Andrey Lappa

Andrey Lappa was first exposed to Eastern culture in the late 1970’s while living in Mongolia with his parents. He began to practice yoga, which would become the spiritual basis of his life. In school, Andrey was an avid and accomplished swimmer, even competing as a member of the Ukrainian National Combined Team. He went on to receive his Masters of Sports in the USSR and later graduated from Kiev’s Politech University with a degree in engineering. But he always knew that his future career would be devoted to yoga.

During this time, he had already begun to promote and teach yoga professionally in 1987, and in 1991 he was officially confirmed with a certificate from the Indian Embassy in Moscow, authorizing him to teach yoga as a profession. In 1994, the Indian Ambassador to Ukraine rewarded Andrey with his first trip to India and an opportunity to study at the Yoga Institute with the world famous teacher B.K.S.Iyengar.

Later Andrey would travel extensively throughout India and Nepal, meeting and studying with famed yogis and ashrams, in many areas of specialty including, Viniyoga, Tantra, meditation, ancient Indian martial arts and styles of dance. During his travels, Andrey also met with lesser-known teachers and sadhus, expanding and extending knowledge about the practice and spirituality of the Yoga Tradition.

Notably, he was also the first Russian-speaking student to study with the world-renowned yoga teacher, Sri K. Patthabi Jois. As a result, Andrey spent lengthy periods in private and state libraries to translate and bring ancient and modern Indian texts on the theory and practice of yoga to Eastern Europe. Andrey also curated a unique collection of modern and archival video materials on various yoga styles, giving people an opportunity to see the most effective and popular practical yoga from all around the world. This new information led to an intensive transformation and technological revolution of training methods, rapidly growing the numbers of practitioners and raising the level of consciousness within Russia’s practitioners, trainers, and teachers.

Since 1999, Andrey Lappa has served as the president of Kiev’s Yoga Federation and with the help of his students, he oversaw the creation of two of the largest yoga centers in Kiev. He also supported the development of specialized yoga centers in cities including Moscow and Odessa. He is the author of several books and yoga posters, including Yoga: Tradition of Unification, and Universal Free Style Yoga. Andrey has now taught thousands of students, even training four yoga masters. He regularly conducts intensive seminars and teacher trainings in cities all around the world.