Kusala Yoga

I have been doing yoga for years and Kusala is the only studio I keep coming back to. Each teacher is truly a professional in their discipline. The yoga classes are balanced and allow the students to explore their own needs on the mat. Though the schedule is sparse, the weekend classes are the perfect contrast to the demands of a busy a work week. Finally the studio's commitment to mindfulness and meditation has becomes an important part of my personal practice, I strongly recommend it to anyone who is looking to grow beyond the asanas. more

Kusala is a sanctuary filled with fresh, pulsing energy. I've had formative experiences practicing with teachers at Kusala. Melissa, the owner, teachers with a gentle authority moored by years of meditation practice. She takes a holistic approach to teaching which begins with mindfulness and compassion, and she holds those intentions throughout her instructions. Her classes are an exploration of the body/mind with the curiosity and wonder of a child. Although we do spend time in challenging postures, the relationship Melissa encourages you to establish with your experience is one of peace. You push yourself just gently enough to stay present with your experience. Marissa, a teacher who has taught Saturday classes, is a gifted healer. If you get a chance take a class with her! Really! She is wonderfully intuitive and her sequencing is creative and playful. I recommend Kusala for anyone who likes to connect and I'm pretty sure that's everyone. more

Not a place to ""push yourself"", a place to explore your mind with calmness and curiosity, Kusala has been a cherished new addition to my life. The instructors are genuinely peaceful, light, joyful, real.. There's no ""scene"" at Kusala- it's pure. The classes are perfectly balanced with meditation and asanas. Just beautiful! Dharma Punx on Monday nights is a great guided meditation practice, along with a dharma talk given by a wonderful and humorous Buddhist practitioner. Kusala Yoga is a magical place with much more to offer than just movement. Highly recommended..! more

This is a sophisticated yoga studio- with wonderful, wonderful teachers who are extremely well-trained and experienced. Sanskrit names and meditation are integrated into each class, implementing some of the true elements of Yoga that too many other studios fail to recognize. It is not a ""fast food"" type of establishment, it is an individual, strong place that stands on its own. Those looking for aerobics scheduled every half hour should go elsewhere. This studio and its charm and many, many devoted students are a wonderful addition to life! Thank you, Kusala! more

The new loft space is wonderful to practice in with daylight streaming in, art, plants, and a playful, creative aesthetic. The classes continue to be wonderful with teachers (like all of them amazingly) that embrace their craft, that are patient, gentle and adept in providing insight and adjustments (which I tend to need a lot of). I've taken classes with just about everyone including the owner Melissa. She has a knack for finding great people. The studio,for years now, continues to be a sublime refuge. more

Kusala Yoga is two blocks from my house so when I saw that they were offering a five-week series of 90-min. introductory classes for $15/class, I convinced my husband to join me. Melissa, the teacher/owner, asked us to prepay $150 for the full run of classes, which were supposed to begin on May 8. We were excited to be attending a true ""yoga 101"" class to make sure we got the moves right instead of just jumping into a basic class. On Sunday, May 8, which was Mother's Day, we showed up at the first class to find the door locked. We knocked and she came out and told us she had meant to inform us that the first class had been canceled but she had lost my email address and phone number. (This was especially annoying because we had told our family we couldn't do Mother's Day brunch because it was our first yoga class, but then Melissa -- a mother herself, apparently! -- didn't even bother to track us down to tell us that the class was not meeting.) She said that the class would be postponed by two weeks and would instead start on May 22. Then on May 20 she wrote me an email saying that she hadn't promoted the class well enough to fill it, so she kindly offered my husband and me two private lessons instead and she would refund the balance, which we agreed to. We settled on the dates -- the Sunday before Memorial Day and the Sunday after it -- and then a few days later she emailed me to suggest that we do them both after Memorial Day so that there wasn't a break in the middle, to which we agreed. We were supposed to meet for the first lesson at noon on Sunday, June 5, but she texted at 9 am to cancel due to childcare issues. I'm totally sympathetic to such issues, but at this point we had repeatedly made weekend plans around her scheduled classes and it was frustrating to have her postpone or cancel at the last minute for the FIFTH time. I asked her to just refund the money back to my card, and she agreed, but by June 17 the refund hadn't arrived on my credit card. It turned out that she didn't know how to do a credit card refund, so I told her it was ok to just mail me a check, which she agreed to do. She said she put the check in the mail on June 27, but it hadn't arrived by July 12 (and, like I said, I live only two blocks away!). So finally yesterday, July 14, my husband walked over to the studio and was given the $150 cash refund. I can't say anything about the quality of yoga instruction at this studio because I was never actually able to attend a class, but I think Melissa is a flake and the whole experience has left a bad taste in my mouth and made me not want to go there. more

nice people, very laid-back neighborhood-y place, payment on an honor system, no truly bad teachers. only downside is not enough classes, so even if you do a lot of yoga it's hard to justify buying an unlimited card, unless you happen to have a completely open schedule, and as with anywhere it's expensive not to buy one. Pros: the atmosphere Cons: not enough classes more