No, a yogi is not a brown bear living in Jellystone National Park and bent on stealing "pic-a-nic" baskets with his sidekick BooBoo, contrary to what the folks at Hanna-Barbera would have you believe. A yogi is a person who practices yoga, and with the technique's current popularity, even children who have been walking for under a year are not exempt.

Enter: Itsy Bitsy Yoga, a nationwide toddler yoga program that has recently made its way to Iowa.

"Who can show me your peaceful mountain pose?" Itsy Bitsy Yoga instructor Dana Robinson said Oct. 16 at Arts à la Carte, 20 E. Market. The children and mothers at the class, including Christopher Nair, 3, and his mother, Nicoleta Nair, brought their hands together as if praying and then exploded, imitating Robinson's jump into a volcano position.

"Christopher loved it, and he actually got his father and me to start yoga," Nair said.

Today at 7 p.m., the five little practitioners signed up for Itsy Bitsy Yoga, ages 22 months to 3-years-old, will execute downward dogs, lion's breaths, and gorilla crawls during the final class of their current session. Itsy Bitsy's next session will begin Nov. 6, with weekly classes Monday morning at Arts à la Carte and Tuesday evening at the Robert A. Lee Recreation Center, 220 S. Gilbert.

Robinson first discovered Itsy Bitsy Yoga online while living in Oregon, where she trained with the program's creator, Helen Garabedian.

"I have a passion for developmental movement within the early childhood years and an appreciation for yoga," she said.

The 26-year-old instructor has been a yoga lover since age 18. As a music major with a theater and dance minor at Luther College, dance classes initially introduced her to yoga. And with the birth of her daughter, Sophie, Robinson explored new types of yoga.

In paticular, Itsy Bitsy Yoga appealed to Robinson because, unlike other parent yoga classes, the child gets involved, too.

"I tried doing some mommy and baby yoga, which is more focused on the mother rather than the child, and this did not keep Sophie happy at all," said Robinson.

Keeping true to Itsy Bitsy's philosophy, Robinson emphasizes parent participation in her own classes, one of only two Itsy Bitsy branches in Iowa.

"The caregiver and child learn a lot about each other in a class like this, where they are both participating and learning new things together," said Robinson.

And many of these children now know things most adults don't.

The Itsy Bitsy group rotated around the room to nearly 20 different yoga positions in their Oct.16 session. L'Engle Donelson, 2-years-old and barefoot, gracefully extended her arms, her right hand stiff as if holding a shield. Her mother, Christina, watched as L'Engle enthusiastically yelled out the pose's given name, "Warrior."

Many Itsy Bitsy parents plan to continue the program.

"Emily enjoys following along with the movement in the class, and it reminds me to stretch my own body, which I can easily forget to do," said Hillary Granfield, whose 2-year-old daughter, Emily, participated in the class. "It's good to introduce an activity to children early on where they can follow along with an instructor in a group."



E-mail DI reporter Brianna Runyan at:
brianna-runyan@uiowa.edu