Yoga for Every B.O.D.Y. | Shayne and River Morgan

This dynamic mother and daughter have been co-teaching yoga, meditation, guided hikes and wellness coaching in Aspen, Colorado, where both reside. They wrote a column "Tools for Whole Living" for 2 years in the Aspen Daily News. They have been featured in Aspen Peak Magazine, Yoga Journal, Gaiam, Healthy Planet, among other publications. They have taken over 14 yoga groups on retreat to Mexico, the Caribbean, Southern Colorado, and led two retreats in California for competitive cyclists. Both River and Shayne were guest resident instructors for three weeks for yoga and Gyrotonics at the Green House Spa in Texas and also taught at the Snowmass Wellness Conference sponsored by Yoga Journal.

Culinary Experiences at La Cocina Que Canta | Visiting Teacher Becky Selengut

Becky Selengut is a graduate of William Smith College and the Seattle Culinary Academy where she was awarded the Outstanding Culinarian of the Year. Selengut has worked on two PBS cooking shows, cheffed on a yacht tour of the Inside Passage, and taught cooking to immigrants and refugees and found them work in the food industry. Selengut has had stints at La Medusa and La Spiga; spent three years at the nationally acclaimed restaurant The Herbfarm in Woodinville, Washington and currently teaches cooking for PCC Natural Markets and Bastyr University. In 2004 she started Cornucopia and in January 2006 she founded the website Seasonal Cornucopia . Selengut is a co-author of “The Washington Local and Seasonal Cookbook,” columnist for Edible Seattle Magazine, and runs the blog Chef Reinvented. “Good Fish” - an NPR-notable cookbook on sustainable seafood was nominated as a finalist for an IACP book award - is Selengut's second book, and there are 15 Goodfishbook.com technique videos that Selengut produced to go along with the book. She received the 2012 Seafood Ambassador Award by the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Each year Selengut donates cooking classes, demonstrations, dinners and cookbooks to raise money for local charities and non-profits. In 2011 she is working with Cascade Harvest Coalition, Northwest Burn Foundation, Make-a-Wish Foundation, Three Dollar Bill Cinema, and Legal Voice, among others. From 2001 to 2009 Selengut was a volunteer once-a-week driver for Senior Services of King County.

Becky offers three hands-on culinary experiences, 3.5 hours each, during which you will enjoy preparing your own meal along with fellow cooks. Classes take place at La Cocina Que Canta, our new culinary center. You also will have the opportunity to harvest produce you use from our organic garden, Tres Estrellas.

For more information and registration, please click here.

Pilates Week | Conni Ramsey

Not only can you experience the magic of an added emphasis on Pilates this week, but you¹ll also connect with the extraordinary energy and skill of one of our favorite Specialty Week guest presenters: Conni Ramsey. As a master teacher, Conni has a deep interest and commitment to Pilates. Imagine an exercise program that you look forward to, that fully engages your body-mind-spirit, and that leaves you refreshed and alert with a feeling of physical and mental well-being, she says. Pilates is that program: building lean, flexible muscles through a full body exercise (enhanced with small equipment such as Pilates circles and balls) that educates, realigns and balances your body. Connie coordinates every exercise with breathing, and by the end of each class, you will improve your posture and feel more peaceful and relaxed.

Conni will teach the Intermediate Level class all week. She currently owns her own Pilates studio in Bend, Oregon, after training with Marie Jose Blom in Los Angeles and with Cathie Murakami in Encinitas. For 9 consecutive years she worked as a full-time fitness instructor at Rancho La Puerta, and was an integral part of the evolving Pilates program at the Ranch during the 1990s. Connie loves her work and her contact with all the people she has been privileged to work with over the years, and whether you¹re an old friend or new, you¹ll never forget this week of fun, intensity, learning, and new strength.

Better Family Photos -- Bring Your Camera | Tom Birmingham

Tom Birmingham presents a slide show of various informal portraits, with suggestions on how to make your own family photography more successful, enjoyable and attractive.

