Photo by Krista Bonura @ https://Kristabonura.com
Photo by Krista Bonura @ https://Kristabonura.com
About
Greetings! I’m Neil Patrick O’Toole. Colorado born and raised. I’ve been a public school educator for over a decade, a photographer for 15 years, studied yoga for over 15 years and Chinese Martial Arts for over a decade.
It has been a privilege to study under the guidance of Yogis Dominique Bolish, Krista Bonura, and Kat Lloyd, and Sifu James McIntire. I’m a Registered Yoga Teacher (RYT) with Yoga Alliance, which acknowledges the completion of a yoga teacher training with a Registered Yoga School (RYS), and have additionally completed the 60 hour Hot Yoga Training.
It is through the practice of mediation, breath, movement, photography and music that I hope to bring a sense of fun and wellbeing into classes. Each practitioner should leave with a deeper understanding of self and connection with their being in space.
Lineage
The importance of lineage in
Chinese Martial Arts
Many styles of Chinese Martial Arts have been popularized by the media. Hundreds of styles exist and were developed based on different geographic locations, families, religious classifications, and internal/external style. Many of these were done in secret in order to protect the practitioner’s lives following political/dynasty change or cultural revolution. Pop Culture is full of stories (both fact, fiction, and a little bit of both) regarding history, lineage and origin of styles. While sanctioning bodies do exist, there is no regulated governing organization for all Chinese Martial Arts to ensure that instructors of styles are properly qualified or certified.
In order to verify that someone is teaching authentic, safe, and knowledgeable Chinese Martial Arts you must look at their lineage. Keep in mind that within every line of a lineage, almost every single teacher taught many more than one single student and most individual students studied different styles. It is important, though, to understand that traditional masters have been very careful about who they choose to carry on their teachings to the next generation. It is an honor to have learned Martial Arts through this lineage and be trusted to continue to pass this to future practitioners.