Yoga On & Off the Mat
The Yoga Fitness Center
STUDIO SPOTLIGHTBy Brooke Hewes, 12-28-07
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The New Year, replete with its resolutions and resolves, is an excellent time to begin, resume or continue an asana (posture) practice. And in Missoula, there are few places better than 123 West Alder Street.
The Yoga Fitness Center sits at the far end of downtown Missoula, just before the town’s main north-south street dead ends into railroad tracks. If you face your mat north, you can just barely see the tips of the tall grass that blankets Waterworks Hill while standing in tadasana, mountain pose.
Inside, the practice space is clean and simple. Fresh flowers and a few pieces of framed art provide the only contrasts against light blue walls. Katie Heath has owned the studio for five years, and like the space, she maintains a simple attitude about her yoga practice.
New West: When did you begin practicing yoga and why?
Katie Heath: I started in 1979 in Berkley. I lived in a duplex with my boyfriend, who later became my husband—he was going to college there. The person in the duplex beside me was yogi and to this day I have never seen anyone do yoga like her. One day she knocked on my door and asked if I minded being quiet at 11 am every morning while she mediated. I had never really met anyone like her.
I had always done modern dance and used my body, but what I loved about yoga was that it was body work without performance.
We later moved to Bozeman and I had a baby and then we moved to Missoula. My first regular teacher was Marlene Burke … She was my greatest influence. She taught me Ashtanga [Vinyasa Yoga]. She told me that I had to teach. So I would go to her University classes and teach some poses and then she would tell me what I did wrong—while the students were still there! I definitely got thick skinned. I admired and was scared of her.
NW: How long has the Yoga Fitness Center been around?
KH: Marlene started it around 1980 and I bought the business from her five years ago. Around that time I bought the building and renovated it for a couple months before it reopened.
NW: Does the studio have a specific mission statement or philosophy?
KH: It has changed. Originally, all our classes were from the Sri Krishnamacharya branch of yoga. All classes were either Iyengar or Ashtanga. It was me, Marlene and Serena. That was our original approach, to offer a variety of classes of the Krishnamacharya style to the community. When the studio moved [among other locations, it was on South Higgins and then on the corner of Front and Higgins beside the Wilma], I hired a lot more teachers. We still don’t have a lot of yoga that’s not a part of the Krishnamacharya lineage [which includes the yoga his disciplines T. K. V. Desikachar (Viniyoga style), B. K. S. Iyengar (Iyengar Yoga style), Pattabhi Jois (Ashtanga Yoga style) and Indra Devi]. We first started diverging with Ana Forrest Yoga and Vinyasa Flow, which is still very much a part of that style.
NW: Is there a specific teaching philosophy or style that you encourage your teachers to have?
KH: Absolutely not. I have teachers that I have never seen teach. The only questions I ask them are about their [own] practice. And if they have one, they teach what they are learning about … I do not dictate what a teacher teaches. All of our teachers have something in common—they have all practiced at the studio for a long time and have had a personal practice for a long time. There is no question to me that they will teach a good class.
NW: I have heard you talk about the importance of a yoga community to the practice of yoga. Do you try to create that community within the studio?
KH: I provide a place for yoga practice to occur and yoga community to occur. That is my job—to create the space. I make sure it is clear—that there are fresh flowers. If students create a community, that is up to them. I just create the space and let it occur. Then it comes or it doesn’t. But, really, it just does—it arises. Yoga is very heart opening.
Author’s Note: Currently, the Yoga Fitness Center offers 26 classes throughout the week. The types of classes include Yin Yoga, Ashtanga Vinyasa and Ashtanga Prep Yoga, Vinyasa Flow, and Beginning and Intermediate Iyengar Yoga. To see a schedule, which is reprinted each month, stop by the studio or call (406) 728-6770. The YFC doesn’t have a website.
NW: Do you plan on increasing the types or number of classes that you offer?
KH: It depends. Every year is different and we have different teachers each year. It ebbs and flows and has a lot to do with where my mind is … I listen very carefully to what my teachers and students say. I really do want a variety of classes within classical yoga
NW: What types of workshops does the YFC host throughout the year?
KH: We don’t have a lot of workshops. It doesn’t fit as much with ‘yoga fitness.’ Really, the thing about yoga fitness is that it is simple. It doesn’t take a lot of time. We can distract ourselves with any number of things, but, really, it is simple. Yoga is simple. We take our body forward and back … It is like what Erich Schiffmann says—your body is like a car. You want it to work so you can do what you want to do in this life … I’m just talking about a good, functional car. It doesn’t require workshops for special outfits. Still, it is profound what [yoga] can do.
Periodically, Marina [Zaleski] will do a 6-week intro to yoga, and I have David Garrigues twice a year because he is a certified Ashtanga Instructor … But really yoga is simple. Twenty minutes three times a week. (Ashtanga, she says, is another thing—“it is a discipline. It’s about how much sleep you get, what you ate today…” For more about Ashtanga Yoga, visit founder Sri K. Pattabhi Jois’ website and look for Margaret’s upcoming New West article on the practice.)
Our name is The Yoga Fitness Center and I go back to it often about what I envision for the studio, which is a community where people have yoga fitness and that is not a complicated thing. And yet the benefits are astounding.
NW: How would you suggest that a person new to yoga get involved? Is there a specific class they should take at first?
KH: Any class. It is often for us a practical matter: what time of the day are they free? How much can they afford?
There are two classes that wouldn’t be on the top of my list [for beginners]. That would be Serena’s Beyond Beginning Iyengar and the Ashtanga Primary Series class. For Ashtanga, though, that is the beginning; that is the primary series [so, really, it is appropriate for beginners] … I learned so much as a teacher from watching Guruji and how much he loves his students— and how much he loves beginners! He’s not hanging out with the most advanced students. He ignores them. He hangs out with the beginners. He loves beginners. I love beginners.
Basically, I would be pragmatic about it. Give each a teacher three times to show their style and be practical. When can you go? And don’t’ feel bad about when you can’t go. Marlene says ‘every time you come is a miracle. And if no one comes, it is a teacher’s day off, so don’t feel bad.’
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Comments
Aerobic or not, however, any yoga class will bring you in touch with your body and inspire healthy choices (eating and otherwise) that will increase energy and wellbeing.