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Choreographers working in the United States have been practicing yoga since the early 1900s. They mention their yoga practice in autobiographies and interviews, include physical poses (asana) in their choreography and classroom exercises, and rely on breathing techniques (pranayama) to support their movement technique and personal practice. Meanwhile, yoga practice in the United States has increasingly become associated with thin white women in elaborate poses and tight pants smiling on the beach at sunset. So how did this association come about? I contend in this dissertation that this is at least partly due to white choreographers’ portrayal of yogis onstage and incorporation of yoga into their dance training. I focus on renowned (post)modern dance choreographers, such as Ruth St. Denis, Martha Graham, Merce Cunningham, and Bill T. Jones, and recover the influence of yoga on their careers to help us better understand how yoga has shaped modern dance throughout its history. As their use of yoga became a tool in their creative and innovative interventions in dance, these (mostly white) choreographers encouraged or facilitated the forgetting of the labor of the yogis and yoga teachers who instructed them. This dissertation therefore also attends to the innovations of their teachers, such as Swami Vivekananda, Swami Paramananda, Yogi Vithaldas, and A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, who strategically and selectively emphasized aspects of their yoga teaching to suit contemporaneous cultural trends and confront Orientalist fantasies. I apply the tools of movement analysis and the theoretical frameworks of critical race studies and critical yoga studies to autobiographies, published scholarship, archival records of dance technique training and choreography, yoga training manuals, and dance and yoga videos. My dissertation interweaves the frequently disparate fields of yoga studies and dance studies, reorients scholars to the historical affinities between these two mode

Choreographers working in the United States have been practicing yoga since the early 1900s. They mention their yoga practice in autobiographies and interviews, include physical poses (asana) in their choreography and classroom exercises, and rely on breathing techniques (pranayama) to support their movement technique and personal practice. Meanwhile, yoga practice in the United States has increasingly become associated with thin white women in elaborate poses and tight pants smiling on the beach at sunset. So how did this association come about? I contend in this dissertation that this is at least partly due to white choreographers’ portrayal of yogis onstage and incorporation of yoga into their dance training. I focus on renowned (post)modern dance choreographers, such as Ruth St. Denis, Martha Graham, Merce Cunningham, and Bill T. Jones, and recover the influence of yoga on their careers to help us better understand how yoga has shaped modern dance throughout its history. As their use of yoga became a tool in their creative and innovative interventions in dance, these (mostly white) choreographers encouraged or facilitated the forgetting of the labor of the yogis and yoga teachers who instructed them. This dissertation therefore also attends to the innovations of their teachers, such as Swami Vivekananda, Swami Paramananda, Yogi Vithaldas, and A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, who strategically and selectively emphasized aspects of their yoga teaching to suit contemporaneous cultural trends and confront Orientalist fantasies. I apply the tools of movement analysis and the theoretical frameworks of critical race studies and critical yoga studies to autobiographies, published scholarship, archival records of dance technique training and choreography, yoga training manuals, and dance and yoga videos. My dissertation interweaves the frequently disparate fields of yoga studies and dance studies, reorients scholars to the historical affinities between these two mode

La historia religiosa del sur de Asia ha contado con la presencia de distintos grupos de renunciantes y yoguis. De entre ellos, una pieza crucial ha sido el grupo de ascetas comúnmente conocido como Nāth Panth o Nāth Yoguis. Su relevancia deriva tanto de su participación en la historia premoderna y moderna de la política en el sur de Asia, como de sus contribuciones para con la formación del panorama cultural y religioso de las sociedades surasiáticas. El presente ensayo se propone revisar algunos aspectos y problemáticas relativas a la identidad nāth. Así, cuestionará lo que significa ser un yogui, un nāth, y se referirá a fuentes originales para examinar qué dicen al respecto, además de considerar las herramientas textuales y aproximaciones posibles para realizarlo.

La historia religiosa del sur de Asia ha contado con la presencia de distintos grupos de renunciantes y yoguis. De entre ellos, una pieza crucial ha sido el grupo de ascetas comúnmente conocido como Nāth Panth o Nāth Yoguis. Su relevancia deriva tanto de su participación en la historia premoderna y moderna de la política en el sur de Asia, como de sus contribuciones para con la formación del panorama cultural y religioso de las sociedades surasiáticas. El presente ensayo se propone revisar algunos aspectos y problemáticas relativas a la identidad nāth. Así, cuestionará lo que significa ser un yogui, un nāth, y se referirá a fuentes originales para examinar qué dicen al respecto, además de considerar las herramientas textuales y aproximaciones posibles para realizarlo.

