Berkshire Yoga Festival 2026

In a culture shaped by speed, comparison, performance, and constant noise, it can feel almost natural to abandon ourselves in the name of fitting in or keeping up. But meaningful healing and genuine presence often asks us to
move in the opposite direction. It asks us to slow down, listen inward, and reclaim what the world teaches us to ignore.

In this 90-minute session, we’ll explore what it means to heal “against the grain,” especially when external pressures or internal habits push us toward disconnecting, perfecting, or overriding our own truth. Through grounded discourse and thoughtful reflection, we’ll look at the subtle patterns that masquerade as strength or goodness, and how yoga philosophy helps us discern what truly supports growth, clarity, and connection.

You’ll be guided through an all-levels yoga practice using asana, pranayama, and meditation to help you sense what alignment feels like in your body—moment by moment, breath by breath. Together, we’ll explore how embodiment becomes a compass for living with integrity, compassion, and courage, even when the world pulls us in a different direction.

This session is an invitation to return to yourself, trust your own inner knowing, and walk a path of healing that is honest, grounded, and deeply your own.

This class explores the intimate relationship between the psyche, the nervous system, and the body through the lens of the chakra system, held within a trauma-informed, psychological, and spiritual framework. The work of understanding how our beliefs, emotions, and survival patterns live in the body has been central to my own healing and remains the foundation of my teaching.
Transformational inner work invites us to turn toward the aspects of ourselves we’ve learned to avoid, suppress, or judge. Rather than bypassing discomfort, we learn how to meet it with awareness and skill, allowing insight and compassion to replace reactivity and self-betrayal. When internal narratives are brought into consciousness and worked with somatically, the body can release long-held tension, and the mind can reorganize around greater clarity and choice.
During our time together, we will explore shadow work, trauma and the brain, nervous system regulation, and the chakra system as a map for understanding both psychological patterns and energetic flow. Asana, pranayama, and meditation will be used intentionally to support specific energy centers, helping to restore the connection between body, breath, and inner intelligence.

Learning to recover well is the secret to peak performance, because we grow stronger not during our workouts but during our recovery—the time we spend between our efforts. Sage Rountree, author of The Athlete’s Guide to Recovery, teaches you self-care for better performance. Athletes or anyone in need of downtime will foster their recovery in this workshop, using floor-based gentle, yin, and restorative yoga to unwind completely. Learn ways to relax for greater efficiency in sport and in life.

Kick off your weekend with 90 minutes of Kula Flow accompanied by the one and only DJ Drez! Kula Flow is a dynamic, alignment-focused Vinyasa style yoga born and bred on the streets of NYC at Kula Yoga Project. It blends the rigor and breath based flow of Ashtanga with the precision of alignment based practices. Expect creative sequencing for a challenging yet mindful class that emphasizes breath, bandha practice, intelligent movement and new ways to look at familiar shapes. While this class will focus on the hips, you will move through salutations, standing poses, hand and foot balances, inversions and backbends. 

Discover the voice of your soul in this transformative workshop with internationally touring world music artist, teacher, and author Girish.

Science is proving what ancient cultures and our inner wisdom already knows: your voice can become one of the most powerful agents of transformation in every facet of your life. Sharing his own experience as a sound healer, musician, yogi, and former Hindu monk, Girish offers tools and practices to find and express your true voice in this interactive and inspiring workshop.

Discover and express your true voice and reclaim the healing potential that resides there. Girish will share several enjoyable and practical techniques, based on his decades of sound healing experience, that you can incorporate into your daily life. You will discover what 21st Century neuroscience reveals about these practices, many based on ancient yogic teachings, and learn new and inspiring ways to support and open your voice. You will discover unique, liberating methods to clear old patterns that block your natural expression and fulfillment. You will feel how opening your voice leads to powerful transformation in every dimension of your life.

