About André

 

André du Preez is a Certified Iyengar Yoga Teacher with 26 years of practice, 18 of those under a Senior Advanced Iyengar Yoga Teacher, as well as attending many retreats of some of the best Iyengar Yoga Teachers in the world.

With a background in Alexander Technique, Transcendental Meditation, TRE and a lifetime of competitive sport, his focus is on ease of movement, kindness to self and avoiding harm by identifying and removing repetitive stress injury patterns.

He has been fortunate to attend Iyengar Yoga retreats with some of the best Iyengar teachers in the world, including:

  • Abhijata Sridhar Iyengar
    B.K.S. Iyengar's granddaughter, Abhijata Sridhar Iyengar, is a renowned Iyengar Yoga teacher, both at the Ramamani Iyengar Memorial Yoga Institute (RIMIYI) in Pune and internationally, carrying forward the legacy of her grandfather and aunt Geeta Iyengar
  • Faeq Biria
    Sricharan Faeq Biria is one of Yogacharya Dr. B.K.S. Iyengar’s foremost disciples, having studied directly from Guruji for 36 long years and strictly follows Iyengar Yoga traditions and teaching methodology. He is the director of Iyengar Yoga Centre of Paris, Chair of the Technical Committee of Iyengar Yoga Association of France, and the official yoga expert to UNESCO headquarters in Paris. He is also the teacher for the Cirque du Soleil performers, spending a month with him before they start training.
  • Corrine Biria 
    As a senior teacher, Corrine Biria leads the "Centre de Yoga Iyengar de Paris" since 1984. Corine Biria is a close student of Sri B.K.S. Iyengar. Her numerous stays with her master in India since 1983 have enriched her experience on a technical, educational, and therapeutic level.
  • John Schumacher
    In over 40 years as a teacher, John has taught thousands of students, including many prominent yoga teachers. He travels across the U.S. and throughout the world, including Europe, Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and the Caribbean, where he conducts workshops for students and teachers of all levels. John is a certified Advanced Iyengar Yoga Teacher, one of only 14 teachers in the U.S. to hold that level of certification. He spent 33 years studying with B.K.S. Iyengar and also many years studying with internationally acclaimed teacher Dona Holleman.
  • Jawahar Bangera
    Jawahar Bangera has been B.K.S. Iyengar’s pupil since 1969 and was one of the first pupils from Mumbai tasked by Guruji to teach yoga. Jawahar has accompanied Guruji on countless teaching tours around the world and has conducted a large number of yoga workshops himself in various countries.
  • Stephanie Quirk
    Stephanie Quirk is a world leader in the field of Yoga Therapeutics, having spent 20 years living, studying, and working directly with the Iyengar family at the Ramanani Iyengar Memorial Yoga Institute in Pune, India.

Here is a link to a video of him practicing Iyengar Yoga. It is a 3 hours practice sped up to 8 minutes. - https://vimeo.com/154300966

Besides practicing yoga, he has also:

  • Practiced Transcendental Meditation since 2002
  • Have a regular Pranayama practice
  • Studied Ayurveda extensively since 2001
  • Studied Alexander Technique for 8 years (weekly lessons until the lockdown stopped it). In his last 2 years, he started preparing to teach and did a lot of hands-on work. The Alexander Technique is postural training, and is very common among athletes, dancers, musicians, singers, and actors, teaching how to identify and lose the harmful habits built up over a lifetime of stress and learn to move more freely.
  • Practiced TRE (Trauma and Tension Release Exercises) regularly for over 10 years and still do it a few times a week.
  • Practiced Bikram Yoga regularly for 1 year.
  • Practiced Vinyasa Yoga regularly for over 8 years.
  • Done 6,200 skydives which included:
    • 8 times South African Artistic Skydiving champion, including freestyle and freeflying - https://vimeo.com/260085313
    • Springbok skydiver competing as the videographer for the South African Women’s Freestyle team at the World Air Games in 2001 in Grenada, Spain - https://vimeo.com/213275573
    • Chairman of the Artistic Committee of the Sports Skydiving Association of South Africa.
    • Artistic Coach and Artistic Coach Evaluator for over 20 years.
    • Heavily involved in Artistic Skydiving Sports Development, being the head coach at most events in South Africa for over 20 years.
    • 54 hours freefly, freestyle, and dynamic flying training in an Indoor Skydiving Windtunnel - https://vimeo.com/212647139
    • 25 hours in the Windtunnel trained by Yohann Aby, a 5 times Freestyle World Champion skydiver, as well as French and European Champion gymnast - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G3X0RHrcDkM
    • Indoor Skydiving Coach
    • Event organizer and coach in South Africa and international events in USA and Botswana. - https://vimeo.com/230370386
    • The only person in the world to have trained a paraplegic skydiver to Category 3 Level in Artistic Skydiving (most able-bodied people struggle to attain this) - https://vimeo.com/251145431
    • Only South African to qualify as a Spaceball Master (lead-filled tennis ball). It was an international group of flyers capable of flying with a static object falling at a constant speed virtually straight down, as well as planning and managing jumps, and securing the ball at the end of the skydive. - https://vimeo.com/649217203

Qualified as a Tandem Instructor (take novices on skydives), Accelerated Freefall Instructor (skydiving certification course), Jumpmaster, High-Performance Canopy Flying Coach (parachute flying), Pro-rated to do display jumps.