yoga

July 21, 2006 6:42 PM

1938 film of yoga in the west pioneer B.K.S. Iyengar and his teacher Sri T. Krishnamacharya B/W silent.
posted by vronsky (10 comments total)

vronsky, That was awesome! forwarded the link to a friend and his wife who practise that style of yoga. What a treat to see such fluid, flexible and balanced movement, and he was 50, wow. Inspiring.
posted by nickyskye at 7:43 PM on July 21, 2006

If you've tried a bit of yoga, that footage is mind blowing.
posted by svenni at 8:00 PM on July 21, 2006

I wasn't aware that the human body could twist quite like that.

I now know.

Thanks for the tip.
posted by MythMaker at 8:34 PM on July 21, 2006

I like that blog.
posted by hortense at 8:37 PM on July 21, 2006

yoga in the west pioneer

Yeah, but how big are his balls?
posted by homunculus at 8:37 PM on July 21, 2006

The Uddiyana Bandha is interesting to see in flim.
posted by nickyskye at 10:23 PM on July 21, 2006

thanks for these, vronsky. the twisting-while-balancing-on-head stuff is just overwhelming.
posted by whatnot at 11:04 PM on July 21, 2006

That was incredible.

It reminds me of when I read Iyengars "Illustrated Light on Yoga" and was amazed by the pictures showing him looking so young when he was about 60. Later on, however, I realised that the photos were taken when he was about 30. But that guy really was 50?
posted by criticalbill at 2:29 AM on July 22, 2006

criticalbill, It says, just above the first clip: "he was 50 years old when the film was shot". He, in this case refers to Krishnamacharya. One can also see it in his face, the white five o'clock shadow.

The clips below that are of B.K.S. Iyengar, who, it says above the second clip, "must have been around 20 years old during that time".
posted by nickyskye at 11:01 AM on July 22, 2006

Thanks for posting that. I studied Iyengar yoga for a while so it was cool to see his practice when he was young. Also, as the Web site says, it's really interesting to see him doing flowing yoga (the style that bears his name has much less emphasis on flow and much more emphasis on getting into a single pose and holding it for a long time).
posted by rhiannon at 1:18 PM on July 22, 2006