Hemalayaa Behl

Hemalayaa Behl was born in Toronto in 1974 of Punjabi origins and as a second generation Canadian. Remembering as a child with her family watching numerous Bollywood films, Hemalayaa quickly became passionate by Indian dance and by 3 years of age, she was improvising on the coffee table at home like a Bollywood star. Her destiny was marked. Her parents concerned with preserving their rich culture heritage taught their daughter Indian values and religion. Her father introduced her to hatha yoga and taught her meditation in the family's "god room" dedicated to prayer.

In order to better understand herself, Hemalayaa left her parent’s strict home-life and moved to Vancouver Island. After several years of living accordingly to her desires, she felt a profound desire to renew her Indian roots. She soon devoted herself seriously to studying spirituality and yoga following world-renowned masters such as Shiva Rea and Jeffrey Armstrong. "The journey of life took me back into liking myself and, from liking myself, into loving my culture," she reflected.

Dancer and choreographer of Indian dance, Hemalayaa Behl has taught meditation and yoga in Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, New York, Toronto, Vancouver, and Montreal. She also produced four DVDs presenting her yoga and dance techniques, Yoga for Urban Living (2001), Dosha Yoga (2005), Yoga for Young Bodies (2006) and finally, The Bollywood Dance Workout that combines physical exercise with Indian dance. She is currently writing a monthly newsletter entitled ‘Yoga and the City’, which proposes different meditations on yogic living.