Heart Centre Yoga

Burnaby doesn't seem to have a heck of a lot of yoga studios (at least ones on the passport to prana anyway). I went and checked out Heart Centre Yoga located in North Burnaby. A very pleasant surprise!

What: Heart Centre Yoga

Where: 3978B Hastings Street, Burnaby BC

When: May 21, 2010, 9:30am-10:45am

Class: Hatha Yoga

Teacher: Ariel

Drop-In price per class: $16

Comments:

Space:

Whoever converted this space into a yoga studio did an excellent job of creating a beautiful studio out of a retail space. Everything was in one room, except for the washrooms that were communal washrooms for other businesses in the building. The good thing was that the washrooms were close and not to inconvenient to get to. The space was quite small and there were only 12 yoga mats set up. I think that the max you could fit would be about 20, so that was a minor limitation. The class I went to only had 5 people so it seems that there is usually space for people to attend.

Atmosphere:

So much ambiance! I really felt at home in this studio. I loved the sheers that separated the parts of the room and the lighting. There were laminate hard wood floors, which was a nice addition. I really liked the vibe that this space put off. There was a good stockpile of equipment and supplies - everything from wrist wedges to eye pillows! It was very pleasant to do yoga here.

Teacher/Class:

Ariel did a great job of going through a vinyasa-hatha flow with all the proper posture and alignment cues. Her flow was very meditative and just made me feel good all around. I love going to a class and learning new things about common postures - like how a lunge with your back toes untucked and knee off the ground is really half of an up-dog pose. I appreciated the new approach a lot. Ariel had done the same training as me through Prana, but 8 years earlier, and it was cool to see what I recognized from her dialogue. She was cool to talk to after the class and gave me some more info on workshops and trainings that are held at Heart Centre every so often. A great class!

Rating: 9/10. A small space, but with tons of character and ambiance. You have to get changed in the washroom, but that was not too much of an inconvenience.