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Modern postural yoga's harmonial origins

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Marguerite Agniel in "Buddha position", c. 1928: modern postural yoga was created through cultural exchange and syncretism. Marguerite Agniel in a Buddha position with her legs crossed Wellcome V0048585.jpg
Marguerite Agniel in "Buddha position", c. 1928: modern postural yoga was created through cultural exchange and syncretism.

Modern postural yoga has roots in a Western tradition of harmonialism that derives ultimately from practices in ancient Greece. Especially in America, it was created through a complicated process involving both cultural exchange and syncretism of disparate approaches. Among the many ingredients are the subtle body and various strands of Greek philosophy, Western esotericism, and wellness programs for women based on such things as the teaching system of François Delsarte and the harmonic gymnastics of Genevieve Stebbins.

Contents

Context

Yoga as exercise, also called modern postural yoga by academics, is a physical activity consisting mainly of postures (asanas), sometimes accompanied by breathing exercises, and frequently ending with relaxation lying down or meditation. Yoga in this form has become familiar across the world, especially in the US and Europe. It is derived from medieval Haṭha yoga, which made use of similar postures. [2] [3] This use has been denounced as cultural appropriation, though the scholar of religion Andrea Jain writes that this ignores yoga's complex multinational history. [4]

The scholar of yoga Mark Singleton writes in his 2010 book Yoga Body that modern postural yoga derives both from Indian physical and religious practices, especially medieval hatha yoga, and from a variety of European styles of physical exercise devised in the 19th and 20th centuries. [5] The scholar of religion Paul Bramadat writes that some yoga practitioners speak of being "spiritual but not religious", [6] though there are multiple similarities between modern postural yoga and religion. [7]

The anthropologist Sarah Strauss contrasts the goal of classical yoga, the isolation of the self or kaivalya , with the modern goals of good health, reduced stress, and physical flexibility. [8] Norman Sjoman notes that many of the asanas in the yoga guru B. K. S. Iyengar's 1966 book Light on Yoga can be traced to his teacher, Krishnamacharya (1888–1989), "but not beyond him". [9]

Definition

Singleton writes that "postural modern yoga displaced—or was the cultural successor of—the established methods of stretching and relaxing that had already become commonplace in the West, through harmonial gymnastics and female physical culture." [10] Both he and Anya Foxen follow Sydney Ahlstrom's usage "harmonial religion", [11] for what Ahlstrom defines as "encompass[ing] those forms of piety and belief in which spiritual composure, physical health, and even economic well-being are understood to flow from a person's rapport with the cosmos." [12]

History

Aesthetic gymnastics

The Swedish gymastics instructor Pehr Henrik Ling (1776–1839) created a system of light or aesthetic gymnastics, which he published in 1834. It introduced a metaphysical element to physical exercise; in George Herbert Taylor's words, it treated "man as a spiritual being". [13] Ling's aesthetic gymnastics influenced systems of women's callisthenics, such as Catharine Beecher's (1800–1878) approach. [14]

Delsarteism

The French teacher of singing and declamation François Delsarte's (1811–1871) system of movements became popular in America around 1900. American Delsarteism, developed by the playwright Steele MacKaye (1842–1894) for use by actors, offered women a system of ritual and harmonial movement for bodily expression. MacKaye combined the systems of Delsarte and Ling, which already shared some similarities. Some 400 American performers or teachers, mainly women, claimed to be Delsartean. [15] American Delsarteism was committed to a Greek aesthetics, extending to "statue posing" in a Greek style. Elsie Wilbor's 1890 Delsarte Recitation Book and Directory called for "care [to be] taken to make the transitions [between poses] without losing in any degree a perfect and harmonious poise of the body, and the graceful, sinuous curves of the body and limbs." [16] Foxen remarks the evident parallels with the flowing transitions in vinyasa yoga styles. [16]

An American system influenced by Delsarteism was Mrs John Bailey's 1892 Physical Culture. She advocated a session of light callisthenics, preceded by a period of relaxation, and accompanied by rhythmic breathing. A similar system by Mary Taylor Bissell, described in her 1891 Physical Development and Exercise for Women, included the use of props, which Bailey avoided. [17]

