Yoga Pivot

What local studios learned during the pandemic

By Laura Shoemaker | Feature Photo by Nancy Guth | July/August 2021

Yoga teacher Cheryl Chaffee had been running Garden of the Heart Yoga for about ten years when the first cases of COVID-19 appeared in Sarasota in early 2020.  

Like other yoga studios, Garden of the Heart was facing a lot of unknowns. Could they continue to teach safely? Would they close? And if so, for how long? As the virus spread, Chaffee found herself wondering: “How can we come together to practice?” 

By mid-March, Garden of the Heart, and several others, would be temporarily closed. By April, after the governor’s stay-at-home order was issued, yoga studios around town were having to make some serious shifts. Recently, I spoke with Chaffee and six other yoga studios to find out how the pandemic affected their businesses and to learn what students can expect this summer and beyond for yoga classes and other offerings in Sarasota. 

Cheryl Chaffee would chant the Maha Mrtyunjaya, a Sanskrit mantra, that she explained, helps one “walk alongside” their fear and not become overwhelmed.

Virtual Vinyasa

Of the changes ushered in by the pandemic, the switch to virtual yoga classes was a common pivot. “Just as people realized they didn’t have to be in an office to work, we began to realize we could login to a yoga class, too,” says Moriah Farrell, assistant manager of CircuSoul Yoga, and also a yoga teacher there.

Online yoga classes evolved and took on some creative variety as social distancing and “safer at home” became the norm. There were both live-stream zoom classes, where students login and participate in a class synchronously, and on-demand classes, which give students access to a recorded class for a period of time. Studios also diversified their online offerings to include video libraries of recorded classes, free Facebook live classes, special workshops, meditation, and immersions. At least one studio hosted its 200-hour yoga teacher training — all online. 

“It was less about how can we make money and more about how can we serve the community during this scary and unnerving time.”

—Soraya Preseault, Owner, 
Bhavana Yoga Studio

These virtual classes and other offerings threw a lifeline to dedicated students. “Our community was extremely grateful,” say Courtenay Smith and Nikka Colorado, co-owners of The Yoga Shack. The quirkiness of online experiences even brought some moments of levity in an uncertain time. As Soraya Preseault owner of Bhavana Yoga Studio shares, “Students loved seeing the behind-the-scenes reality of teaching and practicing from home, how teachers, kids, or animals would pop into a video.”

And yet, despite their best efforts, studios couldn’t avoid financial losses. Virtual class offerings were limited, priced lower, or in some cases, free, while attendance in classes overall was significantly down. Yoga studios were being put to the test. “Non-attachment is a huge principle in the practice of yoga. And throughout the process I had to become ok with the thought that the studio, the business, might not survive,” says Preseault.

The shift from a physical studio to remote classes proved too much for at least one studio. In September, after 17 years in business, Garden of the Heart formally closed. They let go of the space and the instructors each went their own way.

Finding Flow

Cheryl Chaffee regarded the changes brought upon her as an opportunity. When Garden of the Heart closed, she had a plan. Now savvy with teaching online and using technology, she started her own, 100% online, yoga studio.  Her virtual studio, bodymindheartyoga,offers a regular weekly schedule of online classes and workshops. 

To whatever extent studios will continue to utilize online classes going forward, they don’t seem to be going away. Moriah Farrell says that virtual classes have given CircuSoul “the ability to reach out to some of our faraway friends and have class with them every day.” The flexibility afforded by Zoom and other platforms gives yoga studios a welcome opportunity to connect with students no matter where they happen to be — even when students travel or leave town for a cooler climate.

And for others, learning the lessons of the pandemic means staying open to change. “For us,” says Claudia Baeza of Pineapple Yoga, “it’s continuing to adapt.” Her studio has shifted all of its yoga + cycling offerings outdoors to the studio’s private, gated courtyard. Baeza’s clear that for Pineapple Yoga, the pre-COVID model of mat-to-mat, indoor yoga “won’t be back. Expectations and needs have changed for everyone.”

What yoga classes can I take now? 

Whether you want to roll out a mat at your neighborhood yoga studio or zoom into a virtual class, options are as varied as the yogis you’ll find teaching there. 

At Bhavana Yoga Studio, masks are required when you’re not on your mat. By limiting participants, social distancing, checking temperatures, and contactless entry, studio owner Soraya Preseault is making safety a priority for in-studio classes. The precautions, she hopes, help to create a safe space for yoga “where people could come in and take off their armor for an hour to just breathe.” 

Cheryl Chaffee took the changes of the past year as an opportunity to start a completely online yoga studiocalled bodymindheartyoga. She offers a regular weekly schedule of classes, immersions, and workshops, plus an on-demand video library.

CircuSoul Yoga holds outdoor yoga once a week in a grassy area behind the studio under towering oak trees. As temperatures rise, the studio will keep tabs on demand for the outdoor class. Indoors, the classes are capped at 16 people spaced 6’ apart. They are continuing yoga for anxiety workshops, which began in 2020, aerial and mat yoga, and also virtual zoom or on-demand classes, workshops, and teacher training intensives.

Get Bent Yoga Studio, a new studio that opened in March of this year on Clark Road, has been offering in-studio classes, workshops, and a free meditation class, since the get-go. Aside from cleaning procedures, co-owners Janine and Joshua Martin resisted putting too much focus on making formal rules in regards to personal protection. Instead, the couple welcome students who come to their studio for in-person yoga classes to do what makes them feel comfortable. 

Pineapple Yoga + Cycling Studio owner Claudia Baeza has taken the lessons of the pandemic to heart. Pineapple Yoga, she says, is now “fully realized as an outdoor studio.” The studio’s yoga + cycling classes are held outdoors in the studio’s private, gated courtyard, beneath sun sails and aerial misters. In addition to the yoga + cycling classes, donation-based yoga for recovery classes that support 12-step recovery from alcohol and substance abuse are ongoing. Baeza hopes to resume yoga for Parkinson’s, this time as a virtual class, soon.

Rosemary Court Yoga owner Liana Sheintal Bryant has begun offering in-studio classes again with limited participants and pre-registration. Students can also live-stream classes, or playback a recorded class. Bryant is also teaching a free, summer outdoor yoga series at St. Armand’s Circle every second Wednesday of the month, 6-7pm. 

The Yoga Shack co-owners Courtenay Smith and Nikka Colorado were able to shift quickly to online and outdoor classes in the past year, but they agree “that yoga is so much more powerful to experience in person.” In addition to an online library of classes, the studio is now offering in-person classes, themed workshops, and other events, both in the Rosemary District location and a new second location at Waterside Place off of University Parkway.

So, book a class in one of these studios, or explore the studio in your neighborhood. One thing’s for sure, there’s a yoga class in Sarasota for anyone who’s looking to pivot back to the mat.