PM Modi and Annelies Richmond to lead Yoga Day session at UN HQ: Who is the New York ballerina-turned-yogini?

It will undoubtedly be a moment to watch. The headquarters of the United Nations in New York will twist and bend into various asanas to celebrate the ninth International Day of Yoga. And leading the UN delegates will be Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who arrived in New York on Tuesday night.

Modi is going to lead the unique and historic yoga session at the UN headquarters which will see participation from top UN officials, envoys across the world and other prominent individuals. Ahead of his ‘special class’, Modi even shared a video message, saying that India has always nurtured traditions that unite, adopt and embrace and made a fervent appeal to eliminate contradictions, hurdles and resistances through yoga. “We have to eliminate our contradictions, blockages and resistances through Yoga. We have to present the spirit of ‘Ek Bharat, Shreshtha Bharat’ as an example to the world,” Modi said.

Accompanying Modi in this special yoga session that India’s Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador Ruchira Kamboj called a “unique occasion” is New York City professional ballerina Annelies Richmond.

The 47-year-old ballerina, who is also a yoga trainer and a faculty member at several prestigious universities in the United States, Richmond will lead the yoga session for 25 minutes at the outdoor area of the UN Headquarters, reported The Indian Express. “I will be heading a group of six American children – in the age group of 8-12 years – who have been practising ‘asanas’,” she was quoted as telling the newspaper, “It is a great honour for me to be leading the yoga session for PM Modi.”

When asked how she was approached for the big-ticket event, she told Indian Express that the opportunity came to her through Indian representatives at the UN, through her local teacher in New York City.

But who exactly is Annelies Richmond? What are her yoga credentials?

Ballerina-turned-yogi

Annelies Richmond has spent 15 years in New York City as a professional ballerina with the Metropolitan Opera. Her first brush with yoga came when she was just 18 and at the time she wasn’t a fan of it, believing it to be just stretching.

However, five years later, when she turned 23, she came into contact with yoga through Sri Sri Ravi Shankar’s Art of Living (AOL) once again and it was then that the love story began. Richmond says that initially the yoga asanas helped in her physical healing, from her injuries and stiffness.

Suffering from nervousness before hitting the dance stage, she realised that pranayama and sudarshan kriya – breathing practices – helped her and made her calmer and more centred.

Moved by the benefits of yoga, she then founded the SKY Campus Happiness Program, which is a well-being programme for university students. The program is utilised by students in over 100 universities across America.

Richmond also serves as a faculty member at the University of Southern Maine, and conducts lectures at top-tier institutes such as Yale University, MIT, UPENN, and Columbia University.

According to a report published by The Quint, she has also taught youngsters at correctional facilities across the country.

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Richmond, India and AOL

Richmond’s yoga connection is through Sri Sri Ravi Shankar’s Art of Living and she attributes her love for the ancient Indian practice to the centre.

In 2006, Richmond travelled to Bengaluru to the AOL campus to learn yoga and since then she has enjoyed an Indian connect. She has travelled to the country on several occasions and has praised the country and yoga for her outlook to life.

In one of her blog posts, she writes about yoga, “My first experience with Art of Living and the teachings of Sri Sri Ravi Shankar completely blew me away. I started noticing the trees when I would walk to the subway. I started feeling happier at work. Anything bothersome that would happen would just roll off my back, as long as I was practicing the techniques I’d learned. But the most astounding thing for me, and for my career, was that after I started practicing meditation daily, the nervousness just disappeared. Performance felt natural and normal, like I was in my living room. I remember walking on stage at the Metropolitan Opera in front of four thousand people and not feeling nervous at all.”

She adds it was this feeling that led her to begin teaching for Art of Living, and learning about how confidence and compassion are intertwined.

Today, Richmond has the honour of having trained over 1,200 certified meditation instructors across five countries as the director of Teacher Training for Art of Living-USA.

With inputs from agencies

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