House of Ashtanga

House of Ashtanga With over 20 years experience practicing and teaching, Dan Burt’s House of Ashtanga runs classes run 4 times a week - drop in or call Dan for further info.

Known for his hands-on adjustment technique, Dan teaches workshops to yoga students as well as training other ashtanga yoga teachers throughout England and Europe, but can usually be found teaching regular classes throughout the week in Newcastle upon Tyne. Central to the House of Ashtanga’s success is a beautiful purpose-built yoga room situated in a peaceful area in the east end of Newcastle upo

n Tyne. Surrounded by an old woodland area, the yoga room oozes tranquility and a calm healing energy. Many students find their yoga practice transformed by this wonderful atmosphere. Extra special thanks to Nancy Gilgoff for her continued support and sheer dedication to sharing this yoga. Huge thanks to Beryl Bender Birch and David Swenson for teaching the practice, and Mark Ansari and Nancy Gilgoff for their wonderful adjustment techniques. Dan has also been incredibly fortunate to have had the helping hands of some fantastic assistants. Thank you Meri Erkkilä, Steph Meysner, Wei Wei and Mileva.

The next time you step onto the mat, before you begin practice, notice that there is a sense that nothing needs to happe...
06/09/2026

The next time you step onto the mat, before you begin practice, notice that there is a sense that nothing needs to happen. It may be quite subtle. You can fall back into that sense, or feeling. Notice that nothing is really being asked of you. Nothing is required to in order to make this more of what this already is. Notice that you cannot ‘do more’ of already this. Practice may or may not arise. Nothing changed

This is the basis of intentionless practice. It is feeling in to that neutral space. Spaciousness, prior to any action

From that borderless, seamless field, Śūnyatā, practice can then happen in true authenticity; lighter and freer than before




29/08/2026

Saturday vibes…. Things kinda escalated in the editing studio. But this is pretty close to what it looks like from here 🤩

On patrol: 🫡

Back in the heady days of Netscape Navigator when I was just starting my yoga practice I was in unfathomable pain - ther...
27/08/2026

Back in the heady days of Netscape Navigator when I was just starting my yoga practice I was in unfathomable pain - there is no way I could ever fully explain or measure the extent of it. Like Bane from ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ my practice was born in the dark!

There was no social media, no proper internet, teachers were thin on the ground as I struggled to tutor myself. Any help seemed 7000 miles away. Sweat, blood and tears were a daily ritual

The only resource I found was an online EZboard forum dedicated to ashtanga yoga. Around 2008 that forum shut down as people migrated to Facebook, Instagram and Reddit. EZboard did shift to Yuku and eventually Tapatalk where you can still find the archived posts from that original board. Some going as far back as 2001

That original EZboard kept me in the game. I digested everything I could find. It kept me connected, informed and gave me a lifeline. The stories about Lino Miele and the crucible of pain that he experienced seemed to mirror my ordeal.

But out of everything that I read there was one message, one slogan that stood out. It became a battlecry for me:

“What’s the alternative?”

Show me the alternative? I had tried everything to fix this sorry body and nothing worked, so I was at rock bottom. There was nowhere else to move. I was trapped. Again:

“What’s the alternative?”

This stuck with me and has done ever since. There is no alternative. You do the practice. You do the series. You continue. However you can. It might not look or feel pretty. It might be modified

But, you show up

I will show you what the alternative looks like:

It looks like pain, forever. It feels like psychological suffering. It is regret, sorrow. It looks like not moving or engaging. It looks like falling into a continuous pattern of poor health. It looks like not meeting THIS head on and facing it. It looks like not opening up your arms and welcoming vulnerability. It looks like not opening up your heart and expanding your horizons, not meeting beautiful people, not exploring the planet, not being part of a community of wonderful yogis, not being curiously, passionately in love with life.

Nope. Not for me!

One of the best things about my teacher, Nancy Gilgoff, was a total absence of the notion of improving. Throughout all t...
18/08/2026

One of the best things about my teacher, Nancy Gilgoff, was a total absence of the notion of improving. Throughout all the years of working with her there was never the suggestion that anyone had to get better at yoga, to progress, to break down a pose, “getting” the asana, to do drills (for what?), to succeed!

Think about how silly this sentence is: “I’m going to do better yoga”

No intention to excel. No mastery. No intention to be the triumphant one

The practice was just laid bare and there you have it - “here’s the practice”

When I assisted her in workshops and teacher trainings, the only trace of intention was the simple words she would whisper to me when discussing a student: “there is some healing to happen here”

In that, the sting, the weight and the heaviness of a practice just evaporates and we are left in an open, playful field

No goal. No end-game

We just show up, we turn up. Or better said: this (whatever is happening) simply shows up like ‘this’. It just turns up this way

This taps into the very core essence of what yoga is pointing towards. And yet, almost no one is sharing the practice from this positionless position

For me, this is the foundation from which all teaching or sharing springs from. The core message, thus, is that this is it already. What happens thereafter is just an expression or celebration. Its home




14/08/2026

Channeling some raw Maui humidity tonight - incredible energy 🙏

02/08/2026
31/07/2026

Björk said something similar once. When I say love I don’t mean that kind of personal love that happens between people, things, objects. It is something prior to that in which all of the aforementioned appears to arise. It is fundamental. And within it anything can appear to happen. Because of that, it is unconditional. The only unconditional love there is. It is not conditional upon anyone practicing yoga…. or not. If there is any teaching happening here, then this is the only yoga I teach. And it is a silent message. It is done already. It is the home that never left. In that, any sense of “you” can dissolve. It is still ok to use the word “you” though 😉

To quote Rumi - “when I say the word you I mean a hundred universes”

Maybe not from the sources
You have poured yours
Maybe not from the directions
You are staring at

Twist your head around
It’s all around you
All is full of love
All around you

29/07/2026

❤️ love ❤️

25/07/2026

Sweet Saturdays, with

Address

Hoylake Avenue
Newcastle Upon Tyne
NE77UN

Opening Hours

Tuesday 6:30pm - 8pm
Friday 6:30pm - 8pm
Saturday 10am - 12pm
Sunday 5pm - 6:30pm

Telephone

+447906639433

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