Photograph by Mark Kocina
Malini Srinivasan, owner of Dancing Yogi, looks at a wooden horse mural in the art gallery that she recently added to her yoga studio.
Yoga teacher combines ardor for art and exercise at studio
By Rebecca Ray
Last year, Malini Srinivasan broke away from being a full-time mom to indulge a lifelong passion. Srinivasan, who had studied Indian dance and yoga for 25 years, opened a studio called Dancing Yogi, where she teaches yoga classes that integrate Indian dance.
Recently, Srinivasan fulfilled another lifetime desire. She bought the office space across the patio from her yoga studio, converted it to an art gallery and made it part of Dancing Yogi. Both the gallery, which Srinivasan opened on June 24, and studio are at 14598 Big Basin Way.
The near 500-square-foot gallery displays various types of Indian art, including paintings supplied by Art Exotica; embroidered cushions; kavadi Kattais (wooden plaques used to decorate walls); ganjifas (handmade and hand-painted playing and fortune-telling cards); bronze statues; oil lamps; decorated wooden boxes; hand-woven baskets; jewelry; hand-painted silk scarves; and handmade gift bags.
Also for sale is a pot stand made from intertwined sticks that lock together in two places, so that the stand can either fold up or fold out to hold a pot. Along the patio are sandstone figures from Orissa, India, that can be converted to fountains. Srinivasan, who says she believes that every customer should be able to afford a work of art, has prices that range from $20 to thousands of dollars.
Srinivasan has done oil paintings and ceramics, embroidered skirts and painted skirts, and pillow covers since she was in her early teens. She loves to decorate her Saratoga home, which she says looks much like her gallery, and make gifts for acquaintances. She attended an art school in India that her mother, Komala Rangachari, ran for 25 years. Rangachari, who now helps run the gallery, also does oil paintings and makes pots and painted fabric. Mother and daughter plan to sell their works at the gallery.
Across the patio, Srinivasan teaches beginning and intermediate vinyasa yoga classes at least once a day. Other instructors teach beginning, intermediate and advanced hatha yoga. Vinyasa yoga is derived from hatha yoga, which is typically taught as a combination of Asanas (poses) and Pranayama (breath control). In Srinivasan's vinyasa yoga class, poses and the flow, or Vinyasas, of movements are choreographed to meditative Indian music. She also teaches Indian dance, which incorporates yoga, in her vinyasa yoga classes. It was Srinivasan's blending of yoga and dance that inspired her husband, Srini, to name the business "Dancing Yogi."
Srinivasan plans to start classes at the studio that focus more on Indian dance. She has practiced yoga and danced since she was 7 or 8 years old, growing up in Madras, which is now Chennai, in southern India.
Srinivasan moved to Saratoga 11 years ago to be with Srini, who had gotten a job in the Bay Area after going to graduate school in the United States. Srini had come to the U.S. to be exposed to a different culture and educational system.
Srinivasan opened her studio, which she says is probably 550 square feet, last year, after careers as a tax accountant and full-time mom. A few months after she opened the studio, she began to teach yoga at the YMCA in Cupertino, where she still teaches it once a week.
"[Yoga is] very relaxing, very meditative," Srinivasan said. "I enjoy teaching people. It increases my energy, and I'm able to go a full day without feeling tired, and I'd like to share that with people."
Saratoga, California Since 1955
