Openings
Free Yoga
Kula Yoga Project Opens Williamsburg Outpost
Exciting news for L train yogis. Kula Yoga Project, the Tribeca home of a goodly number of the city's most crazy-advanced yoga folks, is opening a second studio in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, reports Well + Good NYC. The second studio is slated to open September 16th. It'll have the same teachers as the first location, but more showers. Plus the new studio will have a Hyde Yoga shop and a cafe and juice bar. Free classes all day on September 16th! Kula Yoga Project Williamsburg, 85 N. 3rd St., between Berry and Wythe.
Openings
SoulCycle's Manifest Destiny
This just in: SoulCyle opening two new Manhattan studios. Details fuzzy on precise addresses, but still-warm press release says "Upper East Side" and "Union Square." This brings the total SoulCycle empire to seven locations, and 11 celebrities willing to have their name in the press release...
Brooke Shields, Kelly Ripa, Anderson Cooper, Jeff Probst, Kyra Sedgwick, Edie Falco, Katie Lee, Chelsea Clinton, Tory Burch, Kevin Bacon and Jane Krakowski are just a few of the familiar faces in the studio.
What's all the fuss?
More...Openings
Best Yoga View in New York
Brooklyn yogis take note: Reader Steph sends word that the newly opened Abhaya Yoga studio in Dumbo wins the award for "best yoga view in NYC." The studio opened on April 15th (auspicious?), and specializes in Anusara-style yoga. Drop in classes are $18, but first timers pay $10. I can attest that the sunset view over lower Manhattan from the Manhattan Bridge is spectacular. A 6:30 P.M. class would do nicely.... (PS: Is your yoga studio exceptional in some way? Tell us!)
New York
Openings
Donation-Based Dharma Yoga Opens in Park Slope
Here's a promising equation: Brooklyn + donation-based yoga + Dharma Mittra. Thanks to Brooklyn Based (by way of Llaves) for the tipoff that Dharma Yoga Brooklyn will open in Park Slope this Saturday. For those not in the loop, donation-based yoga is hottish at the moment thanks to the success of places like Yoga to the People. Meanwhile, Dharma Mittra has been hot for 25 years. At 70, the man still puts most 30-nothing yogis to shame. He's the dude on the famous poster "Master Chart of 908 Postures," and his tiny studio on Gramercy attracts a hardcore crowd. (If you're not hitting handstand when you jump back to chataranga, you're in the minority.) The new studio will be run by Dharma Mittra's students, Lily Cushmen and Jeremy Frindel. Park Slopers should expect a tough, authentic pratice — likely more rigorous than YTTP. They should also expect to feel just right about the price. Grand Opening this Saturday with lots of fun yogi activiities, like a full day of chanting and a silent auction.
New York
Openings
SoulCycle Opens "Temple" in Tribeca
SoulCycle, heretofore, a strictly uptown and Hamptons phenomenon is heading downtown. Recall that SoulCycle, beloved by Kelly Ripa (if not Anderson Cooper), is affluent New York's soulful answer to spinning. According to an email that hit our inbox this morning, SoulCycle will open a new studio on Warren Street in Tribeca on January 15th. In addition to a traditional 65 bike spin studio, the SoulCylers are introducing a "Soul Lab," a.k.a. "an intimate 30-bike studio with mats in between the bikes to facilitate our BRAND NEW ONE-HOUR SOUL CLASSES!" What's a "Soul Class?" Think 30 mintues of spinning followed by 30 minutes of powerflow yoga, or 45 minutes of spinning followed by 15 minutes of ab work.
Actually, it sounds pretty good, though admittedly there might be a limit to how deep one can get into savasana while lying at the foot of a spin cycle in a puddle of sweat. Regardless, the real news here is that Tribeca is fast becoming the epicenter of the global fiterati. Residents of Warren Street can now spin at SoulCycle and do yoga up the street at the Kula Yoga Project. Or they might just stroll around the corner to Equinox's Tribeca outpust, or hike eight blocks north to work out with Gwyneth at Tracy Anderson's new (and strangely un-buzzy) studio. Move over Malibu.
New York
Specialty Gyms
Brooklyn Boulders Opens Tomorrow
Brooklyn Boulders, the massive new climbing gym just off the Gowanus Canal between Park Slope and Carroll Gardens, celebrates its grand opening tomorrow. Rest assured we'll be there to check it out. We're hoping to be wowed by the facility. In the meantime, we're pretty impressed by their deals. The intro package — two day passes, gear rental, instruction in "belaying" and other basic skills — rings up at a mere $60. Add a month long membership to your intro class, and the price jumps to $100. Not bad! More deets mañana.