30 October - 1 November 2026
Lucy Crawford has been teaching Ashtanga yoga since 1995. Before that, she spent five years as a massage therapist, and that grounding in hands-on bodywork has shaped everything about the way she teaches - attentive, precise and deeply attuned to the individual in front of her.
This is Lucy's fourth visit to Merchant City Yoga, and this year we're doing things differently. We're offering just one Mysore style practice group and keeping it to a maximum of ten people - just like a semi-private - which means more time with Lucy, more personal attention and a genuinely different quality of experience.
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Assisted Self Practice
Saturday 31 October 9am-12pm & Sunday 1 November 9am-12pm
Maximum 10 participants
Each morning begins with a focused hour working on specific areas of the body – refining movement patterns, exploring particular asanas and building the groundwork for what follows including some positional release and self fascial release techniques. You'll then move into self practice, with Lucy there to observe, assist and offer you individual guidance.
This is where the small group size really matters. In a room of ten, Lucy can give the kind of hands-on attention and personal input that simply isn't possible in a larger setting. And that quality of skilled, experienced assistance is something you rarely get access to.
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Workshops
Lucy’s opening her workshops up to a larger group and offering a more traditional counted format where everyone in the room moves through the sequence together, in the established Ashtanga style.
Workshop 1 | Ashtanga Counted Primary Series
Friday 30 October, 6.30-8.30pm
Workshop 2 | Ashtanga Counted Intermediate Series
Saturday 31 October, 2-4pm
Lucy will offer variations and alternative poses throughout so that you can stay with the flow of the practice no matter what stage you’re at.
Practising a counted series with a teacher of Lucy's experience is its own kind of rare opportunity. The counted method is central to how Ashtanga has traditionally been taught, and having it led by Lucy brings a depth and authenticity that's hard to find.
By opening these sessions to a larger group, Lucy's making it possible for more of you to share that experience with her across the weekend.
**For Saturday’s Counted Intermediate session: this workshop is open to everyone as an introduction to, and taster of, the intermediate series from a fascial balancing point of view. Many of the asana in the intermediate series are not ‘more difficult’ but simply focus on strengthening the back of the body and stretching the front of the body. Lucy will include lots of variations and alternatives to help you explore the asana in practice - with curiosity and enjoyment as opposed to ‘achievement’.
Two days. Limited places. A teacher whose experience is genuinely rare.
If you've been practising Ashtanga for a while and want to go deeper - in your practice, in your understanding of your own body and in the quality of attention you bring to both - this is a special opportunity.
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Costs
Price for 2 Days of Ashtanga Yoga Mysore PLUS Workshops 1 & 2 £199
(To book with this discount please email judi@merchantcityyoga.com)
2 Days of Ashtanga Yoga Mysore (3 hours per day) £119 - BOOK NOW
Workshop Costs
Workshops 1 & 2 £99 - BOOK NOW
Individual Workshop 1 £59 - BOOK NOW
Individual Workshop 2 £59 - BOOK NOW
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About Lucy
Years of experience in holistic bodywork and ashtanga yoga define Lucy’s gentle and profound energy when teaching.
Her interest in a more holistic approach to life started in 1990 working as a massage therapist and aromatherapist in London. On her way to work one day she spotted a long line of people queuing down the road with yoga mats to get into an adjacent building. It was the hugely popular Derek Ireland and Radha Warrell visiting London to teach an Ashtanga workshop!
Lucy joined them and began her Ashtanga journey. She was hooked and soon travelled to Mysore, India to begin her studies with Sri K. Pattabhi Jois, and in 1995 was authorised to teach.
The same year she started a family with John Scott whom she met on her first trip to Mysore.
Lucy also collaborated on the book Ashtanga Yoga with Lino Miele, the first of its kind to lay out the sequences and vinyasa count that are so much part of ashtanga yoga.
Lucy’s based in Devon and leads Ashtanga workshops in the UK and internationally.