Albee 🕊

Honouring Legacy 🌹 Today would have been Mrs Mangiamele’s 103rd birthday. Dorotea Mangiamele was the founder of Mangala Studios of Yoga and Creative Dance — the same Carlton studio now known as Green Monday Studios at 73 Grattan St, Carlton. A visionary. A pioneer. A teacher. A woman whose work laid the foundations for all that moves through this space today. In 1970, she opened the doors to a school devoted to the practice of yoga and a unique style of creative dance shaped by her own lived experience. What began as her offering has become a living lineage — one that continues to evolve and transform with each generation of practitioners. Mrs Mangiamele’s legacy was lovingly carried forward by her student Peter Hockey and daughters Sue Hockey and Claudia Mangiamele, with the support of many brilliant teachers. The lease was then passed on to us, in 2019. At that time, I shared custodianship with fellow Mangala student, Meah, and together we carried the torch forward through a blown-off roof (!) and deep lockdown. As of this year, it’s become my solo undertaking — one I continue to approach with care, respect, and heartfelt commitment and with the huge support of my community. I hold it now with deep reverence — not just as a studio owner, but as someone forever moved by Mrs M’s belief in movement as a path to transformation. Her vision and approach have truly shaped who I am — a truth to which many of our students have attested. With gratitude, we honour her life and her teaching. May her work continue to ripple outward, carried by all of us who move in the space. With love, Albee ~ Image 1: Mrs M sometime in the 70s Image 2: A photo of the front sign @ 73 Grattan st Image 3: Mrs M guiding a children’s dance class in the 70s, in what is now known as the “Dance Room”. Image 4: The plaque that sits pride of place in the stairwell of Green Monday Studios. Photographer for image 1-3: Giorgio Mangiamele

🌀EMBODYING THE SPIRAL 🌀 Tuesday 30th Sep, 6-7:15pm We are so excited to welcome Albee of Green Monday Studios as a guest teacher at the Shala. This special 75-minute class is an embodied, breath-based slow flow yoga and meditation session leading into deep rest. Balancing softer and stronger elements at a meditative pace with music shaping the atmosphere throughout. The symbol of the spiral an ever-present, churning, a continuum, a returning. From the unfurling of ferns, to Celtic carvings, to the swirling of star constellations - the spiral threads through nature, culture, and the human body, carrying a sense of growth, rhythm, and cyclical flow. In this session, Albee will guide you to explore the spiral both outwardly and inwardly—through breath, movement, and meditative awareness. Expect layered invitations: yogs shapes, somatic attunement, metaphor and poetry, and non-linear movement—allowing the spiral to emerge through your own embodied experience. This class is included in all membership and pass options or can be booked as a drop in. Please book in advance to avoid missing out 🤍

At first glance, this looks like a nervous system - fibres branching, pulsing, reaching. But it’s actually a tree. Or perhaps both? In somatic work, we often come back to the idea that our bodies aren’t separate from nature, we are nature. The nervous system isn’t just something inside us-it’s how we feel, respond, connect, and protect ourselves. Like tree roots or river systems, our nerves branch out based on how we’ve grown, what we’ve lived through, and how we’ve been supported (or not). Somatics invites us to slow down and feel into those patterns. To notice the signals: what’s firing, what’s frozen, what’s tender. And to know that change- real, felt change can be found with slow persistent titrated practice. Like the tree, we’re always growing, shedding, and re-rooting. Bit by bit. Breath by breath. Artwork - Jenine Shereos

This week we explore the Metal element through the lens of Chinese Medicine - working with dynamic breathwork, somatic inquiry, yogic shapes, and imagination to feel into the nature and intelligence of METAL from the inside out. Bronze sculpture by Degas, 1919 Shout out to my teachers and friends who have shared their TCM wisdom with me over the years @cloud_gate_acupuncture , @space______within , @tiana.demetriou and @bodyof_work

We are continuing our exploration of art theory as a lens for movement and somatic inquiry - this week, TENEBRISM. From the Latin word ‘tenebrae’ meaning darkness and shadows. Tenebrism is a Baroque painting technique where figures emerge from the darkness by a single light source. The work of Caravaggio is a great example. How does this relate to our practice? I’m interested in noticing what is illuminated, and what is left in shadow. In class we’ll map this sensorially through the body. The parts we inhabit easily and are ‘well-lit’ , vs the regions we rarely attend to, that stay in the shadows. The back body is a great example. The places sensation arrives vague, or sometimes not at all. I’ll share some words about darkness by David Whyte. And of course, we shall move and breath! shake, twist, open, contract and feel through yoga and somatics.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​ Weds , 6:15pm @greenmondaystudios

Yoga and somatic enquiry Weds 6:15pm @greenmondaystudios This week we embody 間 (Ma) Ma is a Japanese aesthetic principle traditionally explored in interior design, sumi-e and shodo ink-brush painting, shakuhachi music and ikebana (Japanese flower arrangement). At its core, Ma is the FULL emptiness between things: the silence between notes, the space around the ink that makes up the artwork, the void in an alcove that draws the eye. I see it as the gap where resonance can live. In class it maps quite beautifully to breath and movement principles such as the pause at the end of an exhale, the stillness after a movement phrase, the quality of attention held ~between~ cues. I’ll share some shakuhachi music for deep listening to Ma, as well as traditional haiku by Bashō from the 17th century.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​ Shout out to Richard Liddicut from Behold Art for sharing this concept with me🖌️ Artwork is by Paul Reps (look him up! Especially the book Zen Flesh Zen Bones) Link in bio to book class xo

