Yoga Goes Beyond the Studio
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
New Yorkers making their way across East 86th Street in recent weeks may have noticed something unexpected: Amid the luxury residential towers and retail stores was a patch of grass growing on the façade of a building.
Behind that lush green exterior is the just-opened Pure Yoga. It is not a yoga studio, as New Yorkers have come to know them; it is more a pristine, orchid-filled marketplace, where members can take part in 19 types of yoga and yoga-hybrid classes.
The breadth of options is what some members say attracted them to Pure Yoga, though other city yogis wonder how smaller, long-standing yoga establishments will fare in its wake. New York City is home to hundreds of such spaces, from home-based studios to classes at boutique and chain gyms and larger yoga centers, such as the 12,000-square-foot Jivamukti Yoga School, near Union Square.
At 20,000 square feet, Pure Yoga dwarfs them all. While city yoga studios tend to specialize in one type of practice, Pure Yoga offers under one roof Anusara, Iyengar, Jivamukti, Mysore, Vinyasa, prenatal, and other yoga styles. There are also combination courses that fuse yoga with another form of exercise, such as strength training or Bollywood-style dance. The 85 weekly classes run 60, 75, 90, or 120 minutes, and are scheduled between 6:30 a.m. and 9 p.m.
In addition to six yoga spaces of various sizes and configurations, the four-story facility is home to a soon-to-open tea bar; a boutique that sells high-end athletic apparel, jewelry, and aromatherapy balms, and various cushion-filled lounge areas.
It’s all decidedly upscale. Mats, fluffy towels, and other exercise equipment — depending on the session, props may include hand weights, resistance bands, foam blocks, sandbags, and blankets — are provided at no additional charge, and cleaned or replaced after each class.
Founded in Hong Kong six years ago by a former professional tennis player, Colin Grant, and an exporting magnate, Bruce Rockowitz, Pure Yoga became an instant sensation. Subsequent locations of the spa-like, one-stop-shopping yoga center opened in various Hong Kong neighborhoods, as well as in Taipei and Singapore, before the New York-based health club chain Equinox decided to bring the concept to America this year.
A 12-year practitioner of yoga who followed her longtime instructor to Pure Yoga, Pia Garcia, said the mammoth facility is an “affirmation that yoga has gone beyond a trend.” A critical mass of New Yorkers now see it as a lifestyle, she said.
For those overwhelmed by the sheer volume of what’s on offer, Pure Yoga employs “yoga concierges” to advise students and direct them to the correct studio spaces. For members new to the practice, they might recommend the introductory series, where students learn basic poses and breathing techniques, as well as yoga etiquette (don’t step on someone else’s mat, don’t get up to leave during the closing poses), or one of the more gentle classes of the “Slow Flow,” or “Restorative” varieties. Veteran yogis might be steered toward a “Hot Flow” session, taught in a 100-degree room, or an “Upside Down” class, where inverted poses such as headstands, handstands, and shoulder-stands are taught.
A registered nurse, Robin Kahn, decided to join Pure Yoga after seeing the space, which she called “very nurturing, very medicinal,” and finding that the center’s wide-ranging classes could accommodate her work schedule. In the past week, Ms. Kahn, who is relatively new to yoga, said she has taken five types of classes and plans to try all of Pure Yoga’s offerings.
I had taken the occasional yoga class, with varying degrees of success, at my health club and a couple of private lessons through a neighborhood studio. Ultimately, the practice never seemed like enough of a workout (or respite) to justify the time.
But a 90-minute group session with Pure Yoga’s Marco Rojas showed me just how strenuous the practice could be. Throughout the fast-paced, sweat-inducing Vinyasa session — full of standing and push-up-position poses — the Bob Marley-quoting instructor traversed the room, adjusting students’ movements as needed. His modifications made the poses so much harder, I half worried that my joints would snap. The session ended with a 10-minute savasana, or corpse pose, an exercise in total relaxation during which Mr. Rojas put on chanting music and I lost track of time.
I also took a lively, hour-long “Pure Core” class, which was also demanding, but more accessible for those, like me, not altogether familiar with yoga positions and terminology. The pop music- and prop-filled class, taught by Pure Yoga’s program director, Michelle Demus, combined basic yoga moves with aerobic and core-strengthening exercises.
The experience was enough to make me, if not a yoga convert, then at least convinced that yoga can provide an arduous, satisfying workout, and curious about its much-touted ancillary benefits, such as stress relief and a better night’s sleep.
But some are not convinced that the arrival of Pure Yoga is good for the city’s yoga community. In her Yoga Journal Web log, Samadhi & the City, Valerie Reiss questioned whether New York really needed a mega studio. “Though it’s yet to be seen how they’ll affect the yogascape, it sort of feels like a fancy Wal-Mart threatening the livelihoods of the smaller, humbler studios that have been around for years,” she wrote in a recent post.
A yoga instructor who teaches at New York Yoga on East 86th Street, April Puciata, said she doesn’t see the new center as a major threat to other city yoga venues. She said she thought that yoga practitioners would not be so quick to leave their current instructors and studios. “I understand some people would be a little nervous about it, but I think it’s just going to bring about more interest in the practice, and that’s good for everyone,” she said. “Maybe it will encourage smaller studios to look for ways to better serve their clientele. Or maybe I’m just idealistic. Only time will tell.”
gbirkner@nysun.com
Pure Yoga (203 E. 86th St., between Second and Third avenues, 212-360-1888, $400 initiation, $140 a month for unlimited group classes, $125 an hour for private lessons).