The transition from yoga student to yoga teacher to studio owner has been a very natural one for Shannon Austin, owner of and instructor at Eastown’s new hot yoga studio,
Yoga Fever, on the corner of Wealthy Street SE and Fuller Avenue at 1154 Wealthy St. SE.
With over a decade of experience practicing yoga and an official instructor certification through Prairie Yoga, a studio based in the Grand Rapids suburbs of Cascade, Austin came to Grand Rapids from the east side of the state about five years ago. She says the concept for Yoga Fever was born from the creeping feeling that many of the studios offering vinyasa-style hot yoga were missing something.
“Alignment was often missing in the more contemporary hot studios, and so I wanted to bring alignment to a vinyasa-style class without compromising the sweaty, fun flow,” Austin says. “I wanted to bring something in that was a little more instructional that kept closer to the true root of yoga, the traditions and the philosophies.”
And though she’s been practicing yoga since her very first class in 2004, Austin says it wasn’t until she moved to West Michigan that she became privy to the transformative quality of yoga when it’s instructed in the spirit of those traditions and philosophies.
“When I first started the practice, there was a bit of a ‘rubber band effect’ for me; it was more of a physical practice,” she says, adding that it not only takes time to delve into the deeper aspects, but also a willingness and true desire to get there.
“I think the more you practice, the more you come to the mat and with the right teachers, you’re just naturally going to start being more open and gravitating toward the spiritual aspect,” she says. “Some folks never open that door; they don’t want to open that door — and if you don’t, that’s OK. But, if the door is open to go deeper into the practice, then it’s definitely available to you, but it takes a good three to five times a week on the mat to get there.”
She says not only does she want to bring back alignment and tradition to the hot yoga setting, but also to offer courses designed to put a renewed focus on following an important format sometimes tossed aside.
“That’s not to be mistaken with running the same class — you’ll always get a different class — but we work from the same format, so you’re guaranteed when you come to classes at the studio that you’ll get the proper warm up, you’ll move for 40 to 45 minutes depending on the specific class, you’ll have the proper cool down, and some time to center before and after the class,” she says.
Attracted to Grand Rapids’ Uptown neighborhood because of the locally-owned businesses, foot traffic, and a demographic with many yogis among it, Yoga Fever’s total 2,300-square-foot building features 1,500 square feet of dedicated studio space to hold its 30 total class options, taught by nine new instructors carefully selected to “fit the needs of the studio,” Austin says.
Beginning Jan. 18 through the end of the month, Yoga Fever will host $5 classes three times each day for the duration of its two-week soft opening, with walk-ins welcome but online registration encouraged, as space in the discounted classes is already beginning to fill up.
To snag your $5 introductory class at Yoga Fever, or for more information about its new Wealthy Street studio, visit www.yogafevergr.com or find
Yoga Fever on Facebook.
By Anya Zentmeyer, Development News Editor
Images courtesy of Yoga Fever
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