Breath and body

Dynamic breathing: "Yoga Breathing" exercise by Genevieve Stebbins, 1892 Yoga Breathing Stebbins 1892.jpg
Dynamic breathing: "Yoga Breathing" exercise by Genevieve Stebbins, 1892

Genevieve Stebbins (1857–1934) incorporated American Delsarteism (without exactly claiming to be Delsartian) into her system of "harmonic gymnastics". She explained that "These exercises free the channels of expression, and the current of nervous force can thus rush through them as a stream of water rushes through a channel, unclogged by obstacles. We name these exercises decomposing." [16] Foxen comments that this implied a purification of the body to allow it full harmonic expression. Stebbins further paired her harmonic gymnastics with "dynamic breathing" to form a system of "psycho-physical culture". [16]

Warren Felt Evans (1817–1889) combined Ling's aesthetic gymnastics with Emanuel Swedenborg's spiritual system. It foreshadowed both Delsarteism and several other harmonial physical culture approaches. More widely, the New Thought movement sought to address the connection of mind and body. A key aspect of this connection is a yoga-like focus on the breath to accompany movement of the body. Towards the end of the 19th century, authors began to allude, sometimes vaguely and inaccurately, to Eastern religion and philosophy. [17]

In 1892, Stebbins a little more precisely called one of her exercises "yoga breathing", but her breath exercises were performed lying down, unlike the seated asanas used in hatha yoga's pranayama breath control; nor does not make use of the alternate nostril breathing popularised in North America by Vivekananda. [18] All the same, in Foxen's view, Stebbins had transformed "American Delsarteism ... from ... a theologized language of expression into a full-blown spiritual practice encompassing both breath and movement." [18]

Yoga and the dancing girl

Stebbins's approach shaped two founders of modern dance: the Indian-style "nautch girl" Ruth St. Denis (1879–1968), and the choreographer Isadora Duncan (1877–1927) who embodied Delsarteism's neoclassical aesthetic. St. Denis was familiar with Stebbins's writings, and was influenced by seeing a group of Indian dancers at Coney Island, most likely of the classical North Indian Kathak form, in 1904, two years before her solo debut, playing the Hindu goddess Radha (consort of Krishna). Foxen suggests that in St. Denis's mind, Indian dance and yoga were interwoven. In her view, St. Denis's work came close to "something like contemporary Indian postural yoga both in actuality and in spirit." [19] In 1915, St. Denis was teaching "yogi meditation" at her Denishawn school in Los Angeles, where she invited Swami Paramananda to lead a meditation. She felt that both she and Duncan were trying "to fuse certain elements of life and movement into a deeper identification with the natural expressions of being". [20]

By the 1910s, Western women in high society had adopted forms of gymnastics resembling dance for exercise, in place of Delsarteism. One such form was the Swiss composer Émile Jaques-Dalcroze (1865–1950)'s Dalcroze eurhythmics, using music and movement; it was clearly in the same tradition of "lightly metaphysical gymnastics", and had something in common with Duncan's dance method. [21] Another form was what was called "Oriental dance", though it only superficially resembled anything from the East. [21]

Later in her career, in the 1930s, St. Denis met an Indian practitioner of postural yoga, Mr Mehta, and was impressed by his flowing movements combined with use of the breath. Her belief in the close relationship between breath, body, and spirit communicated itself to her pupils, including the modern dancer and choreographer Martha Graham. Her work embodied both the exotically Indian (which Graham came to reject) and the harmonial. [20]

Meanwhile, the actress and dancer Marguerite Agniel, trained in the Dalcroze method and in St. Denis's school, was writing about beauty and fitness for American women in Vogue and later other magazines including Physical Culture . Her 1931 book The Art of the Body contains several poses that closely resemble asanas in modern postural yoga. Foxen comments that the seated poses, like her 'Buddha position', are based on (American) 'Oriental dance', and any mentions of yoga are at best vague, with a "rather bizarre amalgamation" of influences. Overall, though, her gymnastics is clearly harmonial. [22]

At the same time in Britain, Mary Bagot Stack was teaching yoga-like postures to the Women's League of Health and Beauty in her "Bagot Stack Stretch-and-Swing System". She had travelled to India, and had learnt some yoga poses there. [23]

