Vanda Scaravelli Yoga Journey, Part 1

Lately I am reading a lot about Vanda Scaravelli and her Yoga Journey. I am ‘following’ her students, and I am so happy to say that I had a chance to be thought by one who belong to Scaravelli lineage – Patricia White. 

Imagine woman, concert standard pianist, who at her late 40s started her yoga practice, lived with it, introducing modifications and her own views on yoga and marked the history of yoga. Her book "Awakening the Spine" (published in 1991) had huge impact on today’s yoga practice... She died at 91 (1999).

She was introduced to BKS Iyengar by the violinist Yehudi Menuhin and soon after she was thought by Desikachar, son and student of T Krishnamacharya whom she had known earlier in her life through her father. That is how her Yoga path started.

One of Vanda Scaravelli’s great gifts to our yoga practice was freedom.  She gave us permission to follow our own inner teacher, liberating yoga practice from the restriction of rules and traditions.  She encouraged students to understand that, ultimately, we are our own best teachers – all we have to do is listen deeply and increase our awareness.


“Do not kill the instinct of the body for the glory of the pose. Do not look at your body like a stranger, but adopt a friendly approach towards it. Watch it, listen to it, observe its needs, its requests, and even have fun. To be sensitive is to be alive. “ VS