This intelligent power flow class is practiced with music that transcends the genres of hip-hop, lofi beats, house, jazz, modern pop, and ambient sounds. Jyll's inner joy and no nonsense spiritual support will guide you through a soulful power flow practice with juicy holds that will leave your body feeling empowered and your mind happy and focused. 

The popularity of vinyasa-based yoga practice has created a wide interest in the theory and practice of Mula, Uddiyana and Jalandhara Bandha – the “yogic locks.” In this workshop, Leslie applies his unique, experiential approach to clarify and, above all, simplify the practical, anatomical basis of these powerful, yet widely misunderstood tools.

The good news is the moment you first learned to coordinate breath and body movement, you were intuitively, implicitly learning bandha. From this perspective, deepening your yoga consists of nothing more than uncovering our innate ability to find support and spaciousness through breath-centered practice.

In these challenging and uncertain times, many of us are carrying unexpressed emotion and stress in our bodies and voices. This trauma-informed workshop invites participants into gentle vocal and movement practices that support nervous-system regulation, emotional release, and authentic expression.

Through breath, sound, call-and-response, intuitive vocalization, and accessible movement, participants explore voice and vibration as pathways to connection, grounding, and collective care. No singing or movement experience is required — all voices and bodies are welcome.
Music as Medicine

Live music and sound are woven throughout the experience, offering support rather than spectacle. Jeff W. Jones’ multi-instrumental music, rhythm, and sonic textures create a grounding and responsive foundation for movement and somatic awareness. Morley’s soulful voice and layered soundscapes, together with Stan Strickland aka Rajahn’s masterful wind instruments and vocalizations, deepen the sound field — supporting nervous-system regulation, subtle body awareness, and collective presence. Together, music and movement form a living dialogue that gently awakens energetic flow and the vibration of love and healing — always in service of embodiment, choice, and care.

Chairs will be provided. Bring your mat!

Join Stephan and Ingrid in their wildly popular Chair Yoga class for all ages that is fun, challenging, invigorating, and inspiring (and perspiring!). We start in the chair for simple joint-opening movements, and then get up and create yoga flows using the chair as a prop that will surprise you and make you wonder why you haven’t done this before. Chair Yoga is great for people who may have stiff muscles, may have an injury, may not enjoy getting down to and up from the floor frequently (or at all), or who really enjoy learning a new way of practicing (and teaching) yoga. Some poses are actually deeper using a chair! It is a wonderful way to personalize your practice for your shifting daily needs. And, blissfully, you’ll experience a healing Savasana with your legs up on the chair, with Ingrid singing to you. : )

During this yoga practice you can expect gentle and thoughtful movement to help you arrive in your body & breath, and kind and mindful hands on assists to help you ground in the present moment. To EMBODY is to listen—truly listen—and to turn toward the softest murmurings of the self. Those quiet whispers so often drowned beneath the noise of haste, numbness, and thought.
E:Energy  M:Metta  B:Breath  O:Observe  D:Discover  Y:Yield
To be embodied is to remember the body not as a shell for the mind, but as a wise and breathing companion—a sacred vessel of memory and sensation, of longing, love, and spirit. Through it, we feel, we speak, we touch the world and allow the world to touch us back. It is through flesh and breath that our truth takes form and walks itself into being.
This collaboration class reflects Sonder’s Yoga Teacher Trainings

This beautiful type of yoga explores the form, technique and alignment of B.K.S. Iyengar. There is a mindfulness of anatomy and injury prevention with each intricate flow. In order for practitioners of all levels to feel comfortable, and achieve correct form and alignment, props are available and their use is encouraged . The class is taught with precision and with the knowledge to help guide students on becoming one with their Prana. The focus is placed on being entirely present. The class is expertly planned to deliver an emotionally cathartic experience that fosters a feeling of being complete and whole in our being.

Restorative yoga invites us to soften the layers of striving and return to what has always been whole within us. In
this practice, you’ll be guided through supported postures, mindful breath, and deep rest as we explore the obstacles
of the mind that shape our experience of suffering. With gentle presence, you’ll discover a new relationship with
these patterns and uncover the freedom of coming home to yourself, grounded, spacious, and complete.

