UMA’s Professor of Transdisciplinary Cultural Studies Sarah Hentges has released her fourth book, “Demystifying American Yoga: Embodied Movement for Individual and Collective Transformation.”
Part storytelling, part cultural critique, part innovation and part practical application, “Demystifying American Yoga” is about more than yoga — it’s about American culture and our past, present and collective future. It is about how we care for ourselves and others amidst a toxic culture of individualism, perfectionism, consumption, exploitation, competition and other destructive ideas and behaviors.
Despite its popularity in the U.S., we are mostly unaware of yoga’s ancient roots as well as its contemporary applications. Numerous misunderstandings surround American yoga. It is often seen as simple stretching, or a religious practice. Others feel it is an example of cultural appropriation, and that it is elitist and exclusive — a fitness trend for flexible, aesthetically ideal bodies.
Focusing solely on the physical aspects of yoga overshadows its core elements: conscious breathing, mindful meditation, deep philosophy, and transformative healing. However, for Hentges, American yoga “is about the power of embodiment to connect us with ourselves and others,” she says. “It is about hope and joy and the ways in which yoga has evolved in the U.S. — how American yoga is full of promise and potential despite the ways it has been used to sell myths and bypass spirituality.”
Drawing from her experience as a professor and yoga teacher, Hentges explores the marginalized, feminist, queer, grassroots, underground, interconnected, creative, innovative and somatic elements of yoga. In “Demystifying American Yoga,” she offers exploratory embodied practices, mines diverse sources, and asks critical questions about identity, culture and power.
Hentges has over 25 years of experience teaching college courses and fitness classes, including 20 years of teaching yoga. Previous books by Hentges include “Women and Fitness in American Culture” and “Girls on Fire: Transformative Heroines in Young Adult Dystopian Literature.” Her work spans a variety of fields and themes, most recently centered around embodied social justice and transformation.
A popular professor at UMA, Hentges teaches several courses including American studies, women and gender studies, and interdisciplinary studies as well as the courses Girls on Fire, Hip Hop America, American Fitness, and Cultural Criticism and Theory. She is also UMA’s program coordinator for interdisciplinary studies.
In addition to her academic credentials, Hentges holds certifications in trauma-informed yoga and JourneyDance facilitation, and is the founder and lead curator of The Spiral Goddess Collective, a Center for Mind/Body Movement in Bangor, Maine.