Take yoga's mindful, often playful mentality out of the same old studio setting and into new experiences. Be it falling into a lake or cuddling a baby goat, it's all part of the practice at these alternative venues.
SUP Yoga
With the sky above and the water below, Stand-up Paddle Boarding (or SUP) Yoga brings balance into every pose. From May through September, Miss Melanie Yoga holds classes at Spruce Run Reservoir in Clinton, New Jersey and Lake Nockamixon in Ottsville. Your first thought is that you're just going to fall in, which is perfect: “We actually encourage you to allow yourself the opportunity to fall in at least once during a class. Falling in allows for the ‘what if' fears to disappear. Students become more willing to try more poses and have more fun on the boards once that mystery is out of the way,” she says. Besides, under the summer sun, a dip feels amazing.
This year introduces a Kundalini instructor and classes for kids to learn paddling, mindfulness and some environmental science.
Art Yoga
The pregnant hush of a museum leaves our senses open to unfettered observation of the art or artifacts we encounter. With yoga in the Allentown Art Museum's Kress Gallery, that museum mindset adds a fresh layer of attention to the practice, and vice versa—rather than standing around starting to get distracted by a complaining lower back, engagement in yoga gives the experience of the high-ceilinged, softly lit art gallery a unique comfort and calm. No experience is needed to come and enjoy a traditional practice among the donated art collection of Samuel H. Kress, augmented with additional pieces in the realm of Renaissance and Baroque art. Instruction for these biweekly classes comes from a representative of Easton Yoga, with relaxing music and gentle guidance.
Goat Yoga
With the serenity and precision that yoga practice often seems to require, it may sound counterintuitive to have adorable, fuzzy little pygmy goats roaming freely among a group of practitioners, nibbling, clambering and nosing about. But within yoga, there's a time for solemnity and a time for fun, and Farm Animal Yoga is unapologetically fun!
Japheth and Suzanne Brubaker of Water and Rock Studio in Chestnut Hill teamed up with Mountain Pride Farm in Quakertown to teach yoga classes either out in the grass or dry in the barn with a contingent of goats in attendance. “Practicing yoga, being in nature and being around animals are all good for us mentally and physically,” Japheth says. “Doing all of these things together has even greater benefit.”
Vineyard Yoga
Paint & Sip, Plant & Sip, Stitch & Sip—adding a little wine to any group activity lends a festive, carefree quality that welcomes enjoyment and eases pressure. Get limbered up outdoors in sight of the rolling fields of the vineyard and follow it up with a wine tasting.
Blue Mountain in New Tripoli, Clover Hill in Breinigsville and Tolino Vineyards in Bangor have all offered yoga sessions in the past, so check their websites for this year's events. Bangor's Franklin Hill Vineyards is hosting a special yoga event packaged with a brunch buffet and sumptuous sangria this month, so look no further for a memorable Mother's Day gesture!
For those who prefer a good beer, there's also Pints & Poses, held at Weyerbacher Tap Room in Easton.
Antigravity Yoga
Yoga tends to involve a focus on grounding to the earth underfoot, but you can take your practice into the air at AntiGravity Yoga Lab in Allentown in one of their 15 hammocks, securely fastened above mat flooring. The restorative yoga classes are open to any experience level, so you can fully enjoy experimenting with suspended movement in a slow stretching sequence. Levitating meditations, zero-compression inversions and a floating savasana are all incorporated in a practice that holds the appeal of aerial silks without being as strenuous. Still, you'll feel accomplished and invigorated after a stint in the sky!
Yoga Under the Stars
In the beautiful summer setting of Allentown's Rose Garden, Yoga Under the Stars begins at dusk and continues until the full moon has risen. Hosted by the Pratyush Sinha Foundation, this donation-based, 75-minute class is designed to offer adaptations for all levels. Prabha Sinha leads the yoga and meditation while her husband accompanies on the guitar with a slow chant. “More than the pose,” Sinha says, “our focus is to find the body, mind, breath connection.”
Connection, health and harmony are the mission, within the community as well as the body. All proceeds fund the Pratyush Sinha Foundation's work, bringing yoga and mindfulness to schools and marginalized communities. The foundation's annual Lehigh Valley Yoga Festival focuses on the intersection of yoga and medicine this July.
