Yoga instructor finds peace in her deep Limpopo roots
Rose Überbacher (41) has the suppleness of a dancer but is a highly trained yoga teacher
HAENERTSBURG – Rose Überbacher (41) is tall and slim with a mop of curly black hair. She has the suppleness of a dancer but is a highly trained yoga teacher.
Überbacher, who grew up and attended school in Polokwane, spent a number of years abroad. She attended the British School of Yoga in London and took a year to qualify. Most taxing was the oral examination, which took her a week. However, she did extremely well, achieving 94% for the exam.
She says that it’s easier to do yoga than to talk.
Her inspiration was Barbara Curry’s yoga video. Curry was in her mid-60s when she released her yoga video.
Überbacher then wrote to Godfrey Devereaux in Ibiza who was trained by Iyenga. He teaches Ashtanga Vinyasa.
Ashtanga means grounding postures and Vinyasa means flow between postures.
“It was an intense six weeks of training, three hours a day. Afterwards I was told: ‘You will make a brilliant teacher but you’ll run away to the mountains’,” she laughs.
Überbacher then lived at a college in the town of Ystrad Mynach in Wales and studied anatomy, physiology and holistic therapy for a year. “If you want to be registered to do yoga in the UK you have to have an understanding of your basic physical structure,” she explains.
As a single mother with a young son, she felt that schooling in the UK was inadequate and returned to South Africa to enrol her son in a good Limpopo-based school.
Überbacher was at the Haenertsburg Hall treating the public to her other disciplines of reiki, head massage and reflexology during the Spring Fair. She has the hands of a healer and through her hands she treated one customer whose body was in incredible pain.
The almost hour-long session brought immeasurable relief to the customer.
Überbacher has started yoga classes in Haenertsburg and Tzaneen.
The yoga classes in Haenertsburg are held at the Town Hall on Mondays from 19:00 to 20:00.
In Tzaneen, classes are held at physiotherapist Gail Zaayman’s rooms on Tuesdays from 15:00 to 16:00; and Wednesdays and Fridays from 07:15 to 08:15. The fee is R100 per session.
