9. The Musicality of Movement with Asher Ahmahd Waldron

Asher has always tried to balance his passion for both music and movement. Graduating with a Bachelor degree of Music Performance, he desired to take a break from music and dive deep into the world of Dance. His yoga journey began in 2010 during his time as a competitive Dancer and a HS Dance Teacher. He used his knowledge of the practice as a tool to incorporate mindfulness into the movement of his high school dance students. Although it was met with resistance, it soon became something the students looked forward to. After his move to Chicago in 2013, he began to take his personal practice more seriously and was eventually presented with another opportunity to teach young people mindfulness through movement as the Choreographer for the South Shore Drill Team. Working the practice into his rehearsals changed both the physical movements of the dancers and the way they approached challenges in rehearsals, performances and life in general.Asher Joined ZYG as a practitioner in 2018 while working on his Master of Arts in Applied Music Pedagogy degree hoping to find inspiration for his Thesis subject, Clarinet Yoga: A Holistic Guide to Body Awareness in Clarinet Pedagogy. As a musician that was experiencing chronic pain, this was a subject that was imperative to his future as an artist. Taking his thirst for knowledge further, he joined the Zen YTT spring 2020 cohort. Finally there was an opportunity to combine his passion of music and movement with the joy of teaching and helping others in the community.Asher is looking forward to continuing this journey and can’t wait to inspire more people through Music, Movement and Mindfulness.Asher's IG: @asher_ahmahd This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit alignedmusician.substack.com/subscribe