Source: www.nytimes.com
NEW YORK, July 19, 2010: John Friend is the founder of Anusara, one of the world’s fastest-growing styles of yoga. For the past several months he has given his workshops in Tokyo, Taipei, Bali and Morrisville, N.C., and is on his way to teach more workshops in Copenhagen, Munich, Paris and Park City, Utah. These are stops on his “Melt Your Heart, Blow Your Mind Tour.”
When Friend wasn’t off leading workshops, he was helping plan the yoga-and-music Wanderlust festival to be held this week in Squaw Valley and the Anusara Grand Gathering in Estes Park, Colo., in September, the lead-in to Yoga Journal’s annual weeklong conference featuring major American yoga teachers. “John brings in huge numbers,” says Elana Maggal, conference director for Yoga Journal.
On the road and at home, Friend also keeps tabs on all the ancillary businesses he has created in the last 13 years, since Anusara was born: his global Anusara expansion (Studio Yoggy, one of the biggest yoga-school chains in Japan, will be offering Anusara yoga classes); his Anusara publishing ventures; and his Anusara yoga-wear business. He is also financing historical yoga research in Nepal and Kashmir.