While co-owners Karen Dagdick and Neil Bergen ran Yoga Central for three years, they also, respectively, kept another business going and managed the community radio station. Then in the spring of 2009, Karen and Neil sought unsuccessfully to sell the business. Yoga Central’s landlord increased the rent at the 8th St. location, so any potential new owners would have faced greater start-up costs than had originally been envisioned.

Karen, in particular, had devoted lots of time and energy to managing a highly successful three-year yoga teacher training program that was co-directed by international teacher Mary-Lou Weprin and our own highly skilled and knowledgeable Patricia Dewar, the founder of Yoga Central. The 200-hour teacher training program involved classes, workshops, and guest lectures in the studio, education in an anatomy lab, doing home readings and practice, and apprentice teaching. As the program was drawing to a close, Karen saw her considerable efforts in getting the studio certified through the Yoga Alliance come to fruition. The community of teachers and students that formed at Yoga Central remains grateful to Karen for all that she did in the years in which she headed the studio, to Patricia Dewar and Mary-Lou Weprin for the excellent teaching and training they provided to us, and to our guest teachers, Gay White, Lynn Minton, and Joe Pereira for their skilled instruction.

As Yoga Central’s doors closed at the end of April, the community reformed as the Summer Yoga Co-op, thanks principally to the efforts of an Executive Committee, but many others have contributed in a variety of ways to the rebirth of the community at Grace Westminster United Church at 10th St. and Eastlake in the Broadway area. As of Monday, May 4th, a regular schedule of classes is being offered in the large, pleasant auditorium there. The co-op has purchased equipment, so classes will be well supplied, and all teachers are graduates of the 200-hour Yoga Central teacher training program. All levels of students are welcome to classes that can be paid for either on a drop-in basis at $12 a class or by purchasing a $75 monthly membership. The schedule of classes is as follows:

Monday: 5:45-6:45 pm Beginner
7:00-8:30 pm Multi-level

Tuesday: 9:30-10:30 am Beginner
5:30-7:00 pm Intermediate Prep

Wednesday: 1:30-2:30 pm Gentle

Thursday: 5:45-7:15 pm Intermediate Prep
7:30-8:30 pm Beginner

Friday: 9:30-10:45 am Beginner 2

Saturday: 10:00-11:00 am Multi-level

* No classes will be held on Saturday, May 9th or Monday, May 18th.

The co-op will continue to seek a more permanent home as Grace Westminster is only able to provide space over the summer months.