We have two important news items to report to you in today’s issue of Santa Barbara Yoga Buzz, and they both involve long-time yoga instructors packing it up and closin’ it down at one location and setting up shop in a new spot.
To begin with, Arturo Peal, the dynamic, healing, extremely knowledgeable instructor who has taught at Yoga Soup since its inception, chose to leave The Soup at the end of August. (We previously told you about this important decision of Arturo’s a few weeks ago.) Well, we’re happy to report that his classes are now up and running in an exciting new place that he’s calling The Yoga Dojo. The Yoga Dojo is located inside Aikido of Santa Barbara at 121 N. Milpas St. One cool tidbit about The Dojo is that its entire floor is one giant piece of yoga mat material – yoga mats are therefore optional. Pretty cool, huh?
Arturo’s class times at The Yoga Dojo are easy to remember: they take place on Monday, Wednedsay, and Friday mornings from 8:15-9:45am. Classes are $12 each or $10 each for students, seniors, and veterans. For more information about The Dojo, visit Arturo’s website at www.bodystudies.com. And if you’re a Facebooker, please also check out The Yoga Dojo’s fan page and become a fan like we did!
For a taste of the new space, here’s a photo:
-Arturo Peal’s Yoga Dojo-
And now for big yoga news #2: Steve Dwelley and Michele Nichols, the co-owners of the Ashtanga Yoga Shala in downtown Santa Barbara, have officially made the decision to move their teaching from their own little Shala to Santa Barbara Yoga Center. Wowza!! Steve and Michele actually taught at SBYC for years in the “olden days” of the Santa Barbara yoga scene. You know, back when SBYC was the main yoga game in town, back when Eddie Ellner was a brand new teacher at SBYC and hadn’t even thought of opening Yoga Soup yet, back when David and Andrea Miliotis still lived and taught classes in town and David had long, ponytail-length hair. Do any of you readers of our blog remember these olden days of which we speak? Back in those days, Nicole Inglish was teaching at SBYC as well and had not yet taken over The Yoga Studio and turned it into Source Yoga Studio. Back in the olden days, Francesca Hunter, now a staff teacher at Yoga Soup, used to own her own yoga studio in Montecito called Blue Lotus Feet Yoga. And Denise Zaverdas, one of the best teachers in SB today and the assistant director of SBYC, had not even moved to town back in these olden days. Back in the super olden days, Drishti wasn’t even open yet. How did people survive back then? 
But enough digressing. Our point in thinking back to the olden days was to remember that Steve and Michele used to hold their Ashtanga classes at SBYC – the very spot to which they are now returning. It’s interesting how trajectories can sometimes come full circle, isn’t it? The scoop on this significant move for Steve and Michele is that the building which now houses the Yoga Shala is set to be torn down at some point within the next few years. Steve and Michele decided, therefore, that they would like to be proactive about this situation and move on from the space before the timing of things forced them to. Owning their own yoga studio gave Steve and Michele certain advantages (absolute autonomy is probably #1), but being part of a larger studio owned by someone else has its advantages too (being exposed to a constant flow of new students is probably #1). There’s a trade-off either way here, but seeing as how Steve & Michele were on their own for a full seven (?) years, it makes sense that it’s now time for them to wrap up one phase and enter the new (old) phase of being part of the larger yoga studio of SBYC. It will be like the olden days again, except not.
