After traveling the world for various creative pursuits, Ed York, 41, a former Marine, linguist, musician, and movement arts professional, has returned to his hometown of Memphis. He now teaches aerial straps and yoga at High Expectations and Bendy Beast, and offers personal training and assisted stretching at DeSoto Athletic Club.
“Throughout my life, I have always had different artistic outlets,” Ed recalls, “and anything I’ve been passionate about or enjoyed, I’ve tried to find opportunities to teach it to others. I like passing the flame from one person to the next and seeing what direction they take.”
No sooner did Ed pick up the saxophone, bassoon, and percussion in high school as part of the band than he began tutoring his peers in various instruments and even mathematics. So naturally, after deploying to the Philippines in the Marine Corps, Ed found himself teaching Arabic, having only recently picked up the language himself. Later, after rising through the ranks, he led other Marines through workouts and “combat” yoga sessions in uniform at the barracks.
“Since I was responsible for their fitness, I tried to learn as much as I could about diet and exercise, as well as stretching to relieve my own sciatic pain,” he explains.
That interest led Ed to trade a future in Signals Intelligence and a nine-year career in the Marines for a yoga teacher training program in Goa, India.
Ed eventually returned stateside to Los Angeles to pursue a college degree in music therapy. There, he taught yoga, spin, and row classes, and led gang-reduction drum circles as part of his senior capstone project.
“I got to blend my fitness experience with the breathwork I learned through yoga,” he reflects, but he felt that creative expression was missing from his life.
Around that time, Ed discovered Los Angeles’ thriving acro-yoga scene, which blends yoga and partner acrobatics, and fell in love. That hobby eventually led him to aerial circus and aerial yoga. “It became my creative outlet,” he says. He was soon recruited to coach flexibility and aerial arts at that same studio.
Now back in his home state of Tennessee, Ed balances mornings as a personal trainer and stretch coach at DeSoto Athletic Club, and evenings spent teaching at High Expectation and Bendy Beast. In between it all, he still manages to clock a few strength training workouts of his own each week, along with aerial training for upcoming shows: High Expectations’ haunted house-themed show on October 23 & 24, and Solace Awakening at Off the Wall Arts show November 14 at 8 p.m. & 15 at 2 p.m., where he will perform in five acts.
“It’s a delicate balance, but I try to keep it fun,” he explains.
His advice? “Try to stay open to unexpected opportunities. If you put out what you are passionate about, the right people will come into your life, and you will be able to follow your passion without it feeling like work.”
By Shlomit Cohen
Photo by Tindall Stephens
