I am struggling to find places to teach yoga.
I have recently moved to a new (well, almost new, that’s another story) town. Yes, I have loads of time and $$ invested in Ivy League (well) teacher training and enough certification to paper a powder room. I had a quite respectable and beloved following back in Missoula, Montana. Such, as they say, is no longer the case. I find myself standing, often alone on my mat, states away. All kinds of states away from the security of established classes in prime time slots at highly attended studios.
I don’t want to go victim on you. An understanding pat on the shoulder would be swell, but I am not here to beg pity. I am here to give a shout out to those who have seen this problem, and know that it is not mine alone. It tickles me rosy and warms the cockles of my heart chakra to see the number of donation-based studios and reduced-fee community classes that are blossoming across the merry land of Yoga.
With the recent explosion of yoga teacher training programs, and their happy, eager graduates hitting the studio-lined streets, there exists a certain musical chairs reality when it comes to finding a time and place to teach. This, is a blessing. But the trick is (as is the case in many professions), there are not always enough teaching jobs for the number of graduates (or migrant-yoga teachers).
photo credit: laszlo-photo
It’s like Durga’s got a double-edged sword in one of those fearsome arms of hers. It is a challenge for teachers to find regular classes, and once their practice is built, will they come? Yoga has not been immune from the recession (which I argue is a present, not past, tense situation). Discretionary income that might once have gone for yoga classes might now go to buying a loaf of bread. If I weren’t a teacher myself and thus granted teacher rates for classes, I couldn’t afford to do what I teach. I couldn’t afford to do what I teach.
Thank goodness for generous & activist yogis, Yoga is no longer just a place Where the Elite Meet to Stretch. (And the fact that Yoga Modern is becoming a haven for the devas who are making it happen!)
Here are just a few projects that are rockin’ getting more yoga to more people:
- Guerrilla Yoga Project, in Charlottesville, Virginia was the first one that came to my attention:
The Guerrilla Yoga Project brings yoga to the masses by offering donation-basis yoga classes throughout our community. We teach in churches, community centers, dance studios, and prisons–anywhere the practice of yoga can improve health and wellbeing. We hope YOU will join our yoga revolution!
The Guerrilla Yoga Project finds friendly spots all over Charlottesville who roll out the red carpet for people to roll out their yoga mats. It was brought to my attention by my fellow editor and yoga teacher, Beth Oakes, who lives in Roanoke and is the founder of:
Courtesy of Beth Oakes
The Peace Yoga Project offers donation-only yoga classes throughout the Roanoke Valley, as well as free outreach classes to underserved members of the community. We believe in the power of yoga to bring positive change to individuals, communities, and the world. Classes are taught by qualified teachers who are trained in yoga anatomy, physiology, and philosophy, as well as in the art of teaching. We welcome all students, regardless of age, race, religion, physical condition, or yoga experience.
I’m loving this model, yoga for the people, and by people, yoga that people can afford, and that gives teachers more venue options. Sounds like win-win, a balance, a power resource rather than a power-over.
- Rusty Well’s Urban Flow Yoga and teacher training in San Francisco. The view of the city from the studio is worth the price of donation only! (As is Rusty’s through-and-through Bhakti spirit flow.)
- Yoga to the People, with classes and teacher training in New York, Seattle, San Francisco and Berkeley.
“There will be no correct clothes
There will be no proper payment
There will be no right answers
No glorified teachers
No ego, no script, no pedestals
No ‘you’re not good enough or not rich enough’
This yoga is for everyone
This sweating and breathing and becoming
This knowing glowing feeling
It is for the big small weak strong
Able and crazy
Brothers sisters grandmothers
The mighty and meek
Bones that creak
Those who seek
This power is for everyone
Yoga to the People
All Bodies Rise”
“Right on!” Or in yogaspeak, Jai!
Does it bother you that many of us are in a position of teaching classes we can’t afford to attend ourselves? Give us a shout about other organizations you know that are stirring things up to make yoga affordable and accessible!
Yoga is a great source of money. If you are a yoga teacher than you can earn well from by teaching some peoples. If you want to join yoga teacher training program. then visit. "http://atmayoga.net/".
–Apple-Mail-8–117501329 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Content-Type: text/html; charset=us-ascii delete
Hi Barbara – I, too, am really excited about the new wave of donation based and affordable classes and studios. I wonder, however, whether they will solve the problem of making teaching yoga a viable means of making a living. I don't ask this to be negative, but just practical. I mean, I would assume that the reason that most studios are charging $15-20 a class is that they need to in order to stay in business. I don't think that the average studio owner is making a lot of money – probably the higher ups in the big chains like Yoga Works, or the exceptional huge urban studio, but even here in the Chicago, I don't have the sense that our most well established studios are exactly rolling in money. That's why they want to offer teacher trainings . . . to make enough money to stay in business. And thus the cycle worsens – more teachers are produced to compete with each other for students and jobs.
I guess for a donation based studio to be profitable they would have to make up for the lower charge per student by greatly increasing volume. It seems like Yoga for the People may have accomplished this in NYC, but how viable is that for most places? because you would need a huge volume of students coming on a regular basis.
Not to go down that depressing road any further, I will change subjects here and just say that in my experience, size of class has no necessary correspondence to quality of the teacher! So you may be standing there on your mat alone since you're trying to get established in a new place during a recession in an over-crowded market. But don't let that cause you to doubt yourself (although I know how easy this can be). Some of my favorite teachers who have been teaching for years and years are simply not the ones who for various reasons necessarily draw the most students. Conversely, I've been to some huge, crowded classes that I didn't find all that great. While this doesn't help with the economic viability issue, it does help to remember that quantify (of students) does not measure quality (of the teacher).