One of my favourite classes to teach- 🔸🟢🔹Embodying Colour 🟡🔺🟣 This theme was first explored through my studies in Creative Dance with one of my teacher’s, Claudia Mangiamele. She introduced us to the work of Bauhaus abstract painters Paul Klee and Wassily Kandinsky. Both artists were interested in exploring the spiritual and abstract dimensions of art, and they viewed colour as a language that can be used to create harmonies, rhythms, and contrasts that convey emotions and ideas. I will be inviting and guiding you to explore colour theory through our meditation practice, and see how focusing our mind on different colours may affect or inform our asana and certain movement qualities , as well as our mood/state. @greenmondaystudios Wednesday 6:15pm Link in bio to book x x

Tomorrow night in class I want to reflect on Artemis II. Humans orbiting the dark side of the moon for the first time in over 50 years!! 🌑 The dark side has always been there, always in relationship with us, but unwitnessed. Not absent. Just beyond our perception. (There is a teaching in that.) As Carl Sagan wrote in Pale Blue Dot: “The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena.” When you sit with that image long enough, something can shift within us. The scale is so humbling. But the fact that we exist at all, that any conscious life exists in that immensity , is absolutely wild. We are so improbably, incredibly HERE!! And then so teeny tiny at the same time. Woweee. Let’s chat about it and then see how it manifests as form and movement. Yoga and somatic enquiry Wednesday night @greenmondaystudios Book through my bio xo

Tonight we practice from the inside out, letting movement originate in the body’s core and travel outward so that our arms, legs, spine are expressions of something felt, not shapes being arranged from the outside. I’ll also read a very precious poem by Jacqueline Suskin and some words by Mary Starks Whitehouse (pioneer of Dance Therapy) Embodied Yoga 6:15pm Wednesday Sliding scale $18-$34 Mob practice for free Link in my bio for more details and bookings 🪽🪽🪽 Image: Phoenician cosmetic vessel carved from a Tridacna squamosa giant clam shell, dating back to approximately 700-600 BC (!!)

Happy Autumn Equinox in the southern hemisphere(for yesterday!) 🖤🤍 The equinox marks the point in the year when the sun sits directly over the equator, creating a near equal length of day and night across the earth. A brief moment of balance before the seasons begin to tip, here in the south towards longer nights and the slow descent into a cooler and darker time. This week we are moving with that sense of balance between opposites. Exploring the meeting point between Prop // collapse Expansion // contraction Doing // being Etc Not as something to resolve, but as forces we can attune to that coexist and inform one another. See you in class xo Image: Buddha’s Standpoint in the Earthly Life No. 3 (1920) by Hilma af Klin

✮ ✮ SCHOLARSHIP PLACES NOW OPEN ✮ ✮ 50𝒉𝒓 𝑨𝒅𝒗𝒂𝒏𝒄𝒆𝒅 𝒀𝒐𝒈𝒂 𝑻𝒓𝒂𝒊𝒏𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝑻𝒓𝒂𝒖𝒎𝒂-𝒊𝒏𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒎𝒆𝒅 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒎𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒂𝒍-𝒉𝒆𝒂𝒍𝒕𝒉 𝒂𝒘𝒂𝒓𝒆 With @sarahball.yoga.counselling If you’re a teacher or health professional wanting to feel steadier and more equipped when supporting people through trauma, anxiety, depression, or body image challenges, this training offers clear frameworks, grounded tools, and thoughtful conversations. Sarah’s approach is practical, person-centred, and rooted in social justice. We have 3 scholarship places available: 1 x full scholarship, 2 x 1/2 scholarships Priority will be given to: • First Nations Mob • BIPOC • LGBTQIA + folk • Sole parents and carers Email [email protected] for further details.

REST, CONNECT, RECOVER. Nervous system support for the Iranian and Swana Diaspora WHAT TO EXPECT Guided by Nat and co-facilitated by Albee, this session combines guided meditation, breathing exercises, gentle movement, somatic practices and floor-based restorative Yin Yoga shapes supported by bolsters and blankets. The intention is to offer much-needed rest and replenishment for for Diaspora of regions affected by the illegal war waged on the Swana region. This practice is designed to help regulate the support your system and invite a more easeful, rested state of being. The class is beginner-friendly, trauma and culturally sensitive, and guided with invitational language, focusing on how you feel rather than how the shapes look. TIMING 6:15 - 6:45pm - Discussion and movement practice w/ Nat 6:45pm - 7:30pm- Restorative Yin yoga w/ Albee DATE Thursday 26th March LOCATION Green Monday Studios Level 2, 73 Grattan St, Carlton (walk to the top of the stairs) Sliding scale contributions, link to register in bio