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groupscassette revolution, when, for the first time,
consumers could choose content to watch
at home cheaply without having to rely on
television. All that tape needed to be filled
with something, and fitness-related content
was perfect.
It’s not surprising, then, that among the
most visible faces of yoga in the 1980s
were those of bankable stars like Jane
Fonda and Raquel Welch. The fitness-yoga
they promoted was sufficiently challenging
to provide a workout but not so highly
impactful as to cause injuries, or so it
was believed.
The 1980s was also a time of mainstream
rejection of the values of the 1960s and
70s. Spiritual exploration, whether helped by
psychedelic drugs or meditation, was not on
the popular agenda.
But, as ever, this was only part of the story.
In his book The Only Way Out Is In, American
Ashtanga practitioner Anthony ‘Prem’ Carlisi
describes what happened when Pattabhi Jois,
Ashtanga’s founder, taught at the centre in
Encinitas, Southern California where Carlisi
was practicing in the late 1970s.
Jois’s arrival prompts a gathering of the
Ashtanga clan, including David Williams and
Nancy Gilgoff, ‘instrumental in launching
Ashtanga Yoga in the West’.
Writes Carlisi, ‘The students who arrived
from around the world were all experienced
Ashtanga Yoga practitioners. Some of them
were the most far-out looking people I’d ever
met: long-haired freaks who looked like they
came out of the jungle - and some of them
actually had! Yet they blew me away with
their yogic abilities, moving beautiful, lean,
sculpted bodies, with grace and suppleness,
like poetry in motion.’
In a way, although many of these people
were already 50 by the time Carlisi was first
blown away by them, they were the yogis of
the future. Or of a future ideal.Author’s Note:This article is an
introduction to a complex and fascinating
subject. I’ve tried to simplify as much
as possible without being simplistic. My
main source of reference was The Subtle
Body: The Story of Yoga in America by
Stefanie Syman. I’ve also drawn on the work
done into yoga in the UK by Dr. Suzanne
Newcombe, which is illuminating. Jenny
Beeken is the author of a new book called
Standing, Sitting, Walking, Running: How
your posture affects your mind.Find out more about David Holzer at:
yogawriters.org