I've been a yoga teacher for a very long time and have never been (personally) paid for a class. There have been times where students paid but it all goes to a non-profit. I know that I'm very fortunate that my "regular" job pays (relatively) well and this is why I can do this. Believe me, if I had to make a living just teaching yoga….whoa, my stress would be through the roof!
Carol, I should clarify, I do realize a lot has to do with the recession…and your point that one of the ways teachers (and studios) can make money is hosting teacher trainings. And the cycle worsening, more teachers, less "jobs." I am just thinking about the scrutiny being placed on for-profit universities. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/news/for-profit-col…. Sell the people an education! Especially an education in something as alluring as teaching yoga. <grin> On the other hand I admire the folks at Guerrilla Yoga Project for creating what almost amounts to flash yoga classes. Not even having a set studio space, but creating space where they can, and thus the people can come. Yes, it is a cycle. For the record, I am also trying to find "other avenues of income."
Another thought I am having re: teaching classes we cannot afford to attend, this happens in many service industries. I imagine few people working in spas, or in fashionable boutiques and bistros can afford to avail themselves of the services/goods they provide with a smile for others…not that this is a new topic in social studies!
I felt a need to respond because I have been there where I stand alone in the yoga room with no students and definitely know how that feels and it still happens to me every once in a while. A little over a year ago, I made the decision that I wanted to teach yoga full time after having done it part time and I do need to paid in order for me to continue teaching and yes, it is very hard to teach so many classes a week but yet not have enough money to take a class myself. I am lucky enough to have a husband who can take care of a majority of the bills so I can focus on teaching even though it does not bring in much money.
However, I would like to say that as I have slowly built up my classes, I have actually enjoyed my small classes, they have been so much more intimate and have a greater sense of community than what I ever felt when subbing for other teachers where they have 20-25 students. I find it slightly overwhelming and feel no belonging or community. I think it is interesting how this cycle of new students and new TT are popping up everywhere, but I think the most important thing is the quality of the teacher and how much experience they have teaching which will allow for a nice flow of students.
Lastly Niroga Yoga is one such non-profit organization with its yoga center in Berkeley and another in Oakland which is reaching out to those who would not be able to afford yoga as well as bringing it into schools, juvenile halls and other venues.
Thanks, Tia, I live in the North Bay, and did not know about Niroga, or other venues in Oakland. I do love to hear about them all!
Yoga has always been free, it is one of the worlds largest open source resources, before the term "open source" was even coined (for computer software). There will always be those that want to keep it free, and those free riders that just want to exploit, this is a philosophical problem borne out in many social experiments. The answer seems to lie in penalising those that do not contribute to the broader social good and instead choose to make decisions based on self interest, but how this might work, or if this solution is scalable to something like yoga requires international cooperation and is not a priority. The best way might be to tax the fitness and teaching type of vocational yoga and give concessions to religious / community groups, and this arelady is happening! Which leads me to the next point, has this article passed the "so what?" test? YM Editors take note?
Marcella, as one who long gone without health insurance coverage, I am connecting your words in a similar way…If I had the money to pay for health insurance premiums, I would get it. I don't. So, I know that if "something happens," and I had to go to the hospital, the fact that I can't pay my way is one of the reasons insurance premiums are so high to begin with. To cover the uninsured. I'm not sure it this is similar to what you had in mind, but it does make me think…
Aren't there issues of tax liabilities of non-profit yoga studios? I believe non-profits are tax-exempt, they do not pay taxes to the federal government and (2) that its donors can take a tax deduction for their donations to the organization (I wonder if students can take a tax deduction if they take a class that is by donation?). Not sure if there are ramifications from this but would be interesting to explore.
Also, I wonder if teachers need to band together to try to cut out the middle man which is the studio owner. I think that is where the money is going which might explain why teachers are paid so little. I think there might be alternatives to the commercial yoga studio system where teachers actually get paid a decent amount for their efforts. Would love to see YM bat some ideas around in another article.
Just a couple of things that I thought about while reading this. Thank you.
John, that is exactly what is happening in Charlottesville with Guerrilla Yoga Project…I would love to know if there are more such projects….that is what "guerrilla" implies!
There seems to be Flash Mob of writings about donation-based yoga. This just came out on New York Magazine: http://nymag.com/news/intelligencer/welfare-yoga-…
Jai for the donation yoga scene indeed!
I teach a weekly class for GYP in Charlottesville. It's a small class….1 to 4 people on average, but it's one of my favorite teaching gigs. Interesting, creative and open-minded people always show up to take my class. The whole community of donation-yoga in Charlottesville is really wonderful, supportive and fun.
Even though it's donation only, more often than not, I walk out of my class with more money in my pocket than I do some of my studio gigs (where they keep 50% of each student's class money and with new student cards and what not, sometimes that ends up being only 89 cents for me!). For my GYP classes, I pay very small dues to our organization and to the space we use for class, the rest of the donations I get to keep.
Sometimes people only have a few dollars to spare, but then other times people hand me a 20.
I've even offered bardering with some of my students – for example, one of my students is a really talented baker and once she brought me home-made gluten free bread in exchange for the class and I thought that was awesome.
–Apple-Mail-14-514069516 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Content-Type: text/html; charset=us-ascii approve
Nice to hear from you, athayoganusanam, direct from a source of Guerrilla Yoga Project!
I love the notion and simplicity (at least in notion!) of paying small dues to GYP, and to the space, such a clear exchange of goods. I'm all for bartering myself, I've done it for things as basic as cat-care to luxurious as facials. I'm seeing such an emergence of brilliant entrepreneurship in organizations such as yours, re-creating "the system." Thank you!