Yogamaya — Local services in New York

Wow this is ridiculous… I’m waiting at the studio right now booked through class pass and accidentally booked the wrong time. I meant to come at 2 but booked 12:30 instead. It’s the same class the same instructor but the owner won’t let me in. Completely don’t understand the reasoning behind this. They said the instructor won’t get paid but it’s the SAME instructor? The worst part is I came with a friend and I would have to wait here for an hour for her and they are saying I can’t stay here and wait either unless the manager says it’s fine.

Continued: If you really wanted to be understanding and helpful, there’s a really easy way of working around the policy. Checking me into the other class and let me take this one instead would not hurt anyone. I’m also a certified yoga teacher, I guess from my point of view, I wouldn’t want to be the reason my student has a bad day because I turn them away for a simple mistake, especially when I know that we live in a very stressful time and most ppl seek yoga for relaxation and adjustment of their mindset on the weekends. Not accusing the studio of anything I actually had a great experience the first 3 times I was here, I do think there’s pretty big difference between running a business (putting decorative culture furnitures, burning incense, and reading a performative quote from a book at the beginning a class) and actually care about helping ppl through the...

I am genuinely really disappointed in this business. I left a review on ClassPass providing genuine feedback around their class and was met with a lot of defensiveness.

The class has a veeeery cult-y vibe. There’s a well known cult known as the Hare Krishna cult that has weaponized ancient Indian practices, and whitewashed them for American consumption. The instructor was singing these songs. Tbh, I would have been able to look past that if she wasn’t playing Indian bhajans, true Vedic songs, that was not sung by Indian people. This is why I think it is white washed. They don’t really have any class - if you’re gonna try to incorporate Indian music and philosophy, at least listen to music made my Indians.

I really liked the instructor, she was a great energy to be around, but 15 years of yoga practice (which is what the business gloated about in their review) does not negate my lived experience as a brown person. It’s not her I have an issue with, it’s truly this institution that did not take the feedback about the cult and its practice. Y’all really...

This is the yoga studio you've been looking for. I promise. The classes are amazing, with a range of levels for experts and novices alike. It is a welcoming, ambient, communal, and spiritually centering place, and I regularly hear newcomers go up to instructors with a gleeful exclamation of "this is the best yoga class I've ever been to", "this is the greatest my spine has felt in ages", or simply "oh my gosh, thank you." The rates are great, and the trial membership package is cheap and gives you unlimited classes to find out what suits you. Tangentially, even the UI of their phone app is great, which makes booking seamless.

My only caution is that once you start taking classes here its genuinely hard to go elsewhere, as it feels like...