YOGA IN THE 60s AND YOGA TODAY
by Kathy Arthurson
I recently had a wonderful opportunity to interview 14 yoga teachers aged 60 plus (youngest 66, oldest 95) about why they still practise and teach yoga. For me, it was a dream job come true – and what dedicated yogini wouldn’t relish hearing humorous tales about the early days of yoga in Australia and New Zealand? Back then, yoga was considered a hippy, dippy alternative practice.
In the 1960s, Sheila Hay’s employer in the adult education sector advised her to call herself a ‘keep fit teacher’ rather than a ‘yoga teacher’, especially if any of her students were married to policemen!
When Liz Coon started teaching yoga in the 70s, friends asked, ‘Are you turning weird on us with this yoga thing, Liz?’
Attitudes about yoga have certainly changed a lot since then.
Today yoga is mainstream: there is a yoga studio on every corner and a teacher in every gym. You can even buy yoga mats at the supermarket.
Yoga is also touted as a health-giving therapy – aided by modern scientific studies of brain imagery that record positive, anatomical and neuroplastic changes in response to mind-body practices such as yoga. [i]
Since the 1960s, these aren’t the only ingredients of yoga that have changed. The way yoga is taught, the equipment used and clothing worn have all been transformed.
YOGA WEAR
Lorna Jane and Lululemon active wear didn’t exist when these women started teaching yoga. It was pre-today’s colourful leggings (and tops) in a variety of unusual prints. Even so, a yoga class was often a glamorous event. The women wore big earrings and ballet leotards over fishnet stockings.
Teachers and students alike were frequently married, stay-at-home mums. For them yoga was an important social occasion, which one dressed for: because in those days women would never, ever, go into the city without wearing a hat and gloves.
In the 1960s, Sheila Hay’s employer in the adult education sector advised her to call herself a ‘keep fit teacher’ rather than a ‘yoga teacher’, especially if any of her students were married to policemen!
When Liz Coon started teaching yoga in the 70s, friends asked, ‘Are you turning weird on us with this yoga thing, Liz?’
Attitudes about yoga have certainly changed a lot since then.
Today yoga is mainstream: there is a yoga studio on every corner and a teacher in every gym. You can even buy yoga mats at the supermarket.
Yoga is also touted as a health-giving therapy – aided by modern scientific studies of brain imagery that record positive, anatomical and neuroplastic changes in response to mind-body practices such as yoga. [i]
Since the 1960s, these aren’t the only ingredients of yoga that have changed. The way yoga is taught, the equipment used and clothing worn have all been transformed.
YOGA WEAR
Lorna Jane and Lululemon active wear didn’t exist when these women started teaching yoga. It was pre-today’s colourful leggings (and tops) in a variety of unusual prints. Even so, a yoga class was often a glamorous event. The women wore big earrings and ballet leotards over fishnet stockings.
Teachers and students alike were frequently married, stay-at-home mums. For them yoga was an important social occasion, which one dressed for: because in those days women would never, ever, go into the city without wearing a hat and gloves.
If you were a child in the 1960s (like me), you may recall the delightful Bette Calman (now 93) demonstrating yoga on day-time television. Bette was awe-inspiring, twisting her body into bendy postures with glamour and ease.
Bette is also famous for her spectacular collection of catsuits. Perhaps you’re wondering what a catsuit is? It’s a much earlier version of the onesie, but tight-fitting and made from stretchy material. Bette always wore hers with a belt around the waist (as in the photo).
CLASS SIZES
In the 60s and 70s, yoga classes were much larger than today. A single class would often have more than 20 students. Bette Calman recalls once teaching a class in Adelaide to 254 students.
‘I’d never seen so many students in a class before! It’s still hard to believe, but there I was, up on the stage teaching. It was exactly 254 students because one of my assistants took down all their names and addresses.’
Back then, demand for yoga teachers outweighed supply, so it was easier to make a living out of teaching yoga. As Judy Morgan says, ‘Today in the Penrith region alone, up to the top of the Blue Mountains, there are about 60 yoga teachers…which means that everyone’s slice of the pie is much smaller than in previous years.’
YOGA PROPS
When most of these women started teaching, modern-day, sticky yoga mats didn’t exist. They were invented much later, in the 1980s. Instead they practised on carpeted floors, towels or earlier versions of today’s mats, made from foam (often green) carpet underlay.
There was no such thing as the use of props, including yoga blocks, chairs or straps for teaching yoga. The invention of props is generally credited to BKS Iyengar, the founder of Iyengar Yoga. Given the focus in this style of yoga on physical precision and body alignment, props were designed to assist with modifying poses to achieve the best possible alignment. Props also enable students who are new to yoga to practice safely as their bodies grow stronger and more flexible over time.
