Ally Hamilton

If you want to take a moment to truly fall in love with humanity, take a trip to the bathroom at Yogis Anonymous. You'll be greeted with the most positive, energizing and inspirational bathroom graffiti that has ever existed. You know the graffiti in your favorite coffee shop- scratch that- that's nothing- this stuff is fantastic. It creates a sense of community that is truly inspirational.... I may have never met the person on the mat next to mine, but if I have the suspicion that they wrote "trust your struggle" or "follow your bliss" on the wall next to the sink, I have an innate trust for that human being.

Ally is the director of the studio, and her class is power vinyasa FUN. Her alignment background shines strong and keeps her students on track. My favorite part was when we imagined we had a tennis ball between our thighs in warrior 1 and in crescent lunge (I think).

We did yelling kick ups from warrior II, lots of lunging with some fun side angles, and there was time for handstands or other inversions right up against the wall. There was a point when her playlist switched over to her 4th of July playlist- for no reason- and she just rolled with it. It became a part of the enjoyment of the class.

Yogis Anonymous is a down to earth yoga studio specializing in real world bliss and creativity. The post art on the walls (a woman with her finger to her lips..shh), the blank canvasses, the figures doing chair pose above the bathroom...all a reminder not to take anything too seriously....

Aria Mayland

I had the good fortune to practice next to Aria one day in class, and let me tell you, it's impressive. After taking her class, however, I understood that her inversions weren't a result of pure luck, but of intelligent, mindful and a very specific sort of hard work. After some slow stretches, strengthening and awakening work and some flow, we moved onto our peak pose, handstand. The intention for the class I took was about rolling in the inner thighs, and we took out blocks and practiced that. Aria commented about firming the triceps towards the biceps, and gave us many more precise cues that unfortunately I cannot now remember. But I did mind them very much, and as all yogic work, it sinks into the body sometimes without notice. Then, Aria took it one step further, and asked us to do donkey kicks with a block between my thighs. This was absurdly frustrating (and for that reason brilliant). I can do a decent job with donkey kicks, but with a block, my ego took a nose dive. And watching that process, and the senselessness of those thoughts- there the yoga kicked in. We moved into other handstand preparations, and then finally went up, which was so fun and super rewarding. Aria gave lots of options for how to kick up into handstand, and individually guided students. Handstand (next to camel) is my favorite super refreshing pose. I felt amazing after that class....