Liva Nitschke Duer
VINYASA
Describe your classes in 3 words
Playful, grounding and touching
What is your story with Yoga?
My mom gave me a piece of paper with drawings of the 5 tibetans, when I was packing my backpack for my first long travel. In New Zealand I started doing these exercises every morning. As a former gymnast my body responded quite well to these movements and my mind felt free because for the first time I was moving without being judged in a competition. My first trip to New Zealand was 10 years ago and I have done yoga everyday since.
How are students going to feel after attending one of your classes?
A tiny bit more connected and present in their own body and life.
​
What is Vinyasa yoga to you?
Vinyasa is a yoga practise where you’re in flow with your body and breath in a beautiful moving meditation.
​
What’s the best piece of advice you’ve received?
Don’t carry grudges and forgive easily.
​
What is your favourite snack?
Salty: Palm kale chips made from kale freshly picked in my garden. Sweet: Laddoos. I always return from Nepal with my bags full of laddoos.
​​
Tell us 3 things we don't know about you
-
I feel like a child even though my life is very grown-up like with husband, twins, house and car. Luckily my kids remind me to play everyday.
-
Before kids I did a lot of climbing and mountaineering, which led me to Nepal where I became a mountain guide, learned the language and by coincidence became a famous folk-singer.
-
I have a weakness for Nepali/Indian culture such as the food, the Bollywood movies and their outfits. My closet is filled with traditional Nepali clothing and I even got married in a saree.
​
What influences your teaching?
I think above all my own yoga practise but also by nature, seasons and life itself. As a physiotherapist I’m a bit nerdy with biomechanics and anatomy which I love to use to make my classes a bit more technical and safe.
​
What are your trainings?
My roots of yoga are from Nepal and traditional Hatha yoga. My first teacher training was really old school. I was the only student and I lived and practiced with 2 gurus everyday for 3 months. In Nepal the yoga environment is very male-dominated and the style is therefore where masculine - filled with rules and a very strong practice. Now I love to embrace the feminime and invite in the softness. My last teacher training was elemental vinyasa with Faye and I’m still harvesting creativity from it.
​
What does your perfect Sunday look like?
It starts early with an early morning practice followed by a cold dip in the ocean. Rest of the day is spent with my family in nature and ends with a home cooked dinner.