NEW ORDER: Former Hacienda DJ Matt Ryan on finding Zen in Deal, Kent
Ashtanga Yoga pro on his beginnings, discovering the ‘source’ & following the sequence
A one-time DJ at the world-famous Hacienda club in Manchester, Matt Ryan has spent the last 20 years travelling the world teaching yoga. Touching down in Deal, Matt opened the Ashtanga Yoga studio in October last year.
Positioned in Beach Street above The Blue Pelican, the studio has quickly become a space for people to come and take a break from twisting their melons under the guidance of Matt, who has taught international rockstars, celebrities and Premier League footballers alike in LA, London and Manchester.
But the story starts in India House on Whitworth Street in Manchester with Matt’s friend Paul Cons – who just so happened to be a key figure at Tony Wilson’s iconic nightclub.
“He lived upstairs and he was my friend, you know,” says Matt. “He just got me in, you know, it’s not what you know, it’s who you know.”
Apart from being the hangout for the who’s who of the ‘Madchester’ scene in the 90s, the Hacienda was also a key part in a lifestyle in which Matt became entrenched.
“Like lots of people, I got caught up in the whole thing. Nightclubs, house music, ecstasy. And I burned myself out, partying too hard. I didn’t know where to stop until eventually I kind of had this bit of a breakdown, really. I was at a stage where I was trying to just recuperate from all that physically and mentally – and yoga was just something that someone suggested.”
“So I hung up the headphones and headed off to India for two months”
In the late 90s and early 2000s, yoga was not the city, town and village hall mainstay that it is today.
“I went along to a class and I hated it – it was brutal, it was harder than anything I’d done,” says Matt. “And then I went back and just kept going back. And I don’t know why, but I just did. I found that it was bringing my whole anxiety disorder down to a level that was manageable.
“Being a Pisces, we were all in or all out. So I hung up the headphones and headed off to India for two months.”
Matt went to Mysore in south India to discover the ‘source’ of Ashtanga yoga to learn from the best.
“The teacher, who’s passed away now, was still teaching at that point and I went to his school to learn from him,” recalls Matt. “I’ve made about 10 trips over the past 25 years. It was important for me to go because it has given me some sense of breathing space physically and mentally. I believe in this because it’s fucking working. All my friends thought I’d fucking lost it.
“And when I got back from India, I was, like, ‘Right, what do I do now?’. I knew I didn’t want to go back into nightclubs, I’d had enough of that life, so I set up a class to see where that goes.”
So, what is Ashtanga yoga specifically? Well, in layman’s terms the difference between Ashtanga and Vinyasa – which is what a large majority of yoga classes in the West teach – is the pattern of moves. Vinyasa is a more fluid version, while Ashtanga focuses on a more specific sequence.
“What I liked most about it was the set sequence,” says Matt. “It was this discipline that I had to commit myself to, which, when I first started, was really important. I was trying to fix my mind as much as my body. So knowing what came next became this moving meditation. Like a formula.”
Ashtanga is as much about the mind as the body, explains Matt.
“You have these certain breathing techniques that you use during your sequence. So you’ve got this breathing practice, you’re doing the postures, you know what’s coming next. It’s very concentrated.”
Matt’s own classes have been adapted to fit the level of those attending, to improve flexibility and strength but also concentration.
“Every class finishes with this Zen sitting,” he says. “It’s like the yoga postures prepare us to sit still.
“It’s a little bit less tangible than yoga postures. Because you can do yoga practice and you can see your toes, but you can’t actually touch them, but a couple of weeks in you can get near them, then you’re touching. You can see the physical benefit. When you come and you sit in Zen every day, it’s not apparent at first what you’re trying to do or what you’re trying to get. But slowly, slowly, you kind of get it – it takes regular practice.”
Having moved to LA a decade ago and finding himself in a world of teaching high-profile characters – including almost teaching Ozzy Osbourne in a series of ridiculous circumstances (ask Matt) – he and his family returned to the UK during lockdown and made the move to Kent. His impressive poses have seen Matt star in TV shows like 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown and even in an advert for mobile network EE – he has also been seen in position atop the beachside shelter on the junction of Beach Street and Farrier Street.
“I love Deal,” says Matt. “I get six to eight people in my studio here for two or three classes a day. The sea is at the end of the road and I get to go in every day. I absolutely love it here.”
INFO: ashtangayogadeal.co.uk