La historia religiosa del sur de Asia ha contado con la presencia de distintos grupos de renunciantes y yoguis. De entre ellos, una pieza crucial ha sido el grupo de ascetas comúnmente conocido como Nāth Panth o Nāth Yoguis. Su relevancia deriva tanto de su participación en la historia premoderna y moderna de la política en el sur de Asia, como de sus contribuciones para con la formación del panorama cultural y religioso de las sociedades surasiáticas. El presente ensayo se propone revisar algunos aspectos y problemáticas relativas a la identidad nāth. Así, cuestionará lo que significa ser un yogui, un nāth, y se referirá a fuentes originales para examinar qué dicen al respecto, además de considerar las herramientas textuales y aproximaciones posibles para realizarlo.

La historia religiosa del sur de Asia ha contado con la presencia de distintos grupos de renunciantes y yoguis. De entre ellos, una pieza crucial ha sido el grupo de ascetas comúnmente conocido como Nāth Panth o Nāth Yoguis. Su relevancia deriva tanto de su participación en la historia premoderna y moderna de la política en el sur de Asia, como de sus contribuciones para con la formación del panorama cultural y religioso de las sociedades surasiáticas. El presente ensayo se propone revisar algunos aspectos y problemáticas relativas a la identidad nāth. Así, cuestionará lo que significa ser un yogui, un nāth, y se referirá a fuentes originales para examinar qué dicen al respecto, además de considerar las herramientas textuales y aproximaciones posibles para realizarlo.

Since its national debut in 1987, Fresh Air with Terry Gross has been a highly acclaimed and much adored weekday magazine among public radio listeners. Each week, nearly 4.8 million people turn to Peabody Award-winning host Terry Gross for insightful conversations with the leading voices in contemporary arts and issues. The renowned program reaches a global audience, with over 620 public radio stations broadcasting Fresh Air, and 3 million podcast downloads each week. Fresh Air has broken the mold of 'talk show' by weaving together superior journalism and intimate storytelling from modern-day intellectuals, politicians and artists alike. Through probing questions and careful research, Gross's interviews are lauded for revealing a fresh perspective on cultural icons and trends. Her thorough conversations are often complemented by commentary from well-known contributors. Fresh Air is produced at WHYY-FM in Philadelphia and broadcast nationally by NPR., (1.) Journalist MICHELLE GOLDBERG is the author of the new book The Goddess Pose: the Audacious Life of Indra Devi, the woman who helped bring yoga to the west. GOLDBERG is senior contributing writer for The Nation. GOLDBERG is also the author of two other books: The Means of Reproduction: Sex, Power, and the Future of the World and Kingdom Coming: The Rise of Christian Nationalism. (THIS INTERVIEW CONTINUES INTO THE SECOND HALF OF THE SHOW). (2.) Tech contributor ALEXIS MADRIGAL considers the Apple Watch.

One of the key feature of early Kagyüpa Buddhism in Tibet was the practise of long meditation retreats in the complete solitude of the Himalayan mountains. The author of the Tibetan text, Kyobpa Jigten Sumgön (1143-1217), had himself spent 7 years in a cave in central Tibet. After he established the Dirkung Kagyü tradition in the late 12th century, he sent out several waves of yogis and monks to the mountains of Tsari, Lapchi, and Kailash and thus started a tradition of retreats there that would last for 800 years. The text describes in great detail the "dependent origination" of favourable and unfavourable conditions for a retreat in solitude, and how to create and avoid them. It provides a rare glimps into the world of yogic life in early Tibet.

One of the key feature of early Kagyüpa Buddhism in Tibet was the practise of long meditation retreats in the complete solitude of the Himalayan mountains. The author of the Tibetan text, Kyobpa Jigten Sumgön (1143-1217), had himself spent 7 years in a cave in central Tibet. After he established the Dirkung Kagyü tradition in the late 12th century, he sent out several waves of yogis and monks to the mountains of Tsari, Lapchi, and Kailash and thus started a tradition of retreats there that would last for 800 years. The text describes in great detail the "dependent origination" of favourable and unfavourable conditions for a retreat in solitude, and how to create and avoid them. It provides a rare glimps into the world of yogic life in early Tibet.