During the week, Tom offers three photography workshops: You’ll learn to use a digital camera to its best effect, engage your subject to make the process more fun, compose the picture to create the best portrait, use available light and on-camera flash to take better photos. Bring your digital camera or film camera and let's have fun. Disposable cameras are available at the Mercado.

Tom Birmingham lives in Big Sur, California, where he works as a designer & photographer specializing in family portraits. As funding director of the Big Sur Arts Initiative, he has worked with children in a myriad of enrichment programs. While working with StageKids, summer theater program, he discovered his love and voice in photographing children and families. You can see his work at www.bigsurarts.com.

The Passion of Painting | Erin Lee Gafill

Enjoy expressive watercolor painting and torn paper collage with Big Sur artist Erin Lee Gafill, exploring color, composition, and your own creative voice. No experience necessary.

Erin Lee Gafill is an award-winning writer, painter, and teacher, a 7th generation Californian and 3rd generation native of Big Sur. She is the founder of the Big Sur Arts Initiative and co-founder of Monterrey Bay Plein Air Painters Association. Her work is steeped in the magic and mysticism of her land of origin.

Please sign up!

Ranch Book Discusion Club | Erin Lee Gafill

Erin Lee Gafill will lead a discussion of her book “Drinking From a Cold Spring: A Little Book of Hope,” available through Amazon. For quick readers, copies of the book can be purchased at The Mercado upon arrival.

 

Viva Diva! | Diva Jones, mezzo-soprano, with Yelena Kurdina, piano

Sunday 5 pm

Viva Diva! Prima Donna Preparations -- Diva Jones sings while preparing some of her raw food favorites.

Wednesday 8 pm

Presenting Ms. Diva Jones -- from Classical to Gospel

Diva Jones

The London Times has proclaimed that “Diva Jones is a mezzo with the stature of (opera legend) Shirley Verrett, plus the flash of Dorothy Dandridge. She was triumphantly able to carry out her stage demands.”

This mezzo-soprano has a strong and forceful presence on the concert stage, which has made her a natural for roles as Tituba in the Chicago Opera’s “The Crucible,” Orfeo in Gluck’s “Orfeo and Euridice," and as Ulrica in Verdi’s “The Masked Ball” in Holland. She has performed throughout the United States, Europe, Israel, and United Kingdom with major American and international orchestras, including the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Israeli Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic, and the Houston Symphony Orchestra.

While starring with Welsh National Opera, she gave a Command Performance for Their Royals Highness’ Prince Charles and Princess Diana. Stunning in her Welsh debut, the statuesque diva was lavishly praised by the critics for her “lustrous, sinuous” performance in the title role of “Carmen,” a tour-de-force opera that Ms. Jones performed throughout the British Empire.

With the New York Philharmonic, La Diva has performed the Mozart Requiem, Pulcinella, and Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. With the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Ms Jones’ “sexy and rich voice” was heard in El Amor Brujo, and as soloist in “A Child of Our Time” by Sir Michael Tippett. Other highlights of the versatile mezzo-soprano’s career have been: Mahler’s 8th Symphony with the Israeli Philharmonic; Seven Popular Spanish Songs with the Philadelphia Orchestra and Los Angeles Philharmonic, “DesKnaben Wunderhorn” with the Cleveland Orchestra; the Verdi Requiem with the San Antonio Symphony, and “Scheherazade” with the Delaware Symphony.

Some of the eminent Maestros with whom she has worked include Zubin Mehta, Erich Leinsdorf, Rafael Frubeck de Burgos, Jesus Lopez-Cobos, Charles Dutoit, and Claudio Abbado, who discovered her while she was still in college.

“La Diva” received exceptional training at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. As a student, she was awarded grants from the Rockefeller Foundation, the Institute of International Education, Montreal International Concours, and the Philadelphia Orchestra competition. The ingenue further garnered praises from the Curtis faculty. A highlight at Curtis was a special tribute to Leopold Stokowski, which Ms Jones performed for his family visiting from Switzerland.

One of Ms. Diva’s joys is Bach! As a soloist touring with The Bach Aria Group, she has given riveting performances of “The Saint Matthew Passion.”

