
Ryan Clifford is the man behind Naked Power Yoga, whose DVD and Calendar I’ve been plugging. For those of you questioning the teasers and their yoga content, look at it the same way you look at the Dieux Du Stade calendar and DVD. Do they have actual rugby in them? No. But we still drool. The Naked Power Yoga will have lots of yoga in it and I for one, can’t wait to see it.
You’ve been practicing yoga for 12 years now, what inspired you to take up yoga?
I saw an article about madonna and sting on a yoga retreat in tuscany practising with a top astanga teacher lino miele. I found the discipine incredibly inspiring and it seemed you could have a sexuality be glamerous and be spiritually connected at the same time.
You now practice Ashtanga Yoga and have done for 8 years. Is that your preferred style of yoga and what is it about Ashtanga that you like so much?
I practiced astanga yoga for first 8 years for form. I now create the flowing sequances myself depending on my mood to not be regid but free ! I love an intense sweaty flowing yoga workouk. I need that exertion to really relax and set my focus.
How long have you been practicing nude yoga?
I started experimenting with nudity in 2007. Yoga being an activity to do this where i felt safe. It has taken until now to feel really at home in my skin. I have worked with many clients naked that it has created a real ease, joy, honesty and confidence on many levels.
Your website says “Nakedness is a way of life. Stripping back the layers finding truth and beauty at the core.”
What is it about nakedness that appeals to you?
I started experimenting with nudity in 2007. Yoga being an activity to do this where i felt safe. It has taken until now to feel really at home in my skin. I have worked with many clients naked that it has created a real ease, joy, honesty and confidence on many levels.
The trailers for your calendar and DVD suggest a fairly strong sense of sensuality and sexuality. Are you quite a sexual person?
Ok yoga for me is something that gives balence truth and expression. So i want to through my practice show that yeah im healthy, im gay, im a dad and yes very sexual person! I can mix it all up because it is my real life and not the cliche of being a yoga teacher. We make the rules up for ourselves or should !
Why do you believe people are so uptight about nudity? Do you think people are brought up to feel a lot of shame connected with sexuality?
Thats my message. People are uptight for many reasons regarding nudity, conventional ideas, religion and all these designer labels we have to have to display on our bodies for self worth.
You are the father of two boys. Would it be fair to assume you are raising them with very open ideas about nudity and sexuality?
Being a gay dad im gonna give my boys a very honest upbringing. Communication on sex. Yes appropiate nudity.
How do you teach your children about different sexuality and peoples different ideas about nudity?
When i had a boyfriend, kissing him and being tactile was the way i approached it. No issue. No shame.
Your collaborations with Peter Breen suggest quite an aesthetic eye and an appreciation of creativity. Is that an area you’ve always been drawn to?
Me and peter click. We are different but very similar ~ Sex, nudity, fashion, art, film but most important pushing boundries are our lifes passions ~ as we both get riled by hypocrisy ! We have only just begun producing work that incorporates this. I feel at last im finding and creating a formula to perform in. So no straight acting so to speak !
You look like you keep yourself very well groomed, or completely shaven. What is it about being smooth that appeals to you?
I shave almost everything it makes me sexual, attractive, clean and ready for action ! My arse just looks better that way !
Tell us what it was like shooting the DVD on Ile Du Levant and being able to be nude 24 hours a day, a luxury that most of us don’t get to experience very often.
Ill du levant is a beautiful garden island still in the 1970s. I forgot of the world outside because it was so simple no advertisment, no distraction just naked naked naked.