ABOUT XAVIER FAYANT

Originally from Normandy, France, Xavier Fayant has been living in San Francisco since 1991. Xavier was first introduced to the principles of healing and movement through Aikidō, a Japanese martial art rooted in a philosophy of non-violence.

The journey eventually led him to bodywork, and he became a Certified Massage Therapist in 1995. His interest in body language drove him to the performing arts and Jazz dance; Xavier became the mime character Zaz. Shortly after, he stumbled upon Yoga and its teaching:

“Yogah cittavrtti nirodhah,” says the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. Yoga is the cessation of mental turbulence in the mind. In 2004, Xavier completed a two-year teacher training program at the Iyengar Yoga Institute of San Francisco (500 hours). Eventually, he started climbing trees and crawling on the ground and found that expressing these animalistic tendencies served to develop and foster a primordial identity. By moving the body more naturally and becoming more primal, Xavier discovered the missing link: the activation of an innate process of self-transformation. 

Following the principles of Aikidō, the philosophy of Yoga and primal movements, he created Yogākidō, a class designed to awaken the natural wisdom innate to each human being through exploration of body movements and breath awareness.

In 2024, after spending many years practicing meditation and mindfulness in an urban setting, he returned to the world of Yoga. He immersed himself in another Yoga teacher training program at the Folk Yoga School in San Francisco (200 hours).

He is currently authoring  Becoming You, the Making of a Yogi, a book based on his memoirs and journals.