Ms. Jones is also hailed for performances on Broadway, television, off-Broadway and Indie films. Born into a family of wonderful singers and the Baptist church, Jazz and R&B music styles come easily to Diva. Her collaborations with John and Johnathan Blake, jazz violin, and drums will soon be heard on a self-titled CD.

Finally, “La Diva” is a dedicated Whole and Raw Food chef having studied under the famed Ann Wigmore Institute. "Let’s keep our bodies graced for those pear-shaped tones”!

Yelena Kurdina

Extraordinary pianist, recitalist, coach, prompter and assistant conductor, Yelena Kurdina is among the most sought after collaborators in the opera world today. A specialist in Russian and Slavic repertoire at The Metropolitan Opera for over a decade, Ms. Kurdina became Placido Domingo's private coach for his preparation of "one of the most important roles of his career," Ghermann in Tchaikovsky's "Queen of Spades". Yelena was the coach and consultant for Renee Fleming's recordings of "Night Songs" and "Homage: The Age of the Diva", as well as her televised appearance as Tatiana in "Eugene Onegin" with the New York Philharmonic on PBS' Great Performances and later on the Met HD telecast. Ms.Kurdina's recitals with the remarkable Dmitri Hvorostovsky, have been called "rich and haunting collaborations, beautifully judged and impeccably ardent."

Hailing originally from St. Petersburg, Russia, Ms. Kurdina has been no stranger to the leading international opera houses, where she has brought her distinguished musicianship to such renowned festivals and opera houses as the Opera National de Paris, Houston Grand Opera, Saito Kinen Festival in Japan, Summerscape in the new Frank Gehry theater at Bard College, Teatro de la Maestranza in Sevilla, Spain and the National Symphony Orchestra and Washington National Opera in Washington, DC. Ms. Kurdina has been the assistant to a host of extraordinary conductors -- Seiji Ozawa, Vladimir Jurowski, James Conlon, Valery Gergiev, among others -- with whom she has worked not only on Russian operas, but also on many Italian operas, as well. Among the highlights of her operatic career are Verdi's "Otello" and "Don Carlo," Tchaikovsky's "Queen of Spades," Shostakovich's "Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk" and Prokofiev's "Gambler" and "War and Peace."

The Mother-Daughter Journey: Living, Loving & Learning | Bonnie Goldstein and Loren Judaken

Saturday 8 pm

Men and Women in Relationship - She Said, He Heard

Sunday 2 pm

The Mother-Daughter Journey - Living, Loving and Learning

Monday 2 pm

To Sleep, Perchance to Dream - Calming the Body, Quieting the Mind

Tuesday 2 pm

Designing a Life - A Workshop on Dreams and Goals

Wednesday 2 pm

The Mother-Daughter Journey - Mind, Body and Soul

This interactive workshop explores the dynamics of mother-daughter relationships in manifold ways. Drawing upon a relational based/attachment informed view of the mother-daughter bond, group discussion, mindfulness exercises, soulful writings, music and movement open this mother's day week at Rancho La Puerta.

Dr. Bonnie Goldstein holds dual licenses in the state of California in Psychology and Social Work, completed her B.A. MSW, and Ph.D. at UCLA, her Ed.M. at Harvard University, and teaches graduate students at USC's School of Social Work. She lectures internationally, integrating traditional psychodynamic psychotherapy with progressive psychotherapeutic interventions such as Sensorimotor Psychotherapy, hypnosis, mindfulness exercises and EMDR. Her work aims to help foster and heal relationships through the lens of attachment theory, somatic and mindful awareness, and the dynamic interaction of group process. She is certified in Sensorimotor Psychotherapy and is the Southern California coordinator of the Sensorimotor Psychotherapy Institute's Trauma, Developmental/Attachment, and Certification trainings.

Loren Judaken studied both Interpersonal Communication and Environmental and Interior Design at UCLA. She has spoken extensively within the non-profit community and specializes in leading workshops to help people design the life they most want to live. Loren incorporates creativity into her exploration of psychological, sociological, and environmental effects on individuals, families and relationships.