Instruction
DISCONTINUED
Awakening the Spine
by Vanda Scaravelli
Awakening the Spine is the culmination of Vanda Scaravelli's decades of experience exploring the union of breath, gravity and anatomy. Her insights and musings are unique and will inform and instruct all who read them.
She began her study of yoga with B.K.S. Iyengar and T.K.V. Desikachar just after World War II. Her fascination with the wave of expansion the breath creates in the body laid the foundation for her special approach to teaching - with an emphasis in working gently with our bodies. "If you are kind to your body," she says, "it will respond in an incredible way."
Her signature approach is detailed beautifully in this richly illustrated book. By grounding ourselves through the lower body, our upper body - the head, neck, arms, shoulders and trunk - are free to express lightness. The first part of Scaravelli's book is a guide to these principles of movement - in nature, in history and ourselves. With illustrations from breaking waves to ancient Egyptian drawings, the patterns of human movement are echoed everywhere.
Part II is a simple, straightforward guide to the practice of specific asanas, with photographs of the incredibly lithe, 80-something Scaravelli demonstrating many of the poses. Here she takes us into breath, what Scaravelli calls the "essence of yoga," and concludes with simple pranayama exercises.
This beautiful, philosophical look at anatomy and the practice of yoga,
is a gem formed over many decades. Its brilliance will delight, inspire
and teach
all who
view it.
Vanda Scaravelli was born in 1908
in Florence, Italy. An accomplished pianist, she discovered yoga
in her forties, while living in Switzerland. This is when, she
said, "a new life came into my body." Since her death
in 1999 at age 91, many teachers around the world have continued
her methods.
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