Four yoga studios are on the short stretch of Main between downtown's Eighth Street and Over-the-Rhine's Liberty Street. Two have opened this year, one just in October. Rents made affordable during the recession played a role in the opening of the two newer studios, as did the fact the business owners/yoga teachers didn't need huge capital investment to get started.
And now all four have joined together under the "
Yoga Row" banner, offering a $20 passport that entitles purchasers to one discounted class at each studio. It is for sale at Park + Vine, the green-oriented urban-living store that in October expanded from Vine Street into the old Kaldi's location at 1202 Main. Among its products are yoga mats and clothing.
Together with Park + Vine, the studios -
The Yoga Bar at 825 Main,
Main Street Yoga at 1201 Main,
You Do Yoga at 1319 Main and
Joyful Life Yoga at 1601 Main - are bringing a new presence to the old street, with its historically urban setting of 19th Century apartment buildings and their storefronts. And that presence may say something very positive about how the street itself is evolving, as well as the nearby residential neighborhood.
Of course, yoga itself isn't new - it's an ancient Eastern practice, with spiritual dimensions, that aims to promote enlightenment by connecting mind, body and breathing. It's long been on the fringes of Western culture, but has gained adherents in recent years. The New York Times estimates 15 million Americans now practice it, and Main Street has become a hub of yoga activity locally.
"It's really inspiring," says Matt Eshleman, who with his wife Anita has owned the storefront You Do Yoga since 2009. "The fact the downtown community can support four yoga studios means people are catching on to this," he says. "And what used to be on the fringes of pop culture is really front and center. It reflects that the people living downtown are in a progressive mindset, into making change happen and into new ways - or new old, old ways - to thrive as a society."
And in doing so, they help create a scene. "I've read (in the Washington Post) that a yoga studio is good in general for a neighborhood," says Sherry Joy Clower, whose Joyful Life opened earlier this year. "Seeing people walk down a street with their yoga mats makes it seem like it has a good energy."
The impetus to combine forces as Yoga Row began with the arrival of Rachel Roberts, who moved back to Cincinnati from Colorado - and two years of yoga-oriented world travel - to start Yoga Bar. Her second-floor studio is unusual in that it has a large bar with stools off the entrance - a holdover from a previous tenant. Roberts uses it to serve not liquor but healthful drinks like kombucha (fermented tea) and specialty waters like coconut. She also has a small dog named Findlay (after Findlay Market) who roams the environs, playing with its squeeze toy and even climbing onto a cushion near Roberts to watch her teach a class.
"It was important for me to introduce myself to the others, so we got together for tea a couple weeks ago at Iris BookCafe (on Main)," she says. "My perception is if we work together, the pie will grow."
She believes outreach - and the introductory passport - can help attract new business, even in these economic times.
"It's our job as teachers to help people understand that this is a practice that helps sustain you, helps you be healthy and make life decisions," she says. "Many people come to yoga a first time as an expression of some kind of shift in their life, trying to make sense of things."
Each yoga studio specializes in a different style of instruction. Also, each has a distinctive vibe that. Roberts includes Asani. Eshleman at You Do Yoga is trained in Chinese-style Taoist yoga, but on Final Friday evenings - when several galleries and other businesses are open late on Main - he joins in the fun with a "Don't Worry Be Happy-Hour" session of laughter yoga. At Joyful Life, where Clower has studied Anusara yoga, the spirit of joy is reflected in an event like the recent post-Thanksgiving Gratitude for Balance session, where a special guest played crystal singing bowls while students did yoga.
Main Street Yoga, at five years the veteran of the quartet, has a quieter and more demure feel. Its spacious third-floor studio features photographs by co-owner Nancy Willman, also a graphic designer. She specializes in gentle Hatha yoga, and also offers classes for people with back issues.
Willman, whose business partner is her husband, Brian Hennigan, says it's natural for the four studios to want to cooperate with each other. "The belief behind yoga - the core of yoga - is to be non-competitive," she explains. "So it's important the owners of yoga studios do what they preach. And we all have different methods, so everyone can go to every studio and see what each looks like, how it feels, if they like the way it teaches. Some students like to come in, do something aerobic and then go out. Other people want a little more spiritual yoga, and then maybe be served some tea afterward."
It should be noted that there are new yoga studios in other parts of town, and overall yoga seems a viable business, especially in older neighborhoods like Northside, Clifton, Hyde Park, Oakley, Columbia-Tusculum and Pleasant Ridge. At the same time, other institutions are offering yoga classes - even the Cincinnati Art Museum. Further, yoga isn't the only thing happening in Over-the-Rhine. Vine Street is undergoing its own different kind of revival with shops, restaurants, new housing, at least one recent upscale bar, and theater. (For that matter, one of the city's hottest new live-music clubs, the alternative-leaning MOTR Pub, is at 1345 Main.) Brian Tiffany, president of the Over-the-Rhine Chamber, sees Yoga Row as a positive development within the area's overall changes.
"From a marketing standpoint, it's brilliant," he says. "We knew more people were living on the street, and we knew their tolerance for just having bars was greatly reduced. A lot of attention is being paid to a healthy lifestyle - I really see Main Street as being very attractive to those types of folks."
So yoga is helping Main Street survive and redefine itself during the recession. If it succeeds, better days could be ahead.
"It's encouraging that if I can make the business work during these times, I'll be on more solid footing when things are more robust," Yoga Bar's Roberts says.
Photography by Scott Beseler.
The Yoga Bar
Yoga Row Passport
The Yoga bar, provided photo by David Warnke
You Do Yoga facade
Main Street Yoga interior