Step into the sacred role of the Cauldron Keeper and explore the ancient, lunar-rooted practices of the Moon Witch as a vessel of transformation. This immersive workshop weaves together moon wisdom, ritual, and embodied intention to help you tend the inner cauldron, the place where intuition, emotion, and magic alchemize. Through gentle movement, breathwork, and guided reflection, we will clear residual energy from the past cycle and create space for what is ready to emerge. A central focus of this workshop is learning how to create and hold your own New Moon ritual, so you can return to this practice again and again with confidence and clarity.

The Sri Sukta is a sacred cluster of sixteen mantras dedicated to the Divine Mother as the source of abundance, nourishment, and sustaining power in the universe. Far more than prayers for material well-being, these awakened mantras align consciousness with the subtle forces that support wholeness, vitality, and inner prosperity.

In this immersive workshop, Ishan Tigunait will introduce the Sri Sukta within its yogic and spiritual context, exploring how mantra functions as a living force rather than a symbolic chant. Participants will learn one mantra from the Sri Sukta in depth, including its meaning, energetic quality, and proper pronunciation. Through practice, Sri Sukta becomes a direct experience of inner abundance that naturally expresses itself outward into the world.

This session is accessible to practitioners of all levels and is especially meaningful for those interested in mantra, the Divine Feminine, or cultivating a more supportive and nourishing inner landscape.

In this session, we will explore:
● The purpose and spiritual significance of the Sri Sukta
● How mantra works to awaken abundance and nurturance
● The meaning, sound, and practice of one Sri Sukta mantra
● How inner prosperity becomes the ground for outer fulfillment

Participants will leave with a lived experience of mantra practice and a deeper understanding of abundance as a spiritual and embodied reality.

Yoga does not exist in a vacuum. The realities shaping our communities— race, immigration, identity, power, and politics— often arrive in our classrooms, whether we acknowledge them or not.
In this timely and thought-provoking panel, Seane Corn, Nikki Myers, and Jyll Hubbard-Salk will explore the ethical responsibilities of yoga teachers in a rapidly changing social landscape. Together, we’ll examine what it means to hold space for healing while navigating systems that impact safety, belonging, and human dignity.
Through the lenses of lived experience, social justice, recovery, trauma-informed teaching, and spiritual practice, our panelists will discuss how yoga can serve as a tool for resilience, connection, and collective care without bypassing the realities people face outside the studio walls.
Expect a candid, compassionate conversation that invites curiosity over certainty and reflection over reaction. Together, we’ll explore questions many teachers are asking: What is the role of yoga in times of social and political tension? How do we create spaces that are inclusive, ethical, and responsive to the needs of diverse communities? And how can we remain grounded in practice while engaging with the world around us?
This panel is for teachers, practitioners, and community leaders seeking to deepen their understanding of yoga’s role in healing—not only the individual, but the collective.

Scriptures proclaim, “You are the creator of your destiny.” We have the ability to identify and choose the path that leads to true freedom and abundance. This is what tantra sadhana is all about. There are numerous tantric practices: some complex, some straightforward; some enticing in the beginning and perplexing at the end.

In this keynote, Pandit Tigunait shares the time-tested practice of tantra vidya which is sweet and insightful right from the start, and fulfilling at each step of our progress. This practice is based on his latest book, Sri Sukta: Tantra of Inner Prosperity.

This presentation will enable you to gather the tools needed to confront and conquer the forces of uncertainty, fear, and confusion sweeping across both our inner and outer worlds.

Activation of the lunar force invokes the power of steadiness, immovable resolve, and the qualities of self-knowing. In this practice we’ll activate the lunar force and invoke its nurturing and sublime qualities through a powerful, yet deeply soothing asana, pranayama, and meditation sequence for body and mind. Through experience and some theory, you'll cultivate the forces that lead to calm in the midst of turbulence and that awaken peace, intuition, and courage