Yoga class featuring mythology, music returns to Sea Cliff for second time since 2024

Sea Cliff resident and yoga instructor Denise Petersen is bringing back world music artist Girish for a midday waterfront yoga flow. Petersen and Girish first partnered for the event in 2024. 

Petersen has been a yoga instructor since 2004 when she was living and practicing in New York City. She has been teaching classes at the Sea Cliff Arts Council for roughly a year and a half. She invited Girish to accompany her in 2024 to incorporate kirtan, call and response, into the yoga event. He also played music throughout the session.

“Within the yoga community,” Petersen said, “his songs are very, very well known, his songs are really, really beautiful.”

Girish tours internationally. He began his career as a jazz drummer and spent five years as monk in a Hindu monastery. For the last twelve years, he has written and performed original music and taught Sanskrit mantras and chanting at music festivals and yoga studios. 

Petersen said the June 7 event will incorporate mythology, guiding participants through a story along with the yoga flow. 

“Stories open us up in a different way than just plain old teachings,” she said, “because the story you really remember, you connect to everything story.” 

Petersen uses mythology and stories for several cultures and religions, including Hinduism, Greek mythology, Buddhism, and Indigenous cultures. She said that she tries to teach yoga in a traditional way. 

“The way it was meant to be taught is really a system laid on foundational practices of honesty, integrity, straightforwardness, all your ethical principles,” she said, “and so I teach the philosophy in every class.”

Along with storytelling, the event will include kirtan and live music by Girish. Refreshments will also be served. 

Petersen said that she aims to bring people together with the event. She also emphasized the difference between motivation and devotion, discussing her belief that this kind of yoga practice should be “devotional.”

“Motivation is for the mind, but devotion for the heart,” Petersen said. “If you’re drawn by your heart, you’re going to stay in it, and it’s going to help you, and it’s going to sustain you throughout your entire life.”

Petersen and her colleague Iris Eplan will be leading a yoga retreat to India in March 2027.