Yoga Quarry owner Dana Baptiste welcomes a smile and a giggle during her classes. Questions are encouraged, and a post-class chat is practically penciled in to the agenda.
Approachable, not exclusive, yoga has been Baptiste’s credo for years, and has served her well. After selling a successful yoga business in Alpine, Utah, she continues to spend a fair share of her time running and managing her Salt Lake studio, Centered City Yoga.
“We’re not a super-serious studio,” Baptiste explains. “There is quiet time, but stuff comes up during class and you shouldn’t have to be afraid to ask — you should know what you’re sensing.”
When Baptiste designed the interior of Yoga Quarry, she hoped to reflect that same approachable-yoga philosophy to the decor.
“I wanted to create a space so that when you walk in you say, ‘oh, I could live here.’ We treat students like we would if we had invited them into our living room.”
The studio features a lounge area with books to read, and tea to drink, and will soon offer wireless Internet access.
Quarry co-owner Amy Roszmann explains that the idea is to create a community gathering space that is an alternative to restaurants or private clubs. It’s something that she and Baptiste have been successful at in Salt Lake, and something they both believe will catch on quickly in Park City.
“We do a lot of partner poses in class and people build relationships by coming to our classes there’s a certain type of person that comes to say, the 6 a.m. class and they get to know each other,” she says.
Roszmann began to teach yoga at Baptiste’s Centered City three years ago.
Four teachers, including Baptiste and Roszmann, teach classes in two classrooms one, about 1,800 square-feet, the other, approximately 800 square-feet. Classes range from Core, a concentrated class of over an hour of yoga postures targeted at strengthening abdominal muscles and back muscles and power yoga, a sequence designed to build strength, to restorative yoga, a gentle routine to soothe and calm the nervous system.
The smaller room will be reserved for specialty-classes for athletes and also for kids, depending on the demand.
Kids’ yoga has been a hit at the Salt Lake studio, Baptiste reports.
“Kids’ yoga has really taken off in Salt Lake parents tell us they cannot believe the change in their kids,” she says.
Baptiste and Roszmann recently taught a class at the Jeremy Ranch Elementary school during a physical education class. The day’s class was filmed and the P.E. teacher went on to teach a week’s worth of yoga classes to her students.
Baptiste started teaching when she was 24 at a spa nearly 17 years ago, but didn’t get serious about learning the history of the practice until later on. Then she got hooked.
“As a form of exercise, it’s an efficient way to build strength, flexibility, cardio it’s all of that,” Baptiste says. “But it’s also about the after-effects of yoga.”
According to Baptiste, students notice a difference, whether it is that they no longer reach for a doughnut, slouch or they no longer need a cigarette. Yoga affects people’s everyday lives because regular practice (which Baptiste defines as two or more times a week) it lengthens the time between stimulus and response.
“Yoga teaches you that you can be in the driver’s seat,” Baptiste explains. “It’s also a way to take a step back and observe your body and observe your life, maybe when your kids are fighting and say, ‘so there’s my crazy life. Now how can I bring clarity to my crazy life?'”
Yoga Quarry offers classes seven days a week up to four times a day. Yoga Quarry is located at 8178 Gorgoza Pines Road next to Booster Juice in Quarry Village off the Jeremy Ranch exit on I-80. For more information, visit www.yogaquarry.com or call 435-645-YOGA (9642) between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m.