Yoga in Easterhouse Glasgow

“David Sye is as calm and laid back as the sky is quiet and grey over Glasgow’s east end. But inside the 48-year-old is a bundle of energy as colourful as the spray-painted walls of the run-down youth halls. Now he hopes to energise young people with his unique Yoga style and inspire a city to back plans for a new youth centre. David is showing the same drive and appreciation for the Easterhouse neighbourhood as his late father, crooner Frankie Vaughan, did 40 years ago.
   Frankie’s commitment to the area and to convincing youngsters to put down their weapons is still legendary in Glasgow. So when his son recently decided to follow in his father’s footsteps, it was big news. But where Frankie used his singing skills to raise funds for The Easterhouse Project in the 1960s, David will use Yoga to start the ball rolling for the rebuilding of the youth centre.
   David visited Easterhouse in November for the first time since he was a child accompanying his dad, but now plans to return in February for a massive Yoga disco in Glasgow. Organisers hope it will focus attention on the new Easterhouse project and start to bring in funding. “ I use Yoga to take people from p…ed to blissed,” said David. “I hope to give young people of Easterhouse a high.” What I do now is because of my father. I saw the way he would care for people. I hope he would be proud of me coming back. The young people here need a centre, a place with facilities for young people to hang out. There are extraordinary talented young people here."
   David Sye has been teaching Yoga for 24 years since he tried Tibetan Yoga in response to health problems. When he worked as a radio journalist in the former Yugoslavia in 1990, David taught Yoga in Belgrade, in the middle of the war. He began teaching using music to drown out the conflict, and Yogabeats was born. Since then, he has demonstrated the style, which brings together techno, salsa and rock with classical Yoga postures, on MTV and the Paul O’Grady Show, and worked with everyone from Brixton gangs to bringing together Israeli and Palestinian youths.
   He demonstrated some Yoga to youths and community activists on his November visit, but hopes to inspire even more people in February, just as his dad once did. Frankie Vaughan played peacemaker in the summer of 1968 as the rival ‘Drummie’, ‘Pak’, ‘Rebel’ and ‘Toi’ gangs fought each other with swords, bayonets, hammers and meat cleavers...”

   Written by Tristan Stewart-Robertson, the article continues to outline the history of the Projects. More information on the Phoenix Project and the February show is available on the website www.yogabeats.com.