METHODS AND STYLES OF TEACHING
In the early days of Australian yoga, it was commonly taught in the ‘traditional way' (i.e. from a yoga lineage) with one-on-one, teacher-to-student instruction. Modern yoga schools with western teachers didn’t exist.
The women described this one-on-one teaching experience as incredibly special and a holistic system. In addition to learning how to explain and demonstrate each of the physical yoga postures, they studied traditional yoga philosophy, meditation, relaxation, breathing techniques, and the spiritual teachings.
Nevertheless, this wasn’t always the method of instruction. Judy Morgan recalls attending yoga classes for about three years as a student. Then one day the teacher asked Judy to teach a class.
‘I’d had no teacher training whatsoever, but taught everything I could think of in that one-hour class – until I ran out of poses to do! When I consider this situation now, I think, Oh my goodness, how on earth did I manage?’
Similarly, Vivian Vieritz’s motto in life is: 'You learn by doing'. Now 95, she says, ‘There wasn’t a special teacher training course available in those days and I didn’t have a teacher to train me – so I simply started teaching yoga on my own.’
No matter how they came to their own yoga practice the women all say it has changed their lives for the better, in so many unexpected ways.
You can watch some YouTube clips of Vivian Vieritz and Bette Calman practising yoga (located on the right-hand side of the Inspiration Page).
For more information about the book, Yoga Years, True Stories of How Yoga Transforms Ageing or to purchase the book see the Publications Page.
© kathyarthursonyoga.com
Bette is also famous for her spectacular collection of catsuits. Perhaps you’re wondering what a catsuit is? It’s a much earlier version of the onesie, but tight-fitting and made from stretchy material. Bette always wore hers with a belt around the waist (as in the photo).
CLASS SIZES
In the 60s and 70s, yoga classes were much larger than today. A single class would often have more than 20 students. Bette Calman recalls once teaching a class in Adelaide to 254 students.
‘I’d never seen so many students in a class before! It’s still hard to believe, but there I was, up on the stage teaching. It was exactly 254 students because one of my assistants took down all their names and addresses.’
Back then, demand for yoga teachers outweighed supply, so it was easier to make a living out of teaching yoga. As Judy Morgan says, ‘Today in the Penrith region alone, up to the top of the Blue Mountains, there are about 60 yoga teachers…which means that everyone’s slice of the pie is much smaller than in previous years.’
YOGA PROPS
When most of these women started teaching, modern-day, sticky yoga mats didn’t exist. They were invented much later, in the 1980s. Instead they practised on carpeted floors, towels or earlier versions of today’s mats, made from foam (often green) carpet underlay.
There was no such thing as the use of props, including yoga blocks, chairs or straps for teaching yoga. The invention of props is generally credited to BKS Iyengar, the founder of Iyengar Yoga. Given the focus in this style of yoga on physical precision and body alignment, props were designed to assist with modifying poses to achieve the best possible alignment. Props also enable students who are new to yoga to practice safely as their bodies grow stronger and more flexible over time.
METHODS AND STYLES OF TEACHING
In the early days of Australian yoga, it was commonly taught in the ‘traditional way' (i.e. from a yoga lineage) with one-on-one, teacher-to-student instruction. Modern yoga schools with western teachers didn’t exist.
The women described this one-on-one teaching experience as incredibly special and a holistic system. In addition to learning how to explain and demonstrate each of the physical yoga postures, they studied traditional yoga philosophy, meditation, relaxation, breathing techniques, and the spiritual teachings.
Nevertheless, this wasn’t always the method of instruction. Judy Morgan recalls attending yoga classes for about three years as a student. Then one day the teacher asked Judy to teach a class.
‘I’d had no teacher training whatsoever, but taught everything I could think of in that one-hour class – until I ran out of poses to do! When I consider this situation now, I think, Oh my goodness, how on earth did I manage?’
Similarly, Vivian Vieritz’s motto in life is: 'You learn by doing'. Now 95, she says, ‘There wasn’t a special teacher training course available in those days and I didn’t have a teacher to train me – so I simply started teaching yoga on my own.’
No matter how they came to their own yoga practice the women all say it has changed their lives for the better, in so many unexpected ways.
You can watch some YouTube clips of Vivian Vieritz and Bette Calman practising yoga (located on the right-hand side of the Inspiration Page).
For more information about the book, Yoga Years, True Stories of How Yoga Transforms Ageing or to purchase the book see the Publications Page.
© kathyarthursonyoga.com
[i] Khalsa, S. B., Cohen, L., McCall, T., & Telles, S. (Eds.). (2016). The Principles and Practice of Yoga in Health Care. Pencaitland, United Kingdom: Handspring Publishing Limited.