If you can’t wait for the Confluence, how about this to tide you over?

According to the handy-dandy Confluence Countdown Countdown Clock, there’s still seven months until the 2013 Confluence.

No doubt, that’s a long time. And if you just can’t wait, here’s a possible Ashtanga fix for you of a similar vintage and variety: An Ashtanga Mela.

Confluence teacher David Swenson is joining fellow traveling teacher Danny Paradise and their first Ashtanga teacher, David Williams, for a five-day event at Kripalu.

Dates are Aug. 19-24, so you have plenty of time to plan and pack. Here’s a little more detail, if the image isn’t clear enough:

Following in the footsteps of past Ashtanga Melas, this gathering features practice, stories, and history with three teachers who were pivotal in bringing the teachings of Pattabhi Jois to millions. David Swenson, David Williams, and Danny Paradise have spent more than 30 years practicing, teaching, traveling, and sharing their experiences. Skilled at adapting their teaching to the needs of the group, they see the following possibilities for this magical week of practice and celebration

• Primary series with derivative poses, variations, and modifications
• Mysore classes
• Adjustment classes
• Introduction to 2nd and 3rd series
• Pranayama classes.

The week also includes optional group swims at the lake after evening sessions, an intimate musical gathering with Danny and friends, and ongoing opportunities to integrate four decades of Ashtanga Yoga in the West.

If you think this sounds familiar, I’d say that’s a fair assessment. Definitely Confluence-like.

Having spent a bit of time with all three of these teachers — a day only with Danny and David Williams, more time now with David Swenson — I’m certainly interested in the dynamic here. As I just wrote about David, he always seems so casual and straight-forward. He’s not the stereotype of a “yogi.”

David Williams and Danny? I think it is safe to say they are. (Cue requisite “not that there’s anything wrong with that.”) The result might be a longer, stranger trip that ranges beyond Ashtanga as it developed through the ’70s, ’80s, ’90s and ’00s in Mysore. David (as I understand it) was practicing and doing his own thing for much of that time; in some ways, he may be unspoiled by anything that came along after the late ’70s. Danny has adventured into other yogas and other spiritual traditions.

Whatever the dynamic is, there’s little doubt that the trio has the bona fides. IT should be fantastic.

Perhaps I can let Danny Paradise’s one-line description of it on Facebook sum things up: “A wild event with my Teacher David Williams and dear friend David Swenson!”

Posted by Steve