Bhava Fridays

Bhava Fridays™ offers a live musical & yoga experience. Our special signature class of Abhaya Yoga, is the perfect end to your week. The teacher and the musician collaborate to create the mood, vibe, or “bhav”. Enjoy a sweet, flowing asana practice attuned to the musical ambience while cultivating devotion and surrender. Let your mind go, be carried by the magical sounds, and allow your heart and body be free to celebrate Friday night!

Bhava Schedule – Abhaya Gowanus

Date
Teacher
Musical Talent
Description
June 15
Tara Glazier
Raymond Sicam
Coming SoonWebsite
June 22
Tara Glazier
David Ellenbogen
David has studied and performed music in over a dozen countries including India, Mali, Cuba, Brazil and has expanded the audience for world music through his radio broadcasts on WKCR, his podcast NYC Radio Live, and ambitious live productions like the Ragas Live Festival, a 24 hour, 60 musician, experience held at the Rubin Museum of Art. David co-founded the Acoustic Mandala Project, which explores the potential of raga based ambient music for yoga and meditation. Released by Putamayo records they hosted the first Sound Meditation event produced by the venerable World Music Institute and he has since led many Sound and Yoga retreats from upstate NY to Costa Rica. David’s work as a guitarist and artist director of Brooklyn Raga Massive has led to praise in the New York Times for “Preserving the past while blurring genres in an inventive spirit” and the Wall Street Journal for “Expanding the notion of what raga—the immersive, epic form of Indian music—can mean.”
June 29
Tara Glazier
Kevin Vertrees
Kevin Vertrees is a singer, pianist, composer and community organizer based in Brooklyn, New York. With Columbus, Ohio roots and a degree in Music Composition from the Ohio State University, Vertrees is a versatile musician that draws from jazz, classical, soul, spiritual and rock influences. Vertrees’ music is a confluence of his “heart of it all” background and a visionary’s ambition for a better world. His interests include secular and sacred music, and combining the use of popular song forms with elements of improvisation, poetry and collaborative artistic expressions. Calling DUMBO Brooklyn, NY as his home base for over 2 decades, Kevin has organized and lead several arts organizations including Smack Mellon Studios, the Delaware Valley Chamber Orchestra, and SkyDog Projects, a project that explored the intersection of farming, art and organizing communities to protect the environment
July 6
Tara Glazier
Marje Wagner
I’m a Kirtan singer and keyboard player. I’ve been writing melodies to Sanskrit chants and am excited to be rehearsing with a four-piece Band for an upcoming recording of these chants.For 30-plus years I have also worked as a jazz musician, playing at venerable clubs such as The Blue Note and Birdland.In 2003 I began practicing Sanskrit Chant, adding it to my yoga practice of postures, breathing and meditation.I studied chants with Bhavani Lorraine Nelson and with the late Namadeva Thomas Ashley-Farrand. I also practice at the Ananda Ashram in Monroe, NY.I have led Kirtan at Shambhala Yoga (in Prospect Heights) and at Integral Yoga in lower Manhattan. For the last nine months I have led a monthly FULL MOON WOMEN’S CHANT CIRCLE in my home studio.

Origins of the word Bhava

“Bhava is a sanskrit word that can be defined as “a way of being, a state of mind, temperament, attitude, personal manner, and also, “mood, feeling, sentiment, emotion”. In some contexts, it also means “inner essence or “spiritual heart”.”
Excerpt Exquisite Love, by Bill Mahony

Mahabhava: “The “great state, sublime state” that is Love; similarly, the devotional love that supports, stands within, and yet also transcends all other states.”
Excerpts from Exquisite Love, by Bill Mahony

Testimonials

Miriam Butterman
“Friday evening Bhava class is deeply integrated and open experience of movement, wisdom and music. It’s evening of letting go with the body, while my mind rests into my heart. I’ve been coming to Bhava classes for six years and the evening never fails me. I leave with a reset into my natural vibe, blissed out each and every time.”
– Miriam B.

On the banks of the Yamuna
The flute was heard.
The Flute-Player has captured my heart,
My soul has not strength to withstand.
Dark Himself,
Krishna is seated on a dark blanket
By the waters of the Yamuna.
On hearing the sounds of the flute
I lose body-consciousness,
My body remaining like a stone.
 15th-16th century poet, Mirabai