Modern postural yoga has roots in a Western tradition of harmonialism.Especially in America, it was created through a complicated process involving both cultural exchange andsyncretism of disparate approaches. Among the many ingredients are wellness programs for women based on such things as the teaching system ofFrançois Delsarte and the harmonic gymnastics ofGenevieve Stebbins.

Yoga as exercise, also called modern postural yoga by academics, is a physical activity consisting mainly ofpostures (asanas), sometimes accompanied bybreathing exercises, and frequently ending withrelaxation lying down ormeditation.Yoga in this form has become familiar across the world, especiallyin the US and Europe. It is derived from medievalHaṭha yoga, which made use of similar postures.^[2][3] This use has beendenounced as cultural appropriation, though the scholar of religion Andrea Jain writes that this ignores yoga's complex multinational history.^[4]

The scholar of yogaMark Singleton writes in his 2010 bookYoga Body that modern postural yoga derives both from Indian physical and religious practices, especially medievalhatha yoga, and from a variety of European styles of physical exercise devised in the 19th and 20th centuries.^[5] The scholar of religion Paul Bramadat writes that some yoga practitioners speak of being "spiritual but not religious",^[6] though there are multiple similarities betweenmodern postural yoga and religion.^[7]

The anthropologistSarah Strauss contrasts the goal ofclassical yoga, the isolation of the self orkaivalya, with the modern goals of good health, reduced stress, and physical flexibility.^[8]Norman Sjoman notes that many of the asanas in the yoga guruB. K. S. Iyengar's 1966 bookLight on Yoga can be traced to his teacher,Krishnamacharya (1888–1989), "but not beyond him".^[9]

Singleton writes that "postural modern yoga displaced—or was the cultural successor of—the established methods of stretching and relaxing that had already become commonplace in the West, through harmonial gymnastics and female physical culture."^[10] Both he and Anya Foxen followSydney Ahlstrom's usage "harmonial religion",^[11] for what Ahlstrom defines as "encompass[ing] those forms of piety and belief in which spiritual composure, physical health, and even economic well-being are understood to flow from a person's rapport with the cosmos."^[12]

The Swedish gymastics instructorPehr Henrik Ling (1776–1839) created a system of light or aesthetic gymnastics, which he published in 1834. It introduced a metaphysical element to physical exercise; inGeorge Herbert Taylor's words, it treated "man as a spiritual being".^[13] Ling's aesthetic gymnastics influenced systems of women'scallisthenics, such asCatharine Beecher's (1800–1878) approach.^[14]

The French teacher of singing and declamationFrançois Delsarte's (1811–1871) system of movements became popular in America around 1900. American Delsarteism, developed by the playwrightSteele MacKaye (1842–1894) for use byactors, offered women a system of ritual and harmonial movement for bodily expression. MacKaye combined the systems of Delsarte and Ling, which already shared some similarities. Some 400 American performers or teachers, mainly women, claimed to be Delsartean.^[15] American Delsarteism was committed to a Greek aesthetics, extending to "statue posing" in a Greek style. Elsie Wilbor's 1890Delsarte Recitation Book and Directory called for "care [to be] taken to make the transitions [between poses] without losing in any degree a perfect and harmonious poise of the body, and the graceful, sinuous curves of the body and limbs."^[16][17] Foxen remarks the evident parallels with the flowing transitions invinyasa yoga styles;^[16] Singleton likens the intensity of "the veritable Delsarte craze" to 21st century enthusiasm for yoga.^[18]

An American system influenced by Delsarteism was Mrs John Bailey's 1892Physical Culture. She advocated a session of light callisthenics, preceded by a period of relaxation, and accompanied by rhythmic breathing.^[19][20] A similar system by Mary Taylor Bissell, described in her 1891Physical Development and Exercise for Women, included theuse of props, which Bailey avoided.^[19][21]

• 
  Plate in the chapter "Hints for Statue-Poses" in Elsie Wilbor's 1890Delsarte Recitation Book and Directory
• 
  Physical Culture by Mrs John Bailey, 1892
• 
  Greek style: Delsarte exercises inPastimes at Home and School, 1897
• 
  Irène Popard teaching "harmonic gymnastics",Paris, 1950

Genevieve Stebbins (1857–1934) incorporated Ling, "oriental dance",^[22] and American Delsarteism (without exactly claiming to be Delsartian) into her system of "harmonic gymnastics". She explained that "These exercises free the channels of expression, and the current of nervous force can thus rush through them as a stream of water rushes through a channel, unclogged by obstacles. We name these exercises decomposing."^[16] Foxen comments that this implied a purification of the body to allow it full harmonic expression. Stebbins further paired her harmonic gymnastics with "dynamic breathing" to form a system of "psycho-physical culture".^[16] She described all this as "a completely rounded system for the development of body, brain, and soul".^[22]

Warren Felt Evans (1817–1889) combined Ling's aesthetic gymnastics withEmanuel Swedenborg's spiritual system. It foreshadowed both Delsarteism and several other harmonial physical culture approaches. More widely, theNew Thought movement sought to address the connection of mind and body. A key aspect of this connection is a yoga-like focus on the breath to accompany movement of the body. Towards the end of the 19th century, authors began to allude, sometimes vaguely and inaccurately, to Eastern religion and philosophy.^[19]

In 1892, Stebbins a little more precisely called one of her exercises "yoga breathing". In Singleton's view, her system of breathing was directly connected topranayama, noting that she explained that it was "so called because it is used by the Brahmins and Yogis of India".^[22][23] Foxen disagrees, as Stebbins' breath exercises were performed lying down, unlike the seated asanas used inhatha yoga'spranayama breath control; nor does it make use of the alternate nostril breathing popularised in North America byVivekananda.^[24] All the same, in Foxen's view, Stebbins had transformed "American Delsarteism ... from ... a theologized language of expression into a full-blown spiritual practice encompassing both breath and movement."^[24]

