My good friend Óscar Montero has put together some excellent videos of Srivatsa Ramaswami's recent Intensive in Madrid. Ramaswami', here teaching the very same Vinyasa's that his teacher of thirty plus years, Krishnamacharya, practiced and taught in Mysore in the 1930 and 40ss as well as in Chennai from the 1950s and up until the 1980s.
See Óscar blog for his presentation of these videos here
http://www.yogavinyasakrama.com/yoga-krishnamacharya-sirsasana-sarvangasana-vinyasas/![]()
In the 1920s and 30s, while Krishnamacharya's student and assistant, Pattabhi Jois, would lead the boys of the Mysore Palace through the asana sequences familiar to many today as Ashtanga Vinyasa, Krishnamacharya himself would perhaps be in a side room teaching less familiar variations of these asana to students and patients on a one to one basis.
In the 1938 Mysore film footage, (full video in the Appendix to this post) while Krishnamacharya's student, BKS Iyengar, demonstrated jumping from one advanced asana to the next in the style of Ashtanga, Krishnamacharya himself demonstrated headstand and shoulderstand variations.
Krishnamacharya contiued to teach these asana variations throughout his life, including photos of himself, aged 84, demonstrating the vinyasas for the the 3rd edition (1972) of his text Yogasanagalu (Mysore 1941 ), displaying a clear consistency in his teaching throughout his life.
Note: The first full English translation of Yogasanagalu (Mysore 1941) is now available from the free downloads page
http://grimmly2007.blogspot.jp/p/free-downloads.html
Krishnamacharya's student of over thirty years, Srivatsa Ramaswami, continues to faithfully share his teachers asana variations in his Vinyasa Krama workshops and intensives, here, in Madrid this year (2016), sharing many of the shoulderstand variations we see in the 1938 Mysore film footage
Sarvangasana (Shoulderstand ) variations.
See also this post
Sisasana (headstand) variations
see also this earlier post
Overview of Ramaswami intensive in Madrid 2016
including early Krishnamacharya video footage and later photos
Overview of Ramaswami intensive in Madrid 2016
including early Krishnamacharya video footage and later photos
More videos from Srivatsa Ramaswami's 100 hour intensive in Madrid on Oscar's youtube channel
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| Óscar Montero |
I have a great affection for Óscar, his studio, students and family in Leon, Spain.
Several years ago Óscar got in touch with me, asking to come and practice some Vinyasa Krama with me. In those sessions we would practice together for four hours at a time without a break, exploring and discussing the sequences and subroutines Ramaswami presented in his Complete book of Vinyasa Yoga and Teacher training that I had attended in LA in 2010.
Later Óscar invited me to Leon, Spain to present my first Krishnamacharya and Vinyasa Krama workshop, he his, students and beautiful family were the the most wonderful generous and kind hosts.
Óscar has since attended several of Ramaswami's workshops including Ramaswami's mammoth Baghavad Gita workshop in Wells. Óscar was key in encouraging Ramaswami to come to Madrid for the first time this year. The course was organized by DharaYoga
Unfortunately I was unable to attend, yet with all the messages of delight from so many friends and attendees along with the videos Oscar produced, daily I felt almost as if I was.
Thank you Óscar for all the herd work putting these wonderful videos together that I think make the argument for consistency in Krishnamacharya's teaching beautifully.
Óscar's website
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some earlier related posts
Sirsasana Video Library
Krishnamacharya's trickly Eka pada Sirsasana variations from Yoga makaranda Part II
Krishnamacharya's Mysore headstand variations
David Garrigues new book and Video course on headstands
Lotus to headstand
ALSO
Krishnamacharya's alternatives to headstands
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APPENDIX
the full 1938 Krishnamacharya, his family and BKS Iyengar film footage.