Dear Dedicated Yoga Police followers,
I will be on a hiatus from now until mid July as I indulge myself in yoga teacher training intensive at Downward Dog.
Wish me luck, send me any reviews and complaints on yoga studios and of course celebratory reviews of functional yoga studios!
Cheers!
The Yoga Police
Emma Blue
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Review of Octopus Garden
I love Ashtanga yoga. I love small studios where you dont need to worry about your belongings getting stolen. I love well trained teachers and plants and sculptures and a relaxed vibe to a place.
Oh and also I loved the Octopus Garden! The only reason I didn't venture their sooner is because I'm an uptown girl, wayyyy uptown and the Octopus Garden is located in the Annex.
They accept the Passport to Prana and have classes all day long. Ch-ch-check it out.
Oh and also I loved the Octopus Garden! The only reason I didn't venture their sooner is because I'm an uptown girl, wayyyy uptown and the Octopus Garden is located in the Annex.
They accept the Passport to Prana and have classes all day long. Ch-ch-check it out.
Review of Yoga Sanctuary--College St.
The Yoga Sanctuary—College St.
Something about the name The Yoga Sanctuary carries OOMPH. It is one of the better known studios in Toronto and for good reason.
It invites community in with the quiet laughter echoing in the high ceilinged practice studio.
The studio boasts assistants, much like Downward Dog who walk around and give adjustments while the teacher instructs, which is the way to my heart.
Our teacher made a few jokes, which I found funny and every yoga class should have a few funny jokes.
The classes vary from pilates to hatha flow to ashtanga and the teachers are well trained and have been teaching for many years.
I really enjoyed the conversations with students before and after and while the space was damp and sparsely decorated, it did indeed feel like a sanctuary.
Check out the Solstice Dance party complete with a groovy Dj on June 20th, I'll be there!
Something about the name The Yoga Sanctuary carries OOMPH. It is one of the better known studios in Toronto and for good reason.
It invites community in with the quiet laughter echoing in the high ceilinged practice studio.
The studio boasts assistants, much like Downward Dog who walk around and give adjustments while the teacher instructs, which is the way to my heart.
Our teacher made a few jokes, which I found funny and every yoga class should have a few funny jokes.
The classes vary from pilates to hatha flow to ashtanga and the teachers are well trained and have been teaching for many years.
I really enjoyed the conversations with students before and after and while the space was damp and sparsely decorated, it did indeed feel like a sanctuary.
Check out the Solstice Dance party complete with a groovy Dj on June 20th, I'll be there!
Review of Tula Yoga Spa--Central location
Watch out! Yoga police here. To inspect your oriental (is oriental an un PC term?) décor, the vinyasa instruction, your studios hospitality and the overall vibe of your yoga studio. I love my unpaid job as the Yoga Police!
When I asked the reception at Tula Yoga Spa if people make jokes about the guests being tools, she replied without smiling that she had never heard that before.
First impressions are everything if not everything and having help that laughs at my jokes is right up there with teachers who pronounce Sanskrit correctly.
This was Tula Yoga & Spa’s Central location. They have clothes haphazardly displayed, expensive potions and a small tea area (gold star for this) as well as closed off rooms for who knows what—probably spa services. The best part was the ominous attendant dressed completely in black standing behind a partially opaque curtain that made me feel like I had stepped into the matrix.
To their credit the studio at Tula Central is working with a hodge podge layout and it’s not easy to make hodge pode flow seamlessly.
However, if you get the opportunity, I recommend visiting just to see the female washroom. I burst out laughing. I described it to my boyfriend as such:
“As if some people one night came up with the idea for a yoga studio and spa while drinking and then executed in the daylight by maxing out their credit card at Pier 1 Imports”.
There was hardly room for the wash basin with all the matching sets of stone platters to hold napkins and soaps, flowers (fake?) and in front of the showers, the quintessential changing screen, since we can’t like, be naked in front of each other, that would be unnatural.
On to the yoga ! A heated fusion class, the studio itself was averagely nice. Candle light along the borders of the room and a sign outside warning to not make any noise in the studio.
I’m beginning to build a biased against studios with NO TALKING signs. One way you know you are in a community is that you will hear laughter and stories being exchanged. I suppose you could do these things outside the studio, like in the “lifestyle boutique”, but in a world increasingly worshipping the individual, why not invite that community in? Life naturally has noise, not stifled silence.
The teacher was probably new, at one point I wanted to take over for her because the transitions were rough, she made NO jokes and the Sanskrit pronunciations of the postures were horrendous.
In short if you want yoga studios which are breeding grounds for community check out Jivamutki, Downward Dog, 889 Yonge st., Yoga Queen and the Yoga Sanctuary.
If you want mirrors, heated classes, frenetic instruction and few hands on adjustments, check out Moksha Yoga and Tula Yoga.
When I asked the reception at Tula Yoga Spa if people make jokes about the guests being tools, she replied without smiling that she had never heard that before.
First impressions are everything if not everything and having help that laughs at my jokes is right up there with teachers who pronounce Sanskrit correctly.
This was Tula Yoga & Spa’s Central location. They have clothes haphazardly displayed, expensive potions and a small tea area (gold star for this) as well as closed off rooms for who knows what—probably spa services. The best part was the ominous attendant dressed completely in black standing behind a partially opaque curtain that made me feel like I had stepped into the matrix.
To their credit the studio at Tula Central is working with a hodge podge layout and it’s not easy to make hodge pode flow seamlessly.
However, if you get the opportunity, I recommend visiting just to see the female washroom. I burst out laughing. I described it to my boyfriend as such:
“As if some people one night came up with the idea for a yoga studio and spa while drinking and then executed in the daylight by maxing out their credit card at Pier 1 Imports”.
There was hardly room for the wash basin with all the matching sets of stone platters to hold napkins and soaps, flowers (fake?) and in front of the showers, the quintessential changing screen, since we can’t like, be naked in front of each other, that would be unnatural.
On to the yoga ! A heated fusion class, the studio itself was averagely nice. Candle light along the borders of the room and a sign outside warning to not make any noise in the studio.
I’m beginning to build a biased against studios with NO TALKING signs. One way you know you are in a community is that you will hear laughter and stories being exchanged. I suppose you could do these things outside the studio, like in the “lifestyle boutique”, but in a world increasingly worshipping the individual, why not invite that community in? Life naturally has noise, not stifled silence.
The teacher was probably new, at one point I wanted to take over for her because the transitions were rough, she made NO jokes and the Sanskrit pronunciations of the postures were horrendous.
In short if you want yoga studios which are breeding grounds for community check out Jivamutki, Downward Dog, 889 Yonge st., Yoga Queen and the Yoga Sanctuary.
If you want mirrors, heated classes, frenetic instruction and few hands on adjustments, check out Moksha Yoga and Tula Yoga.
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