Semperviva Sky

Back to Semperviva! I headed back to the intersection of yoga studios at Trafalgar and Broadway for a Friday night class to cap off my week. As I mentioned before, there are two Semperviva studios across the street from one another (Sun and Sky) and Yogacara studio across the street from that. Also, on this block are tons of wellness clinics and alternative medicine centers... it's almost scary how many there are, but I guess it's what you can expect in Kitsilano. I had been to this studio a couple times before on a previous promotion, so my experience is not entirely novel... however, I'll relate back to the first time I went there in this review.

What: Semperviva Sky

Where: 2582 West Broadway, Vancouver BC

When: June 11, 2010, 7:15pm-8:30pm

Class: Hatha

Teacher: Ingrid

Drop-In price per class: $18

Types of classes offered: Hatha, Yin, Kundalini, Prenatal, Postnatal, Vinyasa Power

Comments:

Space:

I remember the first time I cam to this studio. I was extremely confused as to where the actual studio was and how to get in. I of course went to the Sun studio first as that one had a sign visible from the street and a storefront. The Sky studio has very little signage except for a small sign that points you to go into a restaurant (Greens and Gourmet). I remember thinking "you have to go through a restaurant to get to the yoga studio?!?" I still find it weird. Anyways, yes you have have to walk through the restaurant to get to the studio. There was a small hallway/waiting area with benches and a small washroom outside the studio. No changerooms so you have to either come dressed for yoga or awkwardly try to get changed in a bathroom stall without any hooks to put your things on. There were only two walls in the women's washroom, and with Semperviva's draw, lineups tend to form. I really didn't enjoy the washrooms at all. they were dirty and in need of serious renovations. I think that they were also shared with the restaurant, which is not cool. Anyways, enough about that outside stuff, let's move on to the actual yoga space.

It was a fair size, with nice big windows to let in a lot of natural light. I didn't dig the carpet floors, though. There were of course Semperviva's ubiquitous blue mats laid out on the floor, but the majority were worn and had lost their stickiness. Bringing your own mat is highly recommended. There was a good amount of props, which was appreciated.

Atmosphere:

The studio was very bright and had a nice vibe. Not a lot of decorative elements except for a plant, some candles and some crystals in the front of the room. This is kind of what you can expect from all the Semperviva studios. Simply put, they were converted spaces. They serve the purpose of being a space for yoga, and things like nice washrooms and changing areas are less of a priority. As a last note, the street noise was quite loud and you could hear a lot of big trucks and engines revving outside on Broadway.

Teacher/Class:

As a hatha teacher, I always love to attend hatha classes to learn new things to encorporate into my own classes. Ingrid was an older woman (albeit ridiculously fit and flexible). She was a very kindhearted teacher and brought a great deal of powerful yogic wisdom to her class. The only thing was that she was a bit too soft spoken and spoke too fast for me. At times she was hard to comprehend. Her flow was great - it started out with some relaxing restorative poses and then moved through a more powerful vinyasa and warrior sequence. It was a great end to a long week.

Rating: 6/10 The studio was nice once you were doing yoga in it, but the washrooms really sucked and there was no changing area. This was my least favourite Semperviva studio. That being said, the location was great and very accessible. As an after-thought, I'm beginning to understand why Semperviva doesn't post pictures of their studios on their website....