If you have ever practiced near our January Student Ambassador Dan Schwarzlose, you probably saw his ever-present smile first, and the kindness with which he greets everyone. And then, likely noticed his left arm is shorter than his right and his left hand is not a standard shape, a congenital condition with which Dan has navigated his whole life without considering it a disability. When you see him practice, there is nothing “dis” about his ability.
“I always feel like the coolest thing about all of us is, you don’t know what people are dealing with,” Dan said. “People look at me and think, it’s he’s concerned about his left hand, his left arm. But no, it’s really my right shoulder. My right shoulder is 102 years old because it’s done twice the work as the other one. If you asked me my biggest concern it would be my right shoulder and my ankles. And you would never know that. Everybody else has the same thing. It’s like, what is their thing that is invisible? We are all icebergs and 80 percent of the iceberg is below the surface.”
So while Dan uses props and modifications to support his practice — which includes Hot 26 as well as Flow and Yin and Restore — he is also wondering what you’re working through underneath it all. “It’s really practicing with others that’s so important. to have that community. I have enjoyed the people I meet but I always think about the people I haven’t met. I wonder, what’s the story with that person? What are they working with, what are they working through? We’re all being brave in there.”
Dan began his practice 20 years ago, in free lunchtime yoga classes while he worked for a non-profit in Chicago. He moved to Cambodia and lived there from 2009-2012. Helped musicians in that country preserve their cultural heritage through songs that were only passed down person to person, teacher to student. He met his wife there. After working for Northwestern’s medical school in alumni relations and development for several years, he used the Covid shutdown to move to Asheville in 2020 and found his new home, as well as his yoga home at Hot Yoga Asheville.
Dan talks more of his fascinating life story, most of which lies hidden below the surface:
HYA: How did you come to Hot Yoga Asheville?
Dan: I moved here in November 2020 during the pandemic. I didn’t know anyone here, so it was a big risk. I really wanted a hot yoga practice but I didn’t feel safe. I was practicing at home with a heat lamp, taking online classes. But one day I felt comfortable enough to come. A teacher in Chicago told me about Will Jones. One day I came in and it was my first day here, with a mask. I knew I wanted to have a community here. I was working remotely for Northwestern University and when they reopened in fall 2021 and said I had to come back, I quit.
HYA: How did you come to live in Cambodia?
Dan: I have a great friend named Ethan, a journalist, who worked for the Cambodia Daily. He would come back at the holidays and he said you have to come to Cambodia. I went and learned about the genocide there. In 1975 before the Khmer Rouge, Cambodia had 8 million people and four years later there were 6 million. They killed a quarter of their population. I learned they killed almost all the artists, all the musicians because creative people were a threat to the regime. I learned that music was all aurally transmitted. It’s not written down. They don’t read and write music. It gets taught note to note from the master to the student. I was like, we’ve got to transcribe these songs. These masters, there are very few of them left and there was this organization called Cambodian Living Arts that hired some of the few remaining master musicians who survived the genocide to teach young people. I volunteered to shoot and edit video. I interviewed the masters and transcribed the songs. Then I taught them to read and write music. And that’s how I met my wife. That was 2009.
We had our wedding in 2017 in Cambodia and immediately filed the paperwork for her visa to come here as a permanent resident. And it took over two years for them to process it. I booked a flight to Cambodia to accompany her here: March 11, 2020, the day before everything changed. We landed in the U.S. and thank God she was with me as an American citizen. They were sending people back. My friend picked us up and said Trump just closed Europe. You got here just in time.
HYA: You started your yoga practice with Vinyasa and then found Hot 26. Talk about what those practices have been like, the modifications you have engineered in each one.
Dan: Vinyasa being my first introduction to yoga it was more of a challenge at first and definitely something I was more conscious of because I was very different. But for the most part it was like, a block or two blocks and different things. Learning to do it safely and build some strength. That’s hard. I would say Hot 26 is almost more like creative problem-solving. Having to make my own strap, for example, creating it so I can grab something. In one of my first Hot 26 classes in Chicago I had an instructor say, ‘We don’t use props in here.’ I’m like dude, your two arms are the same length. You’re saying this to me in my third class. I’m like, I’m going to be in the back doing what I need to do.
HYA: What are the benefits of diversifying your practice and what’s your favorite class?
Dan: Yin is actually my favorite. You wouldn’t normally peg a Hot 26er for that but that’s my thing. I like to come to all of them. Power Flow is a little too fast for me, but everything else is great. I think you should have a diverse practice. You should be challenged in lots of different ways. Something in one class is going to help you in another class.
