''Lilias, Yoga and You'' (later shortened to ''Lilias!'') is a

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcasting, public broadcaster and Non-commercial activity, non-commercial, Terrestrial television, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly fu ...

television show hosted by Lilias Folan, a

Cincinnati, Ohio Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wit ...

based practitioner of

yoga as exercise Yoga as exercise is a physical activity consisting mainly of postures, often connected by flowing sequences, sometimes accompanied by breathing exercises, and frequently ending with relaxation lying down or meditation. Yoga in this form has ...

. The show first aired on October 5, 1970 on Cincinnati

member station WCET and three years later was carried on PBS across the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

, where it ran until 1999.

Yoga presenter

Lilias Folan (born 1936) began to practice

in 1964, and was soon teaching at the YWCA in

Stamford, Connecticut Stamford () is a city in the U.S. state of Connecticut, outside of Manhattan. It is Connecticut's second-most populous city, behind Bridgeport. With a population of 135,470, Stamford passed Hartford and New Haven in population as of the 2020 ...

. She studied

asana An asana is a body posture, originally and still a general term for a sitting meditation pose,Verse 46, chapter II, "Patanjali Yoga sutras" by Swami Prabhavananda, published by the Sri Ramakrishna Math p. 111 and later extended in hatha yoga ...

s under the yoga masters

T. K. V. Desikachar Tirumalai Krishnamacharya Venkata Desikachar (21 June 1938 – 8 August 2016), better known as T. K. V. Desikachar, was a yoga teacher, son of the pioneer of modern yoga as exercise, Tirumalai Krishnamacharya. The style that he taught was initia ...

B. K. S. Iyengar Bellur Krishnamachar Sundararaja Iyengar (14 December 1918 – 20 August 2014) was an Indian teacher of yoga and author. He is founder of the style of yoga as exercise, known as " Iyengar Yoga", and was considered one of the foremost yoga guru ...

, and

Angela Farmer Angela Farmer (born c. 1939) is a teacher of modern yoga as exercise in a non-lineage style that emphasizes the feminine, free-flowing aspect. She is known also as the creator of the first yoga mat. She was trained by the yoga guru B. K. S. Iyen ...

, and gained wider knowledge of

yoga Yoga (; sa, योग, lit=yoke' or 'union ) is a group of physical, mental, and spiritual practices or disciplines which originated in ancient India and aim to control (yoke) and still the mind, recognizing a detached witness-consciou ...

under the Sivananda Yoga masters

Swami Vishnudevananda Vishnudevananda Saraswati (31 December 1927 – 9 November 1993) was an Indian yoga guru known for his teaching of asanas, a disciple of Sivananda Saraswati, and founder of the International Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centres and Ashrams. He establ ...

and

Swami Satchidananda Satchidananda Saraswati (; 22 December 1914 – 19 August 2002), born C. K. Ramaswamy Gounder and usually known as Swami Satchidananda, was an Indian yoga guru and religious teacher, who gained fame and following in the West. He founded his own ...

. She joined the Connecticut

ashram An ashram ( sa, आश्रम, ) is a spiritual hermitage or a monastery A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in communities or a ...

of the

Divine Life Society The Divine Life Society (DLS) is a Hindu spiritual organisation and an ashram, founded by Swami Sivananda Saraswati in 1936, at Muni Ki Reti, Rishikesh, India. Today it has branches around the world, the headquarters being situated in Rishikes ...

led by Swami Chidananda. In the 1980s she met

Swami Muktananda Swami Muktananda Paramahamsa (16 May 1908 – 2 October 1982), born Krishna Rai, was a yoga guru, the founder of Siddha Yoga. He was a disciple of Bhagavan Nityananda. He wrote books on the subjects of Kundalini Shakti, Vedanta, and Kash ...

, creator of

Siddha Yoga Siddha Yoga is a spiritual path founded by Swami Muktananda (1908–1982). The organization states in its literature that the Siddha Yoga tradition is "based mainly on eastern philosophies". It also states that it "draws many of its teachings f ...

, who told her to teach

meditation Meditation is a practice in which an individual uses a technique – such as mindfulness, or focusing the mind on a particular object, thought, or activity – to train attention and awareness, and achieve a mentally clear and emotionally cal ...

. Through her show she became known to Americans as the "First Lady of Yoga". She is married with two sons and seven grandchildren.

''Lilias! Yoga Gets Better With Age''

WCET premiered ''Lilias! Yoga Gets Better With Age'' in March 2006, highlighting Folan's career and exploring the impact yoga has on the mind, body and spirit.Lilias! page
CETconnect.org; accessed July 26, 2017.

Books and other media

Folan has published four books: ''Lilias, Yoga and You'' (1972), ''Lilias, Yoga and Your Life'' (1981), ''Lilias! Yoga Gets Better With Age'' (2005), and ''Lilias! Yoga: Your Guide to Enhancing Body, Mind, and Spirit in Midlife and Beyond'' (November 1, 2011) Several VHS and DVD recordings of her yoga routines have been released, plus an audio-only book, ''Lilias Yoga Complete'' (1987), and one meditation CD, ''The Inner Smile'' (1998).

Music

The music playing during the show's opening credits was "The Valley of the Bells" from

Maurice Ravel Joseph Maurice Ravel (7 March 1875 – 28 December 1937) was a French composer, pianist and conductor. He is often associated with Impressionism along with his elder contemporary Claude Debussy, although both composers rejected the term. In ...

's ''

Miroirs upRavel in 1907 ''Miroirs'' (French for "Mirrors") is a five-movement suite for solo piano written by French composer Maurice Ravel between 1904 and 1905."Miroirs". Maurice Ravel Frontispice. First performed by Ricardo Viñes in 1906, ''Miroir ...

''.

Commentary

''San Francisco Chronicle'' columnist Gerald Nachman observed of the television program in 1979, "My yoga lady remains a mystery woman, a comely creature from a distant planet ... Lilias is demure and quite serious ... By far her most intriguing aspect is that she never sweats ... She seems friendly, but if you tried flirting, I suspect she'd politely guide the conversation back to firming up those inner thighs."Gerald Nachman, "A love that's shaping up," ''San Francisco Chronicle'', August 29, 1979 (re-printed as "Chronicle Classic" in January 13, 2013 "Datebook" section).

References

Sources

* *

External links

*
LILIAS FOLAN: First Lady of Yoga Cincinnati Fifty Plus! August 2003 By Kirstin Taylor
* {{Modern Yoginis Yoga mass media Exercise television shows PBS original programming 1972 American television series debuts 1999 American television series endings Mass media in Cincinnati 1980s American television series