news - Jenny Sheffer Stevens

NEWS | Summer 2019

Hey LA!
I'm coming your way!

After 24 years in NYC, we're making a move to my beloved Topanga area.

Stay tuned for a new series of YOGA for the CREATIVE LIFE workshops...west coast version!

NEWS | Spring 2019

Yoga and Creativity Workshops for Women

Join me for the next one in the series ~

Saturday, March 16th, NYC
FEARLESS HEART

There will be chocolate.
And yoga, and amazing women, and breath, and music, and rest,
and practices to help you flow past fear and unleash your creative heart.

Click link to REGISTER!
https://bit.ly/2QNiaU2

NEWS | December 2018

Join me for a special
Winter Solstice Workshop for Women!

The December Solstice is a traditional time to gather with friends around a crackling fire, relax, and enjoy the quiet of winter. This long, dark night is the beginning of Earth's slow turn toward the sun once again, and we celebrate the promise of the coming warmth and light, setting our hearts on plans, hopes, and dreams for the New Year.

This December 21st, I'm pleased offer Incubate*Illuminate

Invitation below!
Click here to RSVP

NEWS | Spring 2018

Hey all you book-lovin’, writerly, creative types!
April 12-14. Calvin College Festival of Faith and Writing. http://festival.calvin.edu

I’m thrilled to be leading three YOGA FOR WRITERS classes -- one on each day of the Festival!

This literary festival is for people of any and every faith, or no faith at all, or a patchwork, ragtag, doubting-but-dogged-gut-sense-that-something-transcendent-permeates-life sort of faith, and it is FABULOUS. I attended for the first time 2 years ago and was blown away... Zadie Smith, George Saunders, Tobias Wolff, Dani Shapiro... it was Heaven. Check out this year’s amazing list of speakers here http://festival.calvin.edu/festival-2018/2018-speaker-list/

And here are my classes (details available on the Festival website soon!)

Thursday
Warm-Up for the Festival with Embodied Imagination: a lively, experiential yoga workshop investigating the relationship between physical life and the creative process. (90 minutes)

Friday
Wind-Down after a busy festival Friday with Creative R&R: A mild, restorative yoga practice to relax and rejuvenate, and refresh your creative mind. (60 minutes)

Saturday

Greet the final morning of Festival, energize for your busy day, and invigorate the imagination with Sunrise Stretch. (45 minutes)

Also this Spring...

Lotus Girls - Live! Last winter, with the aid of the Lincoln City Fellowship, I had the opportunity to pilot this class for 7-10 year old girls, as part of the Young Artists Program at NYC's PS11. This winter I'm happy to be teaching 2 sections of the class, one for beginners and one for returning girls.

Lotus Girls-Live! is a joyful and adventurous workshop exploring the creative process. A lively mash-up of yoga, theatre games, storytelling, and hands-on projects, the course is designed to help young girls tap into their innate creativity as they stretch and strengthen both their bodies and their imaginations.

I'm wowed and inspired by the brilliant, brave, open-hearted, wildly artistic spirits of these girls. The Future is Decidedly Female.

NEWS | August 2017

VERY EXCITED to have an article in this issue of Teaching Artist Journal -- "From Out-of-Body Experience to Embodied Imagination: How a Seriously Awkward Kid Became a Passionate if Improbable Ambassador of Yoga-Based Creativity Training for Actors, Artists … and Little Girls"

Here's a little preview for your amusement - especially if you knew me as a kid...

"I couldn’t run fast, or climb a rope, or hit anyone with a dodge ball. In fifth grade I flunked the physical fitness test and had to be tutored in gym.

My body felt like an outsized and cumbersome spacesuit, my head perched atop it in its own little bubble, the only thing getting any oxygen. My thoughts were out in the galaxy yet the bod was decidedly earthbound.

But, here’s the thing: ungainly as I felt, I had to move. I was a squirrely, restless kid that couldn’t hold still.

I had a lot going on in my mind and imagination. I didn’t understand this then, but that creative energy was desperate for bodily outlet, forever squishing out at the seams in embarrassing ways."

