City Yoga: Reliably good Anusara yoga in Columbia, South Carolina

Traveling for work usually ends in aches, pains, and a mildly sleepless night, thanks to strange surroundings, cable television, or the air conditioner, which clicks on and off incessantly in order to keep those silly, hermetically sealed hotel rooms at optimal temperature.  To combat all this, I’ve learned a few tricks. I always seek out hotels with windows that open.  When open windows aren’t available — say when it’s a chain hotel type of town like El Paso — I bring earplugs.   And I always look for a yoga studio.

While I explore a range of yoga classes at home, I go to Anusara classes whenever I travel.  For awhile, I explored classes when traveling too. As a consequence, I’ve been to remarkable non-Anusara classes (Svaroopa at Glowing Body in Knoxville, Bianca’s class at Breathe Yoga in Melbourne), but I’ve also been to classes where it seems the teacher has given no prior attention to the sequences to be performed during the class, and gives no postural instruction save for, “This one’s really juicy so get into it and sink into the lusciousness of the pose.”  (No joke — I attended a class like this in Washington DC.)

Anusara is reliable. It is, perhaps, so reliable because its teachers go through such an extensive certification process.  Anusara requires its trainees to rack up more hours than most, if not all, other yoga trainings, and in class there’s an intense focus on postural instruction, which is given in a language and sequence that holds stable across all studios and teachers.  For the traveling Cancer moon (who truly just wants the comfort of home around her), Anusara yoga is the closest thing to that.

Last June, I embarked on an eight day business trip on the east coast and spent days two through five in Columbia, South Carolina.  The weather recalled memories I’d never had — of sitting inside a newly-baked potato — and some that I had — the sauna at the Berkeley YMCA.  I recorded the car thermometer reading 108 degrees at 8:30 at night!  The sweet hint of nostalgia for Southern California evenings overrode the wilting Bay Area transplant in me, who has become so weakened in these six years that she can only truly exist in a small range of degrees, say, 65 to 73.

The Cancer moon in me was as supported as one can be 3000 miles from home — I had finagled a red VW Beetle out of the rental car place, was staying at the Inn at Claussen’s, where the rooms have actual doors that open to the outside, and quickly Googled the natural foods store in town (it exists! and it’s called Rosewood).  Next, I inquired about yoga studios.

One of the women I was visiting recommended City Yoga, so I called them up on my drive into town and asked about classes.  The schedule forced me to jump into a Level 2 class, which pushed my boundary a little but ultimately turned out to be easy and familiar.  My teacher was Juliet, and she led us through a meditative practice on the solstice, which was to happen the week I was there.  Juliet, like all good Anusara teachers, brought a meditation to us, held space for our introspection, and wove in clear instructions about the head of the arm bones, the back body (back! back!), and the inner rotations of the limbs.  I liked it so much I came back two days later for the very full beginner’s class.  Juliet also taught that class, though this time as a sub for the teacher, who is also the owner.

City Yoga is an all Anusara all the time studio, a type that is tremendously hard to find outside of California, and which should thus be voraciously consumed by any yogi traveling through Columbia.  Even in California, I find it difficult to uncover very many all-Anusara studios. So when I find one, I cherish it, return to it if at all possible, and always recommend it to others.

After each class, I ate dinner and drank beer (how un-yogi of me!) at Hunter Gatherer Brewery nearby. I ate scallops with grilled romaine one night and skirt steak the next.  The place is chill enough that you can work on your computer in the corner, or hang at the bar and get to know a few locals. (I, unfortunately, had dinner with my computer and an impending power point presentation.) Two nights in a row?! you might think.  What can I say, the food was so good (or my moon so stuck in Cancer) that I had to go back for more, just like the yoga.

Neat-o things for the Bay Area soul in Columbia, South Carolina

City Yoga
(http://cityyogasc.com/)
2121 College Street, Columbia
First class free, then $15

Rosewood Natural Foods Market and Deli
(http://www.rosewoodmarket.com/)
2803 Rosewood Drive, Columbia
A whole meal from the deli, including a slice of a stellar tofu-broccoli quiche, $5-$10

Hunter Gatherer Brewery
(http://huntergathererbrewery.com/)
900 Main Street, Columbia
Most beers $3.75, main dishes range from $7-18

The Inn at Claussen’s
(http://www.theinnatclaussens.com/)
2003 Greene Street, Columbia
Rooms start around $120 and include breakfast and a glass of wine at happy hour