Marya performs with the Mystic Paper Beasts Theater Company
Marya Ursin, visiting dance instructor, has sufficiently impressed me with her exciting, beautiful and devastating experiences. Where shall I begin? Perhaps with her mask theater company called Mystic Paper Beasts, with her love of pottery painting, or with her mime training in Paris?
Born in New York City, Ursin has moved a total of forty-one times and has pursued a wide range of occupations. Originally trained as a dancer, Ursin performed professionally in a variety of dance companies for thirteen years, citing Merce Cunningham as her mentor. Ursin has taught yoga at Connecticut College for twenty-five years, an interest that she developed when one of her dance teachers used yoga as a warm-up activity.
“I got into yoga when I was 19,” said Ursin. “Back then, there were only two yoga spaces in New York City.” Midway through college, Ursin became interested in the art of miming and left school to be trained in France. Although she returned home one semester later, she was invited back to continue her studies in miming, which she ended up turning down.
Her life has certainly not been without struggle. After dancing professionally in New York for thirteen years, Ursin broke her back and began to direct herself more toward theater and yoga than she previously had. “Yoga has been a primary agency of healing for me,” she said.
Ursin described the rough times in her life as “shadows in the past.” She made it clear, however, that she is open to discussing these experiences and that she has accepted them as just another part of life. “One of the most important things I have learned and that I think yoga has helped me to learn,” she said, “is that you get to have it all.”
The morning yoga classes that Ursin teaches at Connecticut College reflect her humble and enthusiastic personality. When I took the class last semester, I was impressed by the wide variety of yoga forms that Ursin includes. The flow of the class is relaxed, and Ursin makes an effort not to push students to do more than their bodies can or want to do. Ursin’s music ranges from soundtracks of bird calls to rhythmic chants. The last ten minutes of class are almost always dedicated to meditation and stretches, giving students the chance to relax and, if you’re lucky, to doze off. Overall, Ursin’s morning yoga class gave me fifty minutes of exactly what I need as a student: time to clear my head. With all of the stress surrounding college social and academic life, we deserve this opportunity.
I asked Ursin about her thoughts on the student body at Connecticut College. She said she appreciates her students’ willingness to participate in a 9 AM class. “People come for their own reasons, and all I hope is that they discover some strength and quiet inside.”
Teaching eight to nine classes a week makes it difficult for Ursin to find time to have her own sadhna, or daily practice. “I have found that it can be helpful for my body to take a day off from yoga, but I still do stretches daily.” She also explained that this time off is actually a part of her sadhna- it allows her body time to rest.
Ursin’s favorite yoga pose changes all the time. “I particularly enjoy half moon,” she said and jumped to her feet to demonstrate the position. She reached to the right, the right hand touching the ground, the other clutching her left foot. There I sat gaping in awe, along with 10 other students in the Oasis snack shop.
Currently, Ursin owns a hexagonal rehearsal space outside Mystic called the Dragon’s Egg, where she teaches yoga classes, rehearses with Mystic Paper Beasts and rents out the space to theater and dance groups from all over the country. “It’s even the same shape as the compartments within a beehive,” she said, giggling. “It’s my sacred circus tent.” •
