Ledger

Issue date: 6/2/06 Section: Health and Wellness

She vibrates with energy as she educates prospective teachers about diversity issues. Her own experiences color her lectures as she treats an issue often loaded with words like "militant" and "other" with humor and grace. A ready smile lights up her face.
It's a little strange to see such a professorial individual in leggings and t-shirt, but stranger still to see her buoyant energy channeled into the serene, impressively physical but fluid practice of yoga.
Annette Henry's life has coursed through multiculturalism much like breathing flows through yoga. Born and raised in England until the age of 9 - hence the accent - Henry's parents moved to Canada. She lived several places in that country, received her first degree in Linguistics and French, and then spent a year obtaining a Certificate of Teaching English as a Second Language.
Henry's first teaching assignment was at a boys' school in Jamaica. She returned to school herself after that job to complete a master's in French Literature, then earned another degree, a bachelor's in Education majoring in Music and French, secondary level.
Henry explains. "Even though my teacher education focus was secondary level, I decided to 'go elementary,' to have an understanding of the whole gamut. I taught French and music in a small Mennonite town - New Hamburg - for five years. Farming people, rural people. Nice."
Earning a doctorate was next for Henry, after which she took a job in Chicago for "adventure," never planning to stay there. However, in the academic world, projects can take years.
"Besides, it's a wonderful city if you're interested in race, language, diversity, etc. and voila, 14 years had passed."
During this passage of time, Henry's life intersected with yoga.
"I moved here mainly because of family and also because I felt there were other things for me to do elsewhere," Henry explained.
With all those achievements, here she is, a UWT Professor with multiple academic degrees and experiences, showing a novice yogi (me) how to do up a bolster for an amazingly restful opening stretch. And her voice takes on a calming, melodious tone, as she guides us through a body-invigorating, mind-soothing hour of yoga.
For me, Annette Henry's class is an hour of decompression, for my spine as well as my psyche. As strains of operatic arias mingle with new-age music and the odd bus droning by outside, I find the strains of the day, the week, even the month, slowly leave my body. We smile at each other before I leave, and as I leave the Union Yoga studio and head into traffic, I feel grateful for the hour of bliss I've just experienced.

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