Singleton commented that "women during the 1930s commonly engaged in much the same forms of bodily activity that they do today under the name of yoga". [24] [5] Foxen suggests that instead, white women in the 1890s did something much like modern postural yoga, but it was not called yoga; whereas by the 1930s it was sometimes actually called yoga (and sometimes not). [24]

Yoga and harmony

In 1920, Paramahansa Yogananda arrived in the United States, teaching Kriya yoga, a form of yoga that makes use of pranayama breath control, repetition of mantras, and mudra (gestures); it was quite different from the vague ideas of yoga that had been current in the West. [25] His "Yogoda" program, however, incorporated callisthenic exercises based on Western physical culture (tracing back to Pehr Henrik Ling) for mass consumption, even though he taught asanas to his close followers. [26] Yogananda's system was likely based on the physical culture of the Danish strongman Jørgen Peter Müller and the German Maxick, and, Foxen suggests, perhaps Stebbins's as well given Yogoda's spiritual aspect and use of specific phrases like "beauty of form" and "grace of expression"; or it might be Delsarteism more generally. [27] Vivekananda too had avoided asanas, except for adopting a seated position for meditation, though his use of breathwork can be described as a physical practice. [26]

Yogendra (1897–1989) came to New York State in 1919, setting up the Yoga Institute of America at Harriman. [28] His yoga, however, was a system of asanas [29] and "yoga breathing" (pranayama), both of which he related to Western physical culture. He discussed breathing with respect to Stebbins, and his system included "harmony" as an objective. His emphasis on breathing rhythmically in time with the body's movement recalls Stebbins, with roots in the harmonial physical culture systems of Delsarte and Dalcroze. [30]

Indra Devi (1899–2002) helped to popularise modern postural yoga through her celebrity pupils in Hollywood. [31] She taught asanas and pranayama, avoiding spiritual teaching, to men as well as women, [32] [33] though in Elliott Goldberg's view she presented yoga for women as a "beauty secret, youth elixir, and health tonic". [34] Foxen sees in Devi's writings "a blurring between yoga's Indian roots and its adaptation into a harmonial context." [31] She alludes to prana and kundalini, while emphasising that yoga is not just about developing muscles, but "the functions of the entire organism", or as Foxen concludes "In other words, harmony". [31]

References

  1. ↑ Foxen 2020, p. 13.
  2. ↑ De Michelis 2004, pp. 1–2.
  3. ↑ Singleton 2013, p. 38.
  4. ↑ Jain 2015, pp. 131, 142–157.
  5. 1 2 Singleton 2010.
  6. ↑ Bramadat 2025, pp. 55–58.
  7. ↑ Bramadat 2025, pp. 55–84 "Religionish".
  8. ↑ Strauss 2005, p. 5.
  9. ↑ Sjoman 1999, p. 39.
  10. ↑ Singleton 2010, p. 154.
  11. ↑ Foxen 2020, p. 20.
  12. ↑ Ahlstrom 1972, p. 1119.
  13. ↑ Foxen 2020, pp. 111, 117–118.
  14. ↑ Foxen 2020, pp. 126–128.
  15. ↑ Foxen 2020, p. 32, 131–135.
  16. 1 2 3 4 5 Foxen 2020, pp. 136–139.
  17. 1 2 Foxen 2020, pp. 144–149.
  18. 1 2 Foxen 2020, pp. 151–152, 157.
  19. ↑ Foxen 2020, p. 166, 174, 178.
  20. 1 2 Foxen 2020, pp. 183–186.
  21. 1 2 Foxen 2020, pp. 209–210.
  22. ↑ Foxen 2020, pp. 218–221.
  23. ↑ Singleton 2010, pp. 160–162.
  24. 1 2 Foxen 2020, p. 191.
  25. ↑ Foxen 2020, pp. 215–216.
  26. 1 2 Foxen 2020, pp. 224–228.
  27. ↑ Foxen 2020, pp. 245–250.
  28. ↑ Caycedo 1966, p. 194.
  29. ↑ Newcombe 2017.
  30. 1 2 Foxen 2020, pp. 240–244.
  31. 1 2 3 Foxen 2020, pp. 252–255.
  32. ↑ Syman 2010, pp. 180–181.
  33. ↑ Elliott Goldberg 2016, p. 339.
  34. ↑ Elliott Goldberg 2016, p. 352.

Sources

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