ABU DHABI // Debbie Kochanczyk is not your average yoga teacher. "My skin is sagging, my hair is going grey. I can't do every single posture," she says, a twinkle in her eye.
But that may be why people love her classes so much.
The 51-year-old Briton, who has lived in the capital for seven years, has become one of its most accomplished instructors. She teaches a mixture of yoga styles in eight classes each week at the Hiltonia Health Club, attended by up to 30 students at a time.
A self-proclaimed antidote to "young skinny whipper snapper" types, Mrs Kochanczyk believes she may help her students feel more at ease. They may feel that if she can contort herself into difficult poses, they can too.
"I'm a real person up there," she says. "People don't feel intimidated."
Many of them having been with Mrs Kochanczyk for years.
"I need to know people's names," she says. "I want them to feel welcome. It's the least I can do."
Her path to yoga - one she only set out on in her mid-40s after several other careers, marriage and motherhood - was an unlikely one.
She dedicated the best part of the past 20 years to raising her two sons, John, 21, and Thomas, 16, from her 24-year marriage to her husband Ray, who works in the oil and gas industry.
She has followed her husband around the world, taking up new interests at each stop.
She studied to be an interior designer, but in Azerbaijan she volunteered in local orphanages, caring for children with birth deformities including cleft palate and club foot. In London, she learned paramedical tattooing, which, for instance, can be used to help cover up severe scars suffered by victims of car accidents and fires.
"In each country, you are organic, and you reinvent yourself," she says.
When she first arrived in Abu Dhabi, she took a series of courses in sports science and began teaching classes such as pilates and water aerobics.
"In one class I had 45 women all jumping around to my music," she said. "It was a great experience and good fun but it soon became tiresome and was just a stepping stone. It was really yoga that worked for me."
Anyone taking one of her classes would think Mrs Kochanczyk has been doing yoga for years.
She easily contorts herself into a range of postures, known as asanas, that would test the fittest of athletes.
But when she first started, just five years ago at the age of 46, she was "really inflexible" and had no strength.
"I was cringing at the idea of 'downward facing dog' but I really loved the benefits of it," she says. "I love the calm and quiet it gives me. It seemed a more natural approach to being healthy and using the body as its own weight. The breathing is so good for stress and sleep disorders. The sense of well-being, without having to be competitive, is so beautiful."
She says her family has noticed a change in her personality since she began her practice. A calmer aura surrounds her, what she calls "a shift of my being" from the impatient, frantic person she was before.
Becoming a yoga teacher also required her to overcome her fear of public speaking. She is now gregarious and bubbly in front of her classes.
"Yoga helped me find the belief in myself," she says. "It's an attitude, a philosophy. You are getting mental and physical alignment."
It is also, she says, "an elixir of youth", as evidenced by her latest interest: screenwriting.
Last year, after taking a one-day course in scriptwriting, she wrote her own short film called Land is Tomorrow, which looks at the contrast between young expatriate and Emirati women. It was inspired by the young Sheikhas she has coached in the capital, ladies who she says have opened her eyes to a whole new world.
When she submitted the piece to a scriptwriting competition offered by the Abu Dhabi Film Commission, she made it on to a top-20 shortlist.
"You can achieve anything here," she says. "I could never have done this in London for example. Dreams come true here. I know how hard life is in other countries and I feel very lucky here. I have a very cheeky side and I always say, 'Why shouldn't I? What's stopping me?' You have to know your incompetencies as well as your strengths. There's nothing wrong with finding out you can't do something."
mswan@thenational.ae
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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Surianah's top five jazz artists
Billie Holliday: for the burn and also the way she told stories.
Thelonius Monk: for his earnestness.
Duke Ellington: for his edge and spirituality.
Louis Armstrong: his legacy is undeniable. He is considered as one of the most revolutionary and influential musicians.
Terence Blanchard: very political - a lot of jazz musicians are making protest music right now.
