Different people respond to different types of yoga, and in Greenwich Village you can find just about every yoga discipline there is—and variations on those as well. Modo “hot” yoga and Unnata “aerial” yoga, classes for parents-to-be and new parents with their babies, silent classes and candlelit classes: Below are studios that offer those options and more.
163 Bleecker Street, 2nd floor (between Thompson and Sullivan Streets)
Bleecker Street Ashtanga practices Mysore Ashtanga yoga. Ashtanga yoga involves synchronizing your breathing to a series of increasingly difficult postures and movements. Variety and improvisation do not come into play here; repetition of the sequences is key to achieving the promised flexibility, strength, and serenity. The Mysore style of Ashtanga relies on one-on-one instruction even within a group—it is an individualized method of guiding one through a regimented program. Not only is Bleecker Street Ashtanga’s Michael Guiou a level-2 teacher authorized by the Krishna Pattabhi Jois Ashtanga Yoga Institute in Mysore, but he also returns there every year to improve his technique as well as his teaching skills.
Ashtanga yoga. Image: Barry Silver/Flickr
56 East 11th Street (between Broadway and University Place)
ISHTA is an acronym for Integrated Science of Hatha (yoga postures), Tantra (text and traditions), and Ayurveda (an alternative medicine practice that focuses on the mind-body connection). Practitioners of ISHTA personalize a medley of the three to find their optimal mind and body wellness. The studio’s classes include ISHTA Basics, an introduction to postures that emphasize breathing, stretching, and alignment. Restorative classes involve holding postures for at least 10 minutes to release tension; more-advanced classes introduce meditation.
1 Horatio Street (at 8th Avenue)
Architect-turned-yoga instructor Neelu Shruti established Love Child Yoga to cater specifically to expecting mothers, new parents, babies, toddlers, and individuals and couples trying to conceive. In addition to mitigating aches and pains during pregnancy, prenatal yoga aims to increase your strength and flexibility for an easier delivery and enable you to maintain a level of serenity during what can be an anything but serene life stage. Postnatal classes include sessions just for new moms as well as family classes. Group and private classes are available; the center also offers doula services and support groups.
434 6th Avenue #2 (between West 9th and West 10th Streets)
If you can’t stand the heat, stay away from Moda Yoga; it is a type of hot yoga, in which the postures are carried out in a 98-degree room. These classes are said to have cardiovascular benefits as well as to help strengthen and tone muscles; in addition, adherents say, the heat detoxifies skin, muscles, and blood. Besides standard classes, options include Yin, a slower-paced, more meditative type of yoga, and Silent Modo.
163 Bleecker Street (between Thompson and Sullivan Streets)
Beginners and advanced practitioners, babies and adults, and everyone in between will find a suitable class at Sacred Sounds Yoga. Among its specialty sessions are Yoga4Cancer, offering meditation, breathing exercises, and sequences for those undergoing or recovering from cancer treatments; candelit classes; pranayama classes that focus exclusively on breathing; parent-and-baby classes; and courses for toddlers, tweens, and teens.
163 Bleecker Street (between Thompson and Sullivan Streets)
Aerial yoga. Image: Beth Scupham/Flickr
Iynegar yoga uses ropes, straps, chairs, and other props to help practitioners achieve optimal alignment and strength. Unnata Aerial Yoga both builds upon and streamlines that by incorporating just one prop: a fabric hammock suspended from the ceiling. The emphasis is still on traditional poses and movements, working with gravity to achieve heightened flexibility and fluidity—and allowing you to enjoy swinging through the air and hanging upside down.