Tao Porchon-Lynch

In May 2012, Guinness World Records recognized Porchon-Lynch as the world's oldest yoga instructor at age 93; the previous record-holder was then-91-year-old Berniece Bates of Florida. Tao was also an activist, oenophile and competitive ballroom dancer. In 2015, she appeared on Season 10 of America's Got Talent. Over her 75-year professional life, she was a couture model, actress, film producer, international film distributor, television executive, publisher and a co-founder of the American Wine Society.

In a November 2015 ABC World News interview Porchon-Lynch was called the "Real-Life Forrest Gump" since she participated in so many historic events over almost a century. In her autobiography Dancing Light, she describes personal encounters with many notables including Mahatma Gandhi, General Charles de Gaulle, Ernest Hemingway, Marcel Marceau, Marlene Dietrich, Elizabeth Taylor, Michael Wilding, Marilyn Monroe, Bob Hope, Bing Crosby, Fred Astaire, Burgess Meredith, Clark Gable, Spencer Tracy, Burt Lancaster, Lana Turner, Debbie Reynolds, Red Skelton, Vincent Price, Leslie Caron, Arlene Dahl, Richard Greene, Hugh O'Brian, David Sarnoff, Joan Crawford, Lucille Lortel, Duke Ellington, Katherine Dunham, Ilka Chase, Jean Dessès, Jeanne Lanvin, and Coco Chanel, among others.

Pondicherry, where Tao first saw yoga being practised

Tao Porchon was born on August 13, 1918,[4] on a ship in the middle of the English Channel, two months premature.[5] Her father was from France, while her mother was a native Indian (Manipuri).[6] Her mother died when Tao was seven months old[7] and she was raised by her aunt and uncle. Her uncle, who designed railroads, often brought her along for trips around Asia,[6] travelling as far as Singapore. The family owned vineyards in the wine region of the Rhône River Valley, located in Southern France.

At age eight, Tao witnessed a group of youthful yoga practitioners exercising on a beach in then French India, Pondicherry. This encounter got Porchon interested in yoga, who stated in an interview with Guinness World Records, "I wanted to do the amazing things that they were doing with their bodies."[5] Going against the advice of her aunt, who remarked that yoga was meant predominantly for males, she started practising yoga, although she did not get involved in it professionally until much later in her life.[5] In her youth, Porchon met the Indian nationalist Mahatma Gandhi, who was her uncle's close acquaintance,[7] even marching with him on two separate occasions.[6] She also participated in demonstrations with General Charles de Gaulle and Martin Luther King, Jr.[4]

Outside of yoga, Porchon-Lynch continued to involve herself in competitive dancing, particularly in ballroom tango.[16] She had several hundred first-place titles in competitive dancing. Her youngest dance partners were Hayk Balasanyan, Vard Margaryan and Anton Bilozorov.[6]

In 1967, Porchon-Lynch assisted in the establishment of the American Wine Society (AWS) with her spouse. When it split into different branches across the United States, she was selected in 1970 to be the Vice-President of the AWS in Southern New York. She also frequently appeared as part of the judging panel in various wine competitions.[7] She later became the publisher and editor-in-chief of the wine appreciation magazine, The Beverage Communicator, distributed by the AWS.[17] With her fellow yoga practitioners, Porchon-Lynch organized annual wine appreciation trips to France.[4]

In 2016, Tao Porchon-Lynch received the Women's Entrepreneurship Day Pioneer Award[18] at the United Nations in recognition of her achievements in the sports world.

Porchon-Lynch grew up speaking French and Meiteilon. Thus, when she moved to North America, she experienced a language barrier, being unable to grasp the English language well, although she overcame the problem with sufficient practice.[6] She was a close acquaintance of Hindi film actor Dev Anand. The duo were introduced to each other by Kamini Kaushal, who was also a friend of Porchon-Lynch's. Porchon-Lynch married Bill Lynch around 1962 but became widowed after her husband died in 1982. The couple had no children.[7] She received four hip replacement surgeries. A vegetarian, she was a fan of high heel shoes and would even hike with them.[6] In her spare time, Porchon-Lynch enjoyed meditating.[5] In August 2014, she still drove her Smart car.[4]

• American Wine Society News. American Wine Society. 1987.
• Alan Gevinson (1997). Within Our Gates: Ethnicity in American Feature Films, 1911–1960. University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-20964-0.
• Genie James (2013). The Fountain of Truth: Outsmart Hype, False Hope, and Heredity to Recalibrate How You Age. HCI Books. ISBN 978-0-7573-1715-6.
• Sara Gilbert (2013). The Imperfect Environmentalist: A Practical Guide to Clearing Your Body, Detoxing Your Home, and Saving the Earth (Without Losing Your Mind). Random House Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0-345-53759-1.
• Porchon-Lynch, Tao; Kennedy, Janie Sykes; Kennedy, Teresa Kay-Aba (2015). Dancing Light: The Spiritual Side of Being Through the Eyes of a Modern Yoga Master. New York: Power Living Media. ISBN 978-1-942-51000-0.

• Official website
• Tao Porchon on IMDb
• https://www.instagram.com/taoporchonlynch100/