Students at the Haggerty Art Museum on Friday morning started their day off with exercise, relaxation and meditation.
Last Friday the Haggerty hosted a beginner-level yoga class free to all Marquette students. Though the Haggerty has hosted yoga in their galleries for roughly seven years now in collaboration with the dance department, Marquette’s art club helped sponsor the event.
Catey Ott Thompson, a Marquette dance instructor, taught the beginner-level yoga class last week for the second time since last semester.
Ott Thompson has taught dance since she was 14 years old, and has been at Marquette for the past five years.
“In 2006, I graduated with my master’s degree in dance, and that had an emphasis on teaching yoga,” Ott Thompson said.
Lynne Shumow is the Haggerty Art Museum’s program coordinator. Shumow collaborates with the dance department frequently to plan events.
Depending on availability, yoga is offered two to three times a semester.
“In the past, we used to do it on Friday afternoons,” Shumow said. “This time we are trying something a little different on Friday mornings.”
Roughly 20 students attended the event on Friday including Catherine Simpson, a sophomore in the College of Health Sciences and student of Ott Thompson’s Ballet 1 class.
“I wanted to try it purely for the experience of doing yoga in a non-traditional setting,” Simpson said.
Ott Thompson taught the class with a hatha flow, a relaxed style of yoga aimed at beginner-level yogis.
“The atmosphere was calm and quiet, which really helped me to get settled in and ready for the class,” Simpson said. “As college students, I think we tend to get lost in what seems to be a never-ending cycle of assignments and exams which can be very stressful, sometimes we forget to just take a moment for ourselves and just breathe.”
Simpson said she went to class feeling relieved and more focused.
“I hope that there will be more classes in the future at the Haggerty because I would love to go again,” Simpson said.
The art club is looking to continue hosting yoga classes in the Haggerty throughout the semester.
“We’re just going to see where it goes,” Ott Thompson said.
