More Information about the Director

Lois Steinberg considers her experiences as a young child to be the starting point of her yoga studies. In grammar school in the 1960s, a strict disciplinarian conducted physical education activities three times daily. Looking back, she realized that her fortunate educational experience attached importance to the development of the body as well as the mind.

In 1970, Lois, then fourteen, happened to turn on Lilias, Yoga, and You, a public television program, by Lilias Folan. Instantly taken by the postures and breathing exercises, Lois incorporated them into her physical education background as it increased her flexibility. In the mid-70s, while an undergraduate at the University of Illinois, a friend gave her the book Light on Yoga, by B.K.S. Iyengar. Together they were in awe of the man whose postures were depicted, as he didn’t seem to have a spine! Lois accompanied her friend to a yoga class. The teacher said to follow along, asked if it felt good, but didn’t give any instruction. Returning to such a class made no sense as it offered nothing to augment her already ongoing practice.

Lois continued to practice in this way, also running five miles daily. While jogging on an indoor track she observed a woman in the middle of the arena doing a beautiful head balance. Perhaps she could learn something from her. Having approached her to ask why her yoga was different, the woman replied that she had studied with a teacher who studied with B.K.S. Iyengar in India. It was a shock to learn the man in the book was alive!

The woman taught Lois the Iyengar Yoga method and together they traveled to California to study with her teacher. There, she experienced total physical, mental, and spiritual transformation. Back in Illinois, she practiced the Iyengar method early each day, using Light on Yoga as a guide.

Her small practice group found out too late that Iyengar had been in Ann Arbor, Michigan, to teach and lecture in 1976. In 1977, however, they traveled to Ann Arbor frequently to study with the first generation of his teachers: Mary Palmer, Priscilla Neel, and Suzie Vidrih. Slowly, yoga completely replaced the running routine, as her practice brought an understanding of the damage running could bring to the body.

Not interested in teaching yoga, Lois initially resisted when a teacher in the practice group insisted she present a pose each day. With time she grew to love teaching and understanding that being a teacher is finding your way to knowledge by sharing with other people. She started teaching in the community as well as at her job as a mental health specialist for state-institutionalized emotionally handicapped children (1978-1982).

In December 1982, Lois made her first yearlong trip to the Ramamani Iyengar Memorial Yoga Institute (RIMYI) in Pune, India. Trying to hide in the back on the first day of class, she felt a bolt of lightning on her arm. Guruji, as he is affectionately called, moved her to the front row, dead center. As he instructed to jump the legs apart in preparation for standing postures, Lois was lost in her thought of the man on the platform, no longer just a picture in the book. Guruji boomed, "You! You are a beginner! You are looking up at the ceiling, instead of down into your soul! " It took her ten years to look up again. That first year, Lois was very fortunate to also learn in RIMYI’s medical classes. While learning how to work with the students in the classes, Guruji corrected her teaching. She has since made regular extended journeys to study with the Iyengars and returns there annually.

Upon returning to Champaign-Urbana from her yearlong study in India, Lois began graduate school in Nutritional Sciences and continued teaching yoga in the community. She also received an assistantship to teach yoga to undergraduate and graduate students, instructing over 3000 students, who were all required to evaluate her. Lois learned a lot from this feedback and received outstanding excellent ratings from the students nine years in a row. Lois received her doctoral degree in 1992, and worked in academics for one year until she retired from it, turning to what was already the main focus of her life, yoga. In 1998, Guruji awarded Lois an advanced level teaching certificate and granted her permission to use his name for her institute, the Iyengar Yoga Institute of Champaign-Urbana (Illinois).

From 1998 to 2002, Lois served on the board of the Iyengar Yoga National Association of the US as Chair of the Medical Research, Service/Certification Marks, and Nomination Committees, and is also a member of the Certification Committee. She produced Sadhana magazine for the Iyengar Yoga Odyssey 2001 convention and coordinated the 1997 International Women’s Intensive Yoga Course at RIMYI having produced the notes from that course. Geeta S. Iyengar, Guruji’s daughter, accomplished yoga master, and author of Yoga: A Gem for Women, came to Champaign-Urbana. She blessed the Iyengar Yoga Institute of Champaign-Urbana, taught, and lectured there to the students. In addition to producing manuals codifying Iyengar Yoga therapeutics, Lois has a number of publications to her credit.