• 
  Genevieve Stebbins incorporated American Delsarteism into her system of "harmonic gymnastics".^[16]

Stebbins's approach shaped two founders ofmodern dance: the Indian-style "nautch girl"Ruth St. Denis (1879–1968), and the choreographerIsadora Duncan (1877–1927) who embodied Delsarteism's neoclassical aesthetic. St. Denis was familiar with Stebbins's writings, and was influenced by seeing a group of Indian dancers atConey Island, most likely of the classical North IndianKathak form, in 1904, two years before her solo debut, playing the Hindu goddessRadha (consort ofKrishna). Foxen suggests that in St. Denis's mind, Indian dance and yoga were interwoven. In her view, St. Denis's work came close to "something like contemporary Indian postural yoga both in actuality and in spirit."^[25] In 1915, St. Denis was teaching "yogi meditation" at herDenishawn school inLos Angeles, where she invitedSwami Paramananda to lead a meditation. She felt that both she and Duncan were trying "to fuse certain elements of life and movement into a deeper identification with the natural expressions of being".^[26]

By the 1910s, Western women in high society had adopted forms of gymnastics resembling dance for exercise, in place of Delsarteism. One such form was the Swiss composerÉmile Jaques-Dalcroze (1865–1950)'sDalcroze eurhythmics, using music and movement; it was clearly in the same tradition of "lightly metaphysical gymnastics", and had something in common with Duncan's dance method.^[27] Another form was what was called "Oriental dance", though it only superficially resembled anything from the East.^[27]

Later in her career, in the 1930s, St. Denis met an Indian practitioner ofpostural yoga, Mr Mehta, and was impressed by his flowing movements combined with use of the breath. Her belief in the close relationship between breath, body, and spirit communicated itself to her pupils, including the modern dancer and choreographerMartha Graham. Her work embodied both the exotically Indian (which Graham came to reject) and the harmonial.^[26]

Meanwhile, the actress and dancerMarguerite Agniel (1891–c. 1971), trained in the Dalcroze method and in St. Denis's school, was writing about beauty and fitness for American women inVogue and later other magazines includingPhysical Culture. Her 1931 bookThe Art of the Body: Rhythmic Exercise for Health and Beauty contains several poses that closely resemble asanas in modern postural yoga. Foxen comments that the seated poses, like her 'Buddha position', are based on (American) 'Oriental dance', and any mentions of yoga are at best vague, with a "rather bizarre amalgamation" of influences. Overall, though, her gymnastics is clearly harmonial.^[28][29]

At the same time in Britain,Mary Bagot Stack (1883–1935) was teaching yoga-like postures to the Women's League of Health and Beauty in her "Bagot Stack Stretch-and-Swing System". She had travelled to India, and had learnt some yoga poses there.^[30][31]

Singleton commented that "women during the 1930s commonly engaged in much the same forms of bodily activity that they do today under the name of yoga".^[32][33] Foxen suggests that instead, white women in the 1890s did something much likemodern postural yoga, but it was not called yoga; whereas by the 1930s it was sometimes actually called yoga (and sometimes not).^[32]

• 
  Ruth St. Denis
  asRadha, c. 1906
• 
  Mary Bagot Stack in "Seal" posture (Salabhasana, locust pose inyoga as exercise), 1931
• 
  Marguerite Agniel in a posture close toHalasana, plough pose, c. 1928

In 1920,Paramahansa Yogananda arrived in the United States, teachingKriya yoga, a form of yoga that makes use ofpranayama breath control, repetition ofmantras, andmudra (gestures); it was quite different from the vague ideas of yoga that had been current in the West.^[36] His "Yogoda" program, however, incorporated callisthenic exercises based on Western physical culture (tracing back toPehr Henrik Ling) for mass consumption, even though he taught asanas to his close followers.^[37] Yogananda's system was likely based on the physical culture of the Danish strongmanJørgen Peter Müller and the GermanMaxick, and, Foxen suggests, perhaps Stebbins's as well given Yogoda's spiritual aspect and use of specific phrases like "beauty of form" and "grace of expression"; or it might be Delsarteism more generally.^[38]Vivekananda too had avoided asanas, except for adopting aseated position for meditation, though his use of breathwork can be described as a physical practice.^[37]

Yogendra (1897–1989) came toNew York State in 1919, setting up the Yoga Institute of America at Harriman.^[39] His yoga, however, was a system of asanas^[40] and "yoga breathing" (pranayama), both of which he related to Western physical culture. He discussed breathing with respect to Stebbins, and his system included "harmony" as an objective. His emphasis on breathing rhythmically in time with the body's movement recalls Stebbins, with roots in the harmonial physical culture systems of Delsarte and Dalcroze.^[41]

Indra Devi (1899–2002) helped to popularise modern postural yoga through her celebrity pupils inHollywood from 1948.^[42] She taught asanas and pranayama, avoiding spiritual teaching, to men as well as women,^[43][44] though in Elliott Goldberg's view she presentedyoga for women as a "beauty secret, youth elixir, and health tonic".^[45] Foxen sees in Devi's writings "a blurring between yoga's Indian roots and its adaptation into a harmonial context."^[42] She alludes toprana andkundalini, while emphasising that yoga is not just about developing muscles, but "the functions of the entire organism", or as Foxen concludes "In other words, harmony".^[42]

• 
  Yogendra, here sitting inSiddhasana, taught asanas and pranayama, which he carefully related to Western physical culture.^[41]

• Yoga as exercise

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