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The Brutalist
Director: Brady Corbet
Stars: Adrien Brody, Felicity Jones, Guy Pearce, Joe Alwyn
Rating: 3.5/5
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
SPEC%20SHEET%3A%20NOTHING%20PHONE%20(2a)
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The rules on fostering in the UAE
A foster couple or family must:
- be Muslim, Emirati and be residing in the UAE
- not be younger than 25 years old
- not have been convicted of offences or crimes involving moral turpitude
- be free of infectious diseases or psychological and mental disorders
- have the ability to support its members and the foster child financially
- undertake to treat and raise the child in a proper manner and take care of his or her health and well-being
- A single, divorced or widowed Muslim Emirati female, residing in the UAE may apply to foster a child if she is at least 30 years old and able to support the child financially
Founder: Ayman Badawi
Date started: Test product September 2016, paid launch January 2017
Based: Dubai, UAE
Sector: Software
Size: Seven employees
Funding: $170,000 in angel investment
Funders: friends
THE SPECS
Engine: 6.75-litre twin-turbocharged V12 petrol engine
Power: 420kW
Torque: 780Nm
Transmission: 8-speed automatic
Price: From Dh1,350,000
On sale: Available for preorder now
The specs: 2018 Mercedes-Benz S 450
Price, base / as tested Dh525,000 / Dh559,000
Engine: 3.0L V6 biturbo
Transmission: Nine-speed automatic
Power: 369hp at 5,500rpm
Torque: 500Nm at 1,800rpm
Fuel economy, combined: 8.0L / 100km
'Peninsula'
Stars: Gang Dong-won, Lee Jung-hyun, Lee Ra
Director: Yeon Sang-ho
Rating: 2/5
Quick%20facts
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Our House, Louise Candlish,
Simon & Schuster
NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
Essentials
The flights
Return flights from Dubai to Windhoek, with a combination of Emirates and Air Namibia, cost from US$790 (Dh2,902) via Johannesburg.
The trip
A 10-day self-drive in Namibia staying at a combination of the safari camps mentioned – Okonjima AfriCat, Little Kulala, Desert Rhino/Damaraland, Ongava – costs from $7,000 (Dh25,711) per person, including car hire (Toyota 4x4 or similar), but excluding international flights, with The Luxury Safari Company.
When to go
The cooler winter months, from June to September, are best, especially for game viewing.
Election pledges on migration
CDU: "Now is the time to control the German borders and enforce strict border rejections"
SPD: "Border closures and blanket rejections at internal borders contradict the spirit of a common area of freedom"
A MINECRAFT MOVIE
Director: Jared Hess
Starring: Jack Black, Jennifer Coolidge, Jason Momoa
Rating: 3/5
The%20specs
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The National's picks
4.35pm: Tilal Al Khalediah
5.10pm: Continous
5.45pm: Raging Torrent
6.20pm: West Acre
7pm: Flood Zone
7.40pm: Straight No Chaser
8.15pm: Romantic Warrior
8.50pm: Calandogan
9.30pm: Forever Young
The Details
Kabir Singh
Produced by: Cinestaan Studios, T-Series
Directed by: Sandeep Reddy Vanga
Starring: Shahid Kapoor, Kiara Advani, Suresh Oberoi, Soham Majumdar, Arjun Pahwa
Rating: 2.5/5
Formula Middle East Calendar (Formula Regional and Formula 4)
Round 1: January 17-19, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 2: January 22-23, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 3: February 7-9, Dubai Autodrome – Dubai
Round 4: February 14-16, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 5: February 25-27, Jeddah Corniche Circuit – Saudi Arabia
MATCH INFO
Uefa Champions League, semi-final result:
Liverpool 4-0 Barcelona
Liverpool win 4-3 on aggregate
Champions Legaue final: June 1, Madrid
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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The biog
Marital status: Separated with two young daughters
Education: Master's degree from American Univeristy of Cairo
Favourite book: That Is How They Defeat Despair by Salwa Aladian
Favourite Motto: Their happiness is your happiness
Goal: For Nefsy to become his legacy long after he is gon
MATCH INFO
Uefa Champioons League semi-final:
First leg: Liverpool 5 Roma 2
Second leg: Wednesday, May 2, Stadio Olimpico, Rome
TV: BeIN Sports, 10.45pm (UAE)
Real estate tokenisation project
Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.
The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.
Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.
