As students manage course work, extracurricular activities and jobs, some turn to yoga for stress relief. On any given day of the week, fellow classmates can be seen carrying their yoga mats throughout the city toward the popular Yoga to the People on St. Marks Place or heading to free options on campus.
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Each week, Carolina Daza transforms the common room in Hayden residence hall into a serene oasis. The Food Studies graduate student is the instructor for the free yoga class that meets there, and her sessions have attracted many residents, from newcomers to experienced veterans. The class is relatively small, the atmosphere relaxed and inviting, and as the lights dim and tranquil music plays in the background, Daza teaches her students various constructive Hatha poses and techniques.
Steinhardt freshman Claire Edlemann is a yoga novice, but finds the class inviting.
"I live in Hayden, and so it's definitely very convenient to go here rather than go out. I feel like it would be more intimate here too," Edlemann said.
Resident advisers offer classes in hopes of fostering community development. Seventh Street RA Terrence Cheromcka received her certification last summer and has been teaching in the dorm's basement since September.
"Yoga has helped me to feel more comfortable in my body, a task which is hard for anybody who is becoming an adult," Cheromcka said. "I am motivated because yoga did all these things for me and more."
While yoga studios and facilities outside of NYU are usually focused on only one style, they offer more quality and professionalism than those within the school. One of the more popular choices is Yoga to the People on St. Marks Place, a donation-based power vinyasa studio.
Steinhardt junior Zach Statler, who has just started working out there, is making it a habit to head over on a regular basis.
"It's just really great," he said. "It's free and the atmosphere is great. Everything's really chill here."
Other students seek out the yoga community further from campus. LSP sophomore Grace Whitney frequents Bikram Yoga between 22nd and 23rd streets.
"Bikram [or "hot yoga"] is a struggle for everyone, so it's like we're all in it together," she said.
"It does become a bit of a community, certain people who always go to certain classes or the same instructors get to recognize each other."
Janet Aschkenasy has been a registered yoga instructor sin
ce 2001. She is currently working on incorporating yoga as a healing technique for HIV/AIDS patients. She believes that more students are paying more for yoga classes in order to get the best instruction possible.
"We New Yorkers are more fortunate than most. We have access to each one of the dozens of flavors of yoga and to most of today's top living teachers," Aschkenasy said.
In the end, for Aschkenasy, everyone seeks an instructor that "speaks directly to them."
"Frankly, that's how it should be," she said.
