About Madeleine Rommel
Biography
Madeleine is the first name that was given to me at birth.
Yet I was not called Madeleine until I was 30 years old.
This change of name has been for me a rebirth… an opening to new potential.
Mad is not a diminutive: rather a common, concentrated form of the two given names, Mady, Madeleine.
The African bush
Ever since childhood, in the African bush, or on the 5th floor of the paternal building avenue de Tervuren, through mischief, discoveries, dangers, the permitted, the forbidden, the hidden, the “in between the lines”,… what interests me is the unseen, the other side of things, their secret language, their wink… that weave life and gives it its spice , its flavor,… its full dimension and its mystery.
Waulsort-sur-Meuse
After the African bush and Tervuren Avenue, the small village of Waulsort-sur-Meuse… 100 m from the river, 100 m from the woods. I arrive there at 8 years old. The school in Dinant and the trips in the little Micheline, or later by bike for the pleasure of seeing the rocks of Freyr in the morning mist… and having a moment of solitude… no luxury in a brotherhood of 5!
Photography...
Dad often makes us pose in front of his lens, which I hate! But photography intrigues and attracts me; I ask for my first camera for my birthday. Then I save money to buy the materials to print my pictures in my darkened room.
... and journalism
For the pleasure of writing and photography, a bachelor’s degree in journalism at IHECS in Tournai. Technical thesis in photography: London by Pubs (a visit of London through the atmosphere of its pubs); Theoretical thesis on Feminine and Feminist Press in French-speaking Belgium.
Then first jobs in the associative, social and cultural press, in Brussels.
Massage
I started massage in 1983, following the death of my mother, realizing with shock the impotence and blindness in the face of the disease. Screens and paper no longer interest me. I’m going to take a first course in Health Care Massage in London and, in my suitcase back, I’m taking my massage table to Brussels; yet, when I’m massaging, too many questions remain unanswered…
Ashtanga Yoga...
A few years later, I am trained in Psycho-Energetic Massages, then in Ashtanga Yoga (with JC Garnier) and, in parallel, physiotherapy studies in the evening at the Institut Libre de Bruxelles — Charles Hubert Strainchamps.
I begin to travel to India, first in Mysore to delightfully follow the teaching of Guruji, Shri K. Pattabhi Jois, who gives me the desire to carry out my thesis there, in 1992: “Yoga Korunta and Physiotherapy”… Ashtanga Yoga being Yoga Korunta, originally.
Over these few years, Ashtanga Yoga and Kinesitherapy clearly appear to me to have a common base, which I dig and analyze to extract the unsuspected therapeutic aspects of the Ashtanga method.
Every situation teaches me more about Yoga, about the Human, about myself and this passion on which my life is focused…
... and The Physiotherapy Center
A few years in different physiotherapy practices, at the Institut de beauté Irène Kessler, at the Centre John Harris Fitness at Château du Lac, before creating my own space, avenue Henri Jaspar 89… a few meters from the Clinic Antoine Depage… created by my grandfather, Henri Depage, in tribute to his father. Two friends/colleagues join my project. On the first floor, three physio cabinets and, on the mezzanine floor, a “Fitness Space” for Yoga, gentle gymnastics and wellness massage.
I’m living at full speed: it’s perfect bliss for me!
Maternity and new life: birth and rebirth...
In 2002, the building is sold, which ends the Physiotherapy Centre.
At that time, my daughter is two years old.
I begin to question the life “on the fast lane” that I have lived until then… Sabbatical period, fallow… or chrysalis… during which my life is transformed in spite of myself, first by meeting Yumma Mudra (Myriam Szabo) and by participating in the Danza Duende project; then by resuming Ashtanga Yoga classes, notably during internships with John Scott.
Beginning of a return to roots that combines experience and knowledge into an intuitive, creative, living consciousness. This new consciousness, which is awakening, is the basis of my current work and the creation of new “Preventive Yoga” courses, both individually and in groups.
The belliconⓇ soft canvas mini trampoline
In 2016, I discovered (during an ayurvedic cure!) , the mini bellicon trampoline with soft fabric: this experience reminded me of the pleasure of playing, jumping, adapting to instability… the joy of childhood, the letting go of spontaneous movements, the relation to gravity and the response of the canvas, the connection with the psyche, the unconscious, which awakens intuition.
I have integrated this new practice into my Yoga and Health Prevention activities and explore this through breathing, balance, the challenge of coordination and rhythm, body consciousness… in a global, dynamic, preventive approach that, like Ashtanga Yoga, connects the body and frees the mind.
Yoga and Health Prevention
In recent years, I have deepened my practice and research on Yoga and Health Prevention by opening myself to other teachers, methods, or ways of practicing:
– at the Miami Life Center of Kino MacGregor (Ashtanga with Yanni De Melo);
– at Purple Valley — Goa and in Yoga In Salento – Italie (Ashtanga with John Scott);
– at 8 Limbs Yoga — Seattle (Hatha Flow, Vinyasa Flow, Yoga Nidra, Yoga, Yoga Nidra, Yoga Restorative Yoga),
– at House of Yoga and Zen (Ashtanga with Nancy Gilgoff) — Maui / Hawaii,
– in Sydney, Hot Yoga & Pilates, and in Byron Bay (Ashtanga and Hatha Yoga),
– in Ladakh, Hatha Yoga, Meditation, Yoga Nidra and Mindfulness, with Sandrine Rauter.
It was a true revelation for me learning chanting mantras with Shantala Shriramaiah, first in one to one, then in a group in the room, and since 2020 in an online group: the vibration of the mantras accompanies me now in my own practice, in my classes, and in my daily life, as a Presence that has taken up residence in my h e a r t.
Every situation has become transcendent, leading me to dig into myself, to question my knowledge, my beliefs, my choices, my habits… to approach more in depth The Human being still in the making… who resides in me, like in each of us.
Every situation has become transcendent, leading me to dig into myself, to question my knowledge, my beliefs, my choices, my habits… to approach more in depth The Human being still in the making… who resides in me, like in each of us.
