Rambling Yogi: Episode 4~Burlington, Vermont {Check you Pretentiousness and Shoes at the Door}

• Flow

My brother-in-law and sister driving down the streets of Burlington.

As Tales From the Mutiny toured around New England, we were fortunate to have my sister, Marylou, and her husband, Craig, caravanning with us is their truck camper. My sister is an amazing activities director, and after 12 months on the road I was not opposed to turning over all of the decision making and planning to her. Since they love Vermont we were eager to have them show us around and a trip to Burlington was born.

Stopping for #yogaeverydamnday outside of Yogarama Clothing Store.

There were so many studios and options for classes in Burlington and we were only there a few nights so we simply picked, at random, a class that fit our schedule. We ended up at Burlington Yoga for a late afternoon, 90-minute Flow class. I was happy to find that the studio was upstairs in an older building (as opposed to a shiny new boutique studio). We went up the narrow, creaky stairs and found a bench/coat room type area meant for taking off our shoes and jackets. I was somewhat surprised to read a sign encouraging us to bring our shoes into the yoga room due to some recent thievery of shoes. Shoes? Perhaps it was the vast amount of Ugg wearers that attracted shoes thieves to the area?

Inside Burlington Yoga.

As class began to fill and settle it appeared we had 3 instructors hence, the 3 mats at the front of the room…(or one instructor and 2 helpers?) as they seemed to be taking turns leaving their mat and making corrections. I’m not opposed to corrections, at all, I just like to know who these people are…and since there were no introductions I didn’t know exactly what was going on. Another issue I had was that these 3 people were in the room the entire time my sister and I were, including when we were asking where the instructor would be located. A perfect opportunity for someone to say “hey, I’m so-and-so, I’m your teacher today…why don’t you gals grab a bolster and block and we’ll get started soon.”. Nope, instead, she was a stranger to us AND we had to get up in the early part of class to grab a bolster (as did a few other students) since no one made it clear they were necessary.

Yogi toes!

Now for the good stuff. Although I was unsure who was touching me and making corrections (some of which I had never been told and wasn’t sure if they were ‘correct’) I really appreciated that they were hands-on. There’s nothing like taking a class, paying $15 and never having the teacher acknowledge your practice. Even if I don’t need any corrections (ha) I’d at least like to know I’m doing it right(ish). I mean, I can (and do) my own yoga practice at home, for free, without assistance or corrections. So why pay $10-20 for someone to stand up front and never offer personal attention?

The teacher seemed a little more welcoming after class…perhaps she’s just shy or introverted? But I would encourage her to mingle a bit with the students before class…or at the very least, introduce herself to students she’s never seen before. One disappointment was that the next class was scheduled so close in time to our’s ending that we had people hovering over us to claim a spot. Several appeared irritated that it tools us a couple of minutes to gather our things and vacate the floor. After a class I like to take my time, after all, we had barely been out of savasana for 2 minutes!