Legend: BLUE-open, RED-closed, GREEN-by donation
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Saturday, May 13, 2006

another new kid on the block

yesterday, while i was searching the internet for a bio on gary margolin for my LA teacher list, aka the is this what you're looking for? post, i found a message on a bulletin board that said gary taught an ashtanga class at yoga villa in north hollywood. but when i visited the yoga villa website, i found this notice:

Notice -- Yoga Villa is now Closed!!

Shift Happens


To all of our students and friends in the Yoga Villa community;

Some of you may have noticed the "shift" happening in our neighborhood. We are being surrounded by growth and change. The five houses across the street as well as the buildings kitty corner to us have been sold and will soon be torn down to make room for high end condo buildings. With this shift, we will be subjected to over six months of noise, disruption and difficult parking on our quiet little street. Since we opened in 2002 we have weathered many "shifts" together, from the zoning variance challenge, to the more recent demands on my schedule due to the success of Desperate Housewives, which no one could have anticipated when we opened. Like our neighborhood, things are changing and expanding for all of us. Our beloved teacher Claire Hartley, is opening her own studio in April. We are thrilled for her as she embarks on her own yoga adventure as a studio owner and encourage you to practice with her at her studio, Rising Lotus in Sherman Oaks. http://www.risinglotusyoga.com

With all these things happening simultaneously, after long deliberation, soul searching and exhausting the many options at our disposal, Tom and I have decided to close Yoga Villa as of March 31st. As many of you have heard me say in class "the transitions are as important as the poses" and I am confident that we as a community can transition with grace and ease into the next phase of our growth together.

Yoga Villa has truly been a gift. The student and teachers have grown side by side, and I feel in many ways that what we set out to accomplish has been met, mastered, and fulfilled. I knew I wanted to give a gift to our community through Yoga, what I didn't realize was the depth of the gift the community would give to us in return. We hope we have helped facilitate a deeper understanding of Yoga, the unity of all things, and that you are able to practice in life what we encourage you to practice on the mat.

Yoga teaches us that the root to most suffering is in the attachment or the resistance to what is, and so we gratefully receive the opportunities presented to us all to embrace this transition with joy and equanimity.

We encourage you to use up the classes you have left on your series, or to purchase single classes so that you don't have any excess classes left by March 31st. If you have any concerns regarding your series, don't hesitate to speak to Tahni our office manager or myself or Tom and we will address those on a case by case basis. We will be having an evening celebration for the community on March 31st at 6pm to join together to rejoice the rare and beautiful time we have shared together. We invite you to come and celebrate with us. As with every breath, the inhale represents birth and the exhale death, and with each breath we practice this cycle of life. We all have ridden the breath together, and are better for it.

Blessings on you all,

Namaste,
Brenda Strong and Tom Henri

it's sad when a studio has to close, because more often than not, the newly-displaced teachers end up having to scramble for new jobs. and maybe not as financially disruptive but inconvenient nonetheless is that the students have to start searching for new classes to attend; not only do they have to find another conveniently-located studio, but more importantly, they have to find a teacher with a compatible teaching style.

claire hartley's new studio, rising lotus yoga, is only about 4 miles due west of yoga villa. i'm not sure what the traffic patterns are in the san fernando valley, but i would think that the longer/shorter drive time can't be more than 10 minutes. as for her teaching staff, the only teacher i'm familiar with is daniel stewart, the studio co-owner, whose class at santa monica yoga i've taken and loved.

so if you ever find yourself near sherman oaks anytime soon, you might want to give this new yoga space a try. i'm sure both claire and daniel have put a lot of thought into their choice of teachers, so you really have nothing to lose. and if you go to the rising lotus website and add your name to their mailing list, they'll send you a coupon for 15% off any class package (although the coupon i got supposedly expired on may 1st of this year?).

good luck to the newest addition to the yoga community!

2 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hi Accidental Yogist,
thank you for your comments on Rising Lotus.
Our discount coupon has been updated and anyone signing up to our email list will recieve it.
Hope to see you soon for a class.
Shanti,
Claire Hartley
risinglotusyoga.com

11:12 PM  
Blogger joni said...

hi claire -- i added myself to your email list and got the coupon, but with all the preparations i had to make for my recent trips, i just haven't found the time :( i hope to be able to drop by sometime soon!

5:22 AM  

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