Tenthgate Yoga & Dance

HOWARD DAVIS

(Sat Kartar Singh)

I was born on the longest day of the year, on the cusp between Cancer and Gemini, and grew up in London during the 1960s and '70s, the son of a journalist and stage magician.  When I was fourteen, I discovered BKS Iyengar's 'Light On Yoga' and since then I've continued to explore a variety of spiritual paths illuminated by many others, including Swami Vivekananda, Aldous Huxley, Paramahansa Yogananda, Jack Kerouac, Christopher Isherwood, Alan Watts, Andrew Harvey, and George Harrison.

After twice criss-crossing the continental United States by Greyhound bus and hitch-hiking, I achieved both BA (Hons) and MA degrees in English Literature at Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge University, studying under JH Prynne, Britain's foremost modernist poet.

In 1979, I moved to Los Angeles and gained an MA and PhD (abd) in Film and Television Studies from UCLA.  I worked briefly in television advertising - writing, producing, and editing nationally-syndicated, supermarket commercials - before being admitted to the Editor's Guild as an assistant editor on my first feature film - La Bamba.

After a fifteen-year career assisting many of the top directors and editors in Hollywood and working on such multi-million dollar movies as Ghostbusters 2, Seven,The Rock, and Air Force One, I became a certified Level I kundalini yoga teacher.  Having concluded a Level II module in Conscious Communication with Yogi Bhajan in Espanola, New Mexico, I decided the time had come to realign my priorities and become a professional yoga instructor.

Working both for community organizations like the YMCA, as well as in such corporate settings as the LA Times, the LA DWP, and Fox Studios, I expanded my healing practice to include ashtanga and hatha yoga, reflexology, and gong therapy. Helping seniors and children discover the joy of yoga has deepened my own appreciation of its uniquely transformative and beneficial power.

Fascinated for many years by esoteric Eastern philosophy from Taoism to Tantrism, I have continued to develop my personal sadhana ('spiritual practice') under the instruction of Guru Prem Singh Khalsa at Yoga West, Eric Schiffman at Exhale, and Abbot Tenshin Fletcher at the Zen Mountain Center near Idyllwild - and not forgetting the constant encouragement, inspiration, and lessons in patience provided by my teenage son, Maxwell.