Scaravelli Inspired Yoga
with
Catherine Annis

over 30 years yoga experience

The yoga Catherine teaches has been inspired by the pioneering approach of Vanda Scaravelli. It's a gentle yet demanding form of Hatha yoga, which concentrates on developing core strength through releasing tension and creating length in the spine. It uses the breath and gravity to allow the spine to unfold like a wave, allowing the uninhibited opening and energising of the whole body. As Vanda explains in the opening page of her book “Awakening the Spine”:

Vanda's teachings are miraculously simple. She encouraged her students to do less, feel more. To unwind, release unnecessary tension, and begin to simply be. “You must only undo. The more you undo, the more you are and the more things come to you. Don't try to become; you are.” 

Catherine never had the privilege of meeting Vanda, but she has worked with many of her key students. Her first Scaravelli inspired yoga class was taught by Alex Grey (who was a student of Diane Long’s – one of Vanda’s long term students). Catherine had been practicing for around 15 years, going to Sivananda, Iyengar, Astanga - all kinds of classes, experiencing as much as possible. Alex was teaching elbow dog, and it was a revelation. As she explains: "I wanted to push right into it, to really “do” the pose, but she held me right back and stopped me - and it felt completely different". At the beginning Catherine found this frustrating, because it felt as though she couldn't "complete" the pose. On one level the sensations were much more subtle and delicate – the complete antithesis to the familiar feelings of working hard and "having a good stretch". But after a while Catherine discovered that "Alex was making me integrate. Rather than hanging out on my flexibility, she was making me work from the centre, from deeply inside, engaging my whole self in that simple movement. That was my first experience of Vanda’s approach, and it hooked me and kept bringing me back to discover more." 

Shortly after that Catherine began to work with John Stirk, and finally began to understand the importance of gravity. John became her teacher and mentor for 12 years, and they now collaborate on the Scaravelli Inspired Yoga Immersion course each year at Triyoga. John's insights into Vanda Scaravelli's life and work, and his own inspired approach to yoga and living has profoundly enriched Catherine's practice and teaching .

The pull of gravity under our feet makes it possible for us to extend the upper part of the spine, and this extension allows us also to release between the vertebrae.  Gravity is like a magnet attracting us to the earth, but this attraction is not limited to pulling us down, it also allows us to stretch in the opposite direction towards the sky”. Vanda Scaravelli

Vanda Scaravelli spoke often of the importance of surrendering to gravity and dropping the bones towards the earth, and it took real time (several years!) and persistence to experience that sense of softening and releasing with real clarity.  As Vanda realised, the body needs patience: "to absorb the teaching requires infinite time and no ambition".

One of Vanda Scaravelli’s great gifts to our yoga practice was freedom.  She gave us permission to follow our own inner teacher, liberating yoga practice from the restriction of rules and traditions.  She encouraged students to understand that, ultimately, we are our own best teachers – all we have to do is listen deeply and increase our awareness. "Do not kill the instinct of the body for the glory of the pose. Do not look at your body like a stranger, but adopt a friendly approach towards it. Watch it, listen to it, observe its needs, its requests, and even have fun. To be sensitive is to be alive." 

Great friends with the philosopher, Jiddu Krishnamurti, Vanda Scaravelli shared his ideas about the dangers of organisations, concerned that creating a fixed technique would kill the spontaneity of the practice and reduce it to a series of instructions. "Be careful, very careful about organisations. Yoga cannot be organised, must not be organised." She never wanted to develop a school of "Scaravelli inspired yoga", rather she encouraged her students to research the work for themselves, and to develop their own individual appraoch to the yoga.  With the blessing of her own teacher, BKS Iyengar, she adapted techniques, and altered some of the positions so that they became more helpful to her (shortening the standing positions, changing the orientation of the hands for headstand), and simply began to practice in a way that made sense to her, and that was helpful on that day, with that particular breath.

When we practice, we have to approach each moment as if it is completely new, something never previously experienced.  There is a tendency to step onto the yoga mat with expectations that today will feel like yesterday, that this or that position was easy then, and so it will be today.  However, a regular practice will reveal subtle (and sometimes not so subtle!) differences and nuances.  Each day, each breath, is fresh and new.  Keeping our minds open, allowing ourselves to feel everything as if for the first time, will allow us time to deepen our awareness, to notice shifts and to find new ways of moving with ease and fluidity. It helps, too, to keep our practice alive, vital and inspiring.

In many classes, teachers tell students what to do - where to put a hand or a foot, or when to breathe. It’s clear from Vanda’s students and her book, however, that Vanda Scaravelli's legacy is not what to do, but how to listen to ourselves, so that we too can practice yoga in a way that makes sense personally, in our own bodies and minds. This freedom liberates us from trying to attain an ideal, and it ultimately allows us to create our own personal yoga practice, and helps us to get in touch with our own true selves.

This may sound a little trite, but the point of yoga practice has always been to help us understand ourselves, so that we can become more authentic, fulfilled and, ultimately, happier people. 

All photos are with kind permission of Pinter & Martin, publishers of "Awakening the Spine: Yoga for Health, Vitality and Energy"
by Vanda Scaravelli