RESEARCH
Commodifying Well Being: An Ethnochoreological Case Study of Bikram Yoga in Los Angeles, CA
University of Limerick, 2009
Abstract: This thesis examines the significance and function of Bikram Yoga as commodity in Los Angeles, CA.
A multi-million dollar industry and patented health system, the Bikram Yoga Corporation capitalizes on its function as a health
and wellness practice. Founded by Bikram Choudhury in 1973, this programme claims to reap great medical, physical, and
spiritual benefits while offering a way to incorporate eastern philosophy into a western lifestyle. It is the copyright of the Bikram
practice that classifies it as a health system. Thus the term health or well-being is used in this thesis to describe the benefits
of Bikram Yoga.
In this case study of Bikram practitioners in Los Angeles, I interpret through theories of consumerism these standards of health
and well-being. Notions of consumer cultures by Neo-Marxist Micheal Featherstone (1991, 2001) and cultural theorists Robert
Dunn (2008), and Deborah Lupton (1994) are utilized to compose the theory applied, while methods of collecting data are
ethnochoreological.
In conclusion, this thesis analyzes and reveals the function and relevance of Bikram Yoga as a commodity and the notion of
well-being it promotes amongst its consumers.
This paper discusses methods engaged in an ethnographically and experientially grounded project in site-specific movement research, and the notions of place that they evoke. This essay conveys the site-specific movement researcher as ethnographer, a creative thinker, whose theory is derived from the experiential- the result of malleable, ever-changing and unpredictable synchronic relationships between body (as Self), time, space and other. Conveying an experience in which, the sentient body is at the core of the text generated. This discourse is framed in the methods that proved themselves to be present within this experiential practice, Spradley’s ethnographic research cycle and George Wallas’ model for creative thinking.To negotiate ways in which these two methods do not supplement the other, additional approaches derivative of this experience in site-specific movement research are provided.