga Centre, which gave me plenty of experience and therefore confidence in my own teaching. With practice, patience, and process anything is possible!”

P.S. Leigh’s sense of adventure and travel shows no bounds. She’s just taken up university study near Byron Bay and looks forward to renewing her friendships and practice with Byron Yoga Centre in 2010.