Dorothy's Story, Dorothy Robinson with Poppy Pickles

Dorothy's Story

Dorothy Robinson with Poppy Pickles

Dorothy Robinson was the first female Black Iyengar yoga teacher in the UK. A full-time nurse and the mother of five children, she began her yoga journey at Adult Education classes in 1977 and went on to become one of the first generation of Western senior teachers, who became close to BKS Iyengar and his whole family. Born in Jamaica, and now living in Barbados, she comes back regularly to the UK to see her family. We met on a hot afternoon in south east London in her pristine house, with a yoga studio built onto the back of the house, complete with wooden backbender. Dorothy Richard-Evans, or Robinson, as she was known then, was there at the start of the IY(UK) organisation, well before it was known as that. She was there fundraising for Maida Vale through doing sponsored headbalances in Hyde Park, to turn the dilapidated artists’ studios into the beautiful studio space many of us know today. She had a relationship with BKS Iyengar that clearly meant a great deal to her, as well as some incredible images of that time. Here is her story, in her own words:

Clockwise, from top left: Dorothy in Paschimotānāsana; with Guruji's grandson; in Dwi Pada Vīparita Daņḍāsana; in Parivrtta Trikonāsana; Guruji adjusting Dorothy in Marīchyāsana 1, Guruji's toe adjustment to her back heel in Parivrtta Trikonāsana.

The Journey from Student to Teacher

I started attending yoga classes in 1977, because I had some belly fat after having five children and I wanted to go on holiday! My youngest son Richard started school at Adamsrill (in Sydenham in south east London) and I went along to adult education classes at Hazeltine school. My first teacher was Murial Flat, the gentlest teacher, and I attended her classes for a couple of years. One day she was running late and the other students asked me to go to the front and teach. I didn’t know what to say, but I was tall and thin and good at doing the postures, so I did, and after that Muriel suggested that I might want to learn to teach yoga. It had never occurred to me to teach, but when she suggested it I thought, ‘why not?’ Back in my day there was no formal assessment process. We would be mentored with our main teacher, and then we would go to study with Silva Mehta who would pronounce when we were ready to go out into the world and teach. A group of us would go to Eltham on a Friday night and we would take turns teaching in her class. I was the only Black girl (at the time I was referred to as ‘coloured’), and I remember the other trainees had fancy cars like BMWs and Ford Escorts and I had a battered old Triumph Herald. I do remember that before we could be officially registered as teachers we had to go to the College of PE to get a certificate from Silva Mehta, and while all the other girls did that after about two years, I still wasn’t selected. Genie Hammond asked why and she was told that Silva had never heard of me – the following week I went to the College of PE. In fact, my own teacher told me that while I was a ‘very attractive coloured girl’ (her words at the time), it might be hard for me to become a teacher because ‘no one would listen to me’. She meant it kindly. In fact, my very first job was when I went to cover for another teacher at an Adult Education class in South Norwood. The next week the students (all white students) wrote a letter asking that the cover teacher

Top, then bottom: Guruji demonstrating how Dorothy did Śīrṣāsana with bent legs!; adjusting her feet in Śīrṣāsana (me) come back and take over the class! I accepted and taught there for 15 years. The first class of my own that I was given was in Brixton (no surprises there) and I had a very small class, but there was a large group of Irish mothers who would come to learn Irish dancing. I persuaded them to come to my class if I could make it an earlier time, and they did, bringing their children with them too. I did in fact go on to take two assessments, but then when I was in Pune Guruji asked me ‘What do you want a bit of paper for?’ and he told me there and then that I was a senior teacher. I went on to take over teacher training in south London from Genie Hammond and at least 40 teachers passed their assessment through me, many of whom are now senior teachers themselves.

Meeting the Iyengars

In 1982 I went for my first intensive in Pune. I was terrified. I’d heard all about this strict teacher – Mr Iyengar. Genie Hammond mentioned this to Guruji when we were there and he told her ‘She’s doing very well’, which certainly helped! In fact, once I was there I didn’t see the scariness at all. The other teachers called him Mr Iyengar, but to me he was always just Guruji, my guru. Guruji and Geetaji both did amazing physical adjustments. Your body would respond to their touch and then never forget the adjustment. In Parivṛtta Trikonāsana Guruji would pin down my achilles with his feet and then I could turn so much more (see picture on p. 45). [Dorothy shows me video footage from 1996 when Guruji teaches handstand, then goes up next to Dorothy. She’s laughing because she knows that means she’ll have to stay up in the pose now. She comes down twice and goes up again, while Guruji stays there telling her to get back up with a twinkle in his eye.] I got to know Guruji, Geetaji and Prashantji, not just as teachers, but as people, mainly because we stayed in a room in the institute itself (RIMYI). In fact there were five of us on one room with beds side by side; Silva Mehta, Genie Hammond, Sylvia Prescot, Janine Horn and myself. Silva taught us to use a tiny gas cooker to boil the buffalo milk to pasteurise it. Early in the morning we would go upstairs to the hall to watch

Clockwise, from top left: Dorothy adorning Guruji with a garland at a Guru festival; Guruji, Dorothy, Geetaji and Genie Hammond in Genie's kitchen; being adjusted by Geetaji in Rope Śīrṣāsana

the Iyengar family practice, which would begin any time from 4 am. I got to know Geetaji and Sonita, and I was also very friendly with Savita, Guruji’s youngest daughter. I would play with his grandchildren who would call me Dorothy Auntie. We would go to the library there and if Guruji was in there you could ask him anything. He was very accessible in those days. I went to three or four intensives in Pune, and then after that I would go for a month and attend the General classes, which I preferred. That way you got the full four-week cycle of standing poses, seated poses, backbends and Prāņāyāma. I was also asked to help in the remedial classes where I would learn so much just from watching and listening and working out why Guruji and Geetaji gave certain postures to people with different conditions. Prashant was also an amazing teacher. Before his accident his postures were incredible. I remember doing classes with him and you’d only do four postures, but by the end your whole body ached. My Iyengar Inheritance

Guruji taught me so much. I saw him cross, laughing, sympathetic. I saw his warmth. He told me not to overteach or be too verbal in my classes. He would say ‘Hey Dorothy, you look. You don’t need a class plan, read your class and you will get your class through looking.’ I would say ‘Tāḍāsana’, and there would be a student with one shoulder higher than the other, so my class would be about looking at the shoulders. I would say ‘Trikonāsana’ and the students’ knees would be forward and their buttocks out, so my class would be about taking the buttocks in. It was common sense to me. You just had to see what was needed. I’ve had a wonderful life teaching yoga, it’s really enhanced my life. I’ve taught everywhere; London, South Africa and Barbados. By practising yoga you get in touch with parts of yourself that someone who doesn’t do yoga can’t understand. I see celebrities now with these incredibly toned bodies; yoga students don’t have a six-pack, but we do have self-control and peace of mind. It’s about how it makes you feel, not how it makes you look. You can’t get that benefit from anything else. I started going to yoga classes to get a flat belly, and instead got to know myself and my ability. Yoga was never a job for me, I kept nursing until I retired. Yoga was something else, a way of life and a privilege.