And so glad to have been a part of this! --

NEWS | July 2017

* Thanks to the generous (and sanity saving) Lincoln City Fellowship, I'm back in the canyon to write for a few weeks in July and August.

* The 2017 Summer | unscripted series begins this week! With a fun new format and the addition of 'CJ' - our scruffy little rescue mutt - to my Topanga adventures.

* One of my my most pivotal and beloved teachers - of acting, life in the arts, and life in general - the brilliant MICHAEL HOWARD, has written a wonderful book about acting and theatre and... almost everything I care about, called The Actor Uncovered. I'm absolutely thrilled and honored (and slightly terrified) to be interviewing him about it at his next book signing event! Come out and join us at BOOK SOUP in West Hollywood on July 13th, at 7pm.

NEWS & ANNOUNCEMENTS: SPRING 2017

January 18, 2017 Topanga Canyon - writing on the trail.

I'm so honored to be a 2017 recipient of the Lincoln City Fellowship, a generous artist's grant from the Speranza Foundation!

The grant is supporting two main projects:

1) A longer-form writing project based on Summer | unscripted.

I've been on hiatus from the blog since summer 2016's "unscripted" encounters with Topanga Canyon, while I work on a bigger project. But look for updates and new canyon adventures in the coming months!

2) LOTUS GIRLS—LIVE! I've had a longstanding commitment to yoga & arts outreach, and my particular passion is the artistic empowerment of young girls. This winter, with the aid of the Lincoln City Fellowship, I was thrilled to be able to pilot Lotus Girls—Live!, a joyful and adventurous workshop exploring the creative process, as part of the Young Artists program at NYC's PS11. A lively mash-up of yoga, theatre games, storytelling, and hands-on projects, the course is designed to help 7-10 year old girls tap into their innate creativity as they stretch and strengthen both their bodies and their imaginations.

Working with these brilliant, creative, brave, open young girls has been such a thrill.

The girls made theatrical masks for mythical creature characters they invented, based on qualities and "powers" they want to embody.

Summer 2016: News and Announcements

Thrilled to be headed back into the Canyon for more UNSCRIPTED adventures! Follow the blog!

Spring 2016

OPENING NIGHT April 30, 2016 HUDSON STAGE COMPANY's ANIMALS OUT OF PAPER.

NEWS April/May 2016

I've been taking a brief break from the blog as I work on a longer form writing project -- but more to come soon.
AND -- So thrilled to be working with HUDSON STAGE COMPANY again -- this weekend we opened ANIMALS OUT OF PAPER by the amazing RAJIV JOSEPH (whose play Guards at the Taj just yesterday won 4 Lortel Awards!) We run through May 14. Details at right. Come see it.
HERE'S OUR REVIEW from the NEW YORK TIMES

The kids and me at the God's Love We Deliver annual 4m Race to Deliver, November 2015

NEWS February 2016

I'm honored to again be featured with my ridiculously talented singer-songwriter friend Jason Harrod, this time as part of "Heartaches and Heartbreaks" the Valentine's Day event at Dwell Church on the Bowery.
Also extremely excited to be attending Big Love Weekend, a yoga & wellness event and fundraiser for my favorite charity God's Love We Deliver -- I'll be writing for GLWD about this inspiring event, and will link to it on The Regular Jenny as well. #BigLoveWknd

NEWS January 2016

On January 8th, I was thrilled to take part in the SALON series hosted by James Yaegashi and Tami Schuch-Yaegashi. I got to share the evening with the brilliant Jason Harrod; he played some beautiful new songs and some old favorites, I read a couple of essays, and the veritable brain trust that was assembled that evening to listen gave the most intelligent, insightful and helpful feedback imaginable. Thanks to you all!

NEWS Fall 2015

Yoga for Enhanced Creativity | Workshops and Retreats - I had a busy fall schedule of travel and teaching, leading a private retreat, an undergraduate yoga for actors workshop: The Body, the Brain, the Breath...the Bard! Yoga for Deeper Connection to Heightened Text, and my relaunch of private yoga instruction. Stay tuned to learn more about yoga programs for enhanced creativity and finding your authentic artistic voice.

I'm thrilled to INTRODUCE...

click the image above to visit the yoga | mamaskara page.