An unusual pairing, but one that is gaining steam in the New York City area is yoga classes being taught in clubs to dance music. In this particular case, some tunes out of the deep house genre at the famous Verboten nightclub, based in Williamsburg.
Instead of shuffling bodies out on the dance floor, stretched out postures atop of yoga mats litter the club floor. The original concept came to light a few years ago while one of the clubs owners, George Faya, who is also a DJ, was dating a yogi that asked him to spin a class for her playing deep house.
“We never tried to promote ourselves as a yoga studio,” says Faya, “but now it’s our biggest cultural event.”
The class was so successful that Faya encouraged more of these types of events by inviting yoga teachers from the area to participate in teaching in an otherwise vacant nightclub during the week. No one class is the same. Ranging from melodic techno sets to students spontaneously busting out into small dance parties, it all depends on the turnout and the DJ’s spinning style.
“There are times you want a yoga class to be peaceful and serene,” says Ashley Newman, who is an out of town guest from Atlanta visiting Long Island with the only objective in mind is to attend a yoga session in a nightclub. “But other times you want to be hammered with sensation.”
There are plans for this highly successful event to travel north this summer to upstate New York and participate in the booming second year of the US offshoot of the Mysteryland festvial to provide some beats and poses to the masses as well as to possibly bring a regular outdoor session at a Williamsburg park.
Via [New York Daily News]
