Category: Yoga
Target Zone: Core, Arms, Legs
Location: Rittenhouse
Intensity:
Cardio:
Tighten & Tone:
Total:
Category: Yoga
Wandering down Walnut Street, past the Apple Store and Urban Outfitters, among honking taxis, and boisterous highschool groupies hanging out on the street, it’s hard to believe that you are standing in front of a yoga studio. 1611 Walnut Street, Dhyana’s Rittenhouse location is situated in the middle of it all, but luckily, all you have to do to escape is go up. Through a secretive door to the left of American Apparel is an elevator which takes you up to the 4thfloor, and far away from the raucous scene outside.
Hands down my absolute favorite thing about Dhyana was the fact that I didn’t have to sign up ahead of time. I just showed up, bought a very reasonable package ($30 for 3 weeks unlimited as a first-timer), and went into class. I feel like in today’s world that is practically unheard of. The growing population of healthy/ fitness crazed people (women in particular) has made getting into your favorite classes like survival of the fittest… literally. Even if I remember to sign up on the right day, if I don’t get to it until 9am I often still find myself on the wait-list. Insane! Anyway, all the more reason that being able to show up for a 630 class on a Monday night was refreshingly amazing.
The studio itself is big and open, with brightly painted walls, and mirrors lining one side of the room. It’s an older building and I loved the big open space. So since I generally have anxiety about not being able to find a space for myself in these classes, I was there a few minutes early, psyched and ready to go... but after waiting for 15 minutes for our teacher who was late, my feelings for Dhyana started to turn sour, and quickly. Now I know that things happen and though I tried to stay very zen and patient about it, I’m sorry but 15 minutes is a long time to sit and wait… especially during your precious minutes of allocated “exercise time”.
Once the teacher did get there, he made a joke about it and went on with class, which I guess is really all you can do. But honestly I’m not sure that I ever really got over my earlier frustration. Probably my fault for not being able to let it go, but my experience was definitely not what it could have been. The class itself flowed well, however (per my review about Amrita and my general disliking for classes heavy on inversions) it felt like there was a lot of time spent upside down, or for me a lot of time spent watching other people go upside down. Ultimately, it wasn’t the sweat or experience that I had hoped for.
All in all, I think it was an unfortunate coincidence that my first time at Dhyana wasn’t their best showing and I am definitely going to go back and give it another try. The location, the studio, the people were all great AND knowing that I don’t even have to sign up ahead of time makes the possibility of a last minute drop-in all the more likely.
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