About this Approach to Yoga
"Yoga must not be practiced to control the body: it is the opposite, it must bring freedom to the body, all the freedom it needs."
This approach to Yoga is quite freeing for your body. It brings about awareness of your body's natural movement in relation to gravity, and as a result, you become buoyant and more at ease. It gives you a closer look at what is happening inside so you are able to release habitual holding patterns in your body. You learn to stop muscling your way into poses and allow your breath to move you.
There are three significant elements to this way of working that make a world of difference in the way you feel in your body. These elements are: releasing the breath; yielding to gravity; and receiving the rebound energy. The rebound energy moves up through your body/spine (Vanda called this the "wave"). Approaching asana in this way is actually quite simple. When you exhale all of your breath and give the weight of your body to the earth, your body receives this new rebound energy. The result is a wave moving through you and will deliver lightness, freedom, and ultimately, joy throughout your body. These elements occur simultaneously and the pose feels effortless.
When it comes to practicing asana, Vanda believed that you had to "release your ambition and have infinite time." Practicing asana requires tenderness and a nurturing spirit. It is an intimate experience. Give yourself permission to slow down and pay attention to the experience of your body.
"To follow the way the spine functions during this process of breathing is of the greatest interest. The wave of expansion while exhaling, originating from the spine, is the basis of our teaching.”
About Vanda Scaravelli (1908-1999)
Vanda Scaravelli (born in Florence, January 15, 1908) began the practice of Yoga late in life and eventually became one of the discipline's leading practitioners. She studied with BKS Iyengar and TKV Desikachar, and is the Author of the book, Awakening the Spine (1991). Vanda died in 1999 at the age of 91.
VANDA'S EARLY LIFE
Vanda Scaravelli was born into a musical and intellectual family. Her father, Alberto Passigli was involved in creating the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino as well as the Orchestra Stabile. Her mother, Clara Corsi, was one of the first women graduates from an Italian university. Many world-renowned musicians such as Pablo Casals, Andres Segovia and Arturo Toscanini were frequent visitors to the family villa, Il Leccio. Vanda was a concert standard pianist herself and was involved in music throughout her life.
She married Luigi Scaravelli, a Professor of Philosophy at the Universities of Rome and Pisa with whom she had two children. Luigi Scaravelli died suddenly shortly after WW2. Around this time she was introduced to BKS Iyengar by the violinist, Yehudi Menuhin, in Gstaad, Switzerland. Iyengar taught daily classes to Jiddu Krishnamurti, whom Scaravelli had known earlier in life through her father. Iyengar agreed to also give Yoga lessons to Vanda.
Some years later Krishnamurti invited TKV Desikachar to the Scaravelli's Chalet Tannegg in Gstaad, where he taught them about the importance of the breath. Vanda continued to study with Iyengar and Desikachar for several years. Later on, Vanda began to explore Yoga on her own and developed her ideas surrounding the breath, gravity and the spine.