KATONAH YOGA w. Abbie Galvin

SATURDAY - December 5th 2026

11:00am-1:30pm MASTERCLASS - Katonah Foundations

The Katonah practice is designed to awaken pieces of ourselves from the slumber of unconscious habits in order to access our sentient self. The use of technique rather than our personal impulses affords better function. Thus, it is technique that propositions us to change. We use measure rather than feelings to create a stable structure and as we do, we discover that our body was designed to fit itself. In this masterclass we will move through the fundamentals of the Katonah Yoga asana practice and experience the power of pranayama to open up territory in our bodies for our spirit to move through it.

2pm-7pm 5 HOUR INTENSIVE - Katonah Body Reading

Reading a body, assessing a pose, interpreting where one is heading, is the art of seeing. Poses show propensities of behavior and how personal habits are articulated in the practice. When we look at a yoga pose, we reference the ideal form of it so that we have a template, a map, a criteria to look for. In this intensive we will set up the body on a grid to be deciphered as a map, read the feet as a fractal of the whole narrative, learn how to unearth chronic and acute physical issues and explore what to do with the information we discover in our body readings.

SUNDAY - December 6th 2026

11:00am-1:30pm MASTERCLASS - Katonah Asana: Making the Linear Spherical

The goal of the practice is to become spherical, a sphere of influence on and off the mat. Once we set up the linear aspects of the practice, once we establish measure, the goal then becomes to become round. In this masterclass we will explore the myriad backbend postures that make up the Katonah practice. A backbend is an arch and an arch is a bridge between the past and the future. A backbend is a glimpse of the future, a glimpse of our potential and every pose should have a backbend in it because this practice is a practice of potential.

2pm-7pm 5 HOUR INTENSIVE - The Body as a House

The biggest metaphor of the Katonah practice  is the body as a house. Each floor of the house expresses different parts of the whole, while housing unique information, functions and efficiencies. The first floor, the lower body, substantiates us, housing our first nature, our ancestry, our stability, our sense of belonging. The second floor, the upper body, potentiates us, housing our second nature, our capacity, our competency, how we participate in the world. The third floor, the head, liberates us, housing our vision, our imagination, our antenna, giving us the ability to see and plan for the future. In this intensive we will introduce the magic square, the Katonah map to navigating personal potential. We will follow its route like a treasure map through the body, use it to reconcile real life dilemmas and experience the power of breath work to open up territory in our bodies for our spirit to move through it.

PRICING

15 HOUR (full program) - $450

5 HOUR (per session) - $160

MASTERCLASS (per session) - $80

ABBIE GALVIN BIO Abbie Galvin is the owner of The Studio, a NYC based yoga studio, teaching Katonah Yoga. She has been honing this practice for the past 25 years and has a strong student-base from all around the world. Abbie's instruction is informed by her own creative process as a filmmaker and from her exploration of the therapeutic process as a psychoanalyst. She has learned over and over that truly participating in any formal process of self-exploration leads to transformation whether it be physical, psychological or intellectual. Her goal is to engage students of yoga in the dialogue between their conscious and their unconscious selves because it is through that effort that we potentiate ourselves. It is her intention as a teacher to cajole each student in that most rigorous effort to be grounded, to grow upwards, and to participate in the creation of their best self.

KATONAH YOGA ® is a syncretic Hatha yoga practice developed by Nevine Michaan of Katonah Yoga Center over 40 years. She and her teachers incorporate classical Hatha yoga with Taoist theory, geometry, magic, mythology, metaphor, and imagination — in a practical framework designed to potentiate personal and communal well-being. Framing the practice, maps of time and personal space are defined and refined. Themes using asana as origami, manipulating form for function, and developing a sense of personal measure are incorporated in Katonah Yoga practices. Katonah Yoga is organized around three principles of esoteric dialogue: all polarities are mediated by trinity; the universe has pattern, pattern belies intelligence; by virtue of repetition there is potential for insight. Disciplined techniques are organized for revelation through revolutions.