Alexander Bianchi ’14

January 2013

Becoming the Breath: A Critical Field Study of the Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga Practice

Alexander Bianchi ’14 a Religion major who is off to Mysore, India for the January Winter Term. He will be expanding his deep interests in Ashtanga Vinyasa yoga by studying the practice at its place of origin, the Shri K. Pattabhi Jois Ashtanga Yoga Institute. He has intensively studied yoga for two and a half years, both in the United States and Mexico and is planning a capstone paper on yoga and the contemporary world. During his time abroad, he plans to not only study the pedagogy of the practice but also look more deeply into the student-teacher relationship and the techniques used in physically and energetically aligning the body. He hopes to further his understanding of the history as an amalgam of Indian traditions and Western colonial influence by investigating the ways in which the massive influx of Westerners to Mysore has affected the teaching of the practice.