Glori Gylsson is a Fremantle yoga teacher with a colourful past.
SHE was a Bond girl in A View to a Kill, a glamour model, presented fitness videos for Cosmopolitan, and did TV work in the UK – and now she teaches yoga in South Fremantle.
Add Glori Gylsson to the long list of Brits including Ben Elton and Hank Marvin, you’d never expect to find in Western Australia.
“When I was a little girl, I used to read the books of a writer called Willard Price,” Ms Gylsson says.
“I read the book Shark Adventure. The book referred to Fremantle, describing it as a hedonistic port with lots of drunken sailors and sharks! This put Fremantle on the map for me.”
As Ms Gylsson approaches her sixtieth birthday in her newly adopted home, it’s the most focused and calm she’s felt in years, but it’s been a bumpy old ride getting there.
While living in England in 2009 her then-husband, British film producer Greg Smith, died of cancer. Then her son left to join the army and she found herself caring for her ailing father.
But 18 months later she found love when she met her future husband online; a Perth engineer working on a project in the UK.
“His job ended and he came back to Perth about 11 months later,” she says.
“He invited me to join him. I never in my wildest dreams thought I would move country at age 50. But I did, and here I am.”
Challenging
Since arriving Ms Gylsson has developed her life-long love of yoga, qualifying as a teacher and taking classes at the Corner Store in South Fremantle.
“I practice a vinyassa style yoga, and I call my yoga classes Vitality Yoga. I have integrated yoga with an eclectic mix of mind-body-spirit tools from my previous careers in fitness, contemporary psychotherapy and healing to create a unique method both on and off the mat.”
Ms Gylsson has written six books on mind-body matters and was a regular wellbeing columnist for several UK magazines. She says “natural methods” helped her get through some tough times.
“I went through a long and challenging period of health issues when I arrived in Australia in 2011.
“These multiple wellness issues resulted in the loss of vitality. Yoga, pranayama and naturopathy were just a few of the natural methods that helped me to regain my energy and vigour.
“I added my experience to the mix, and I found that not only did I feel a real spring in my step, but I also experienced greater focus and clarity, and felt balanced and upbeat emotionally.”
Ms Gylsson teaches yoga at the Corner Store on Saturday and Wednesday mornings, and is running a vitality workshop on naturopathy on August 1.
For more details go to https://cornerstore.net.au/collections/studio Or you can check out her website www. glorigylsson.com
Glori Gylsson (far left) at the premier of A View to a Kill, and at a photoshoot with Roger Moore (back row).
It would have been remiss of the Herald if we hadn’t asked Ms Gylsson about her time on the set of A View to a Kill. “I appeared in the titles, which was a real privilege as it was Maurice Binder’s (famous American film title designer) last film. The person I was most surprised about was Grace Jones. Her personality was opposite to the character she portrayed, May Day. She was warm and friendly and used to exercise her voice regularly from her caravan. Roger Moore was incredibly courteous, and his wife Luisa would not let him out of her sight because of the beautiful girls. He played himself. He had the same character both on and off the screen. Perhaps my most memorable moment came after the film when I went around the world and promoted the movie – travelling by bullet train through Japan, jumping out of helicopters in the south of France.”
By STEVEN POLLOCK