Q&A with CorePower Yoga instructor Juan Ayala
The Museum is partnering with CorePower Yoga to provide yoga classes on select Saturdays every month in our creative spaces! Yoga Mornings is a great way to encourage positive mindfulness and well-being outside of the studio, and each class is taught by a knowledgeable CorePower Yoga instructor. Meet one of the instructors and manager of the new CorePower studio in Little Italy, Juan Ayala. Juan is a dancer turned yogi who has been practicing yoga for the past four years. He was introduced to The New Children’s Museum by a student of his at CorePower and was inspired after a visit to the Museum to teach classes in our space and share its creative capacity with others through yoga. We asked Juan to share with us his experience of teaching yoga in unique places and what people can expect at Yoga Mornings classes.
Q: What made you want to teach yoga classes in our Museum space?
Juan: There is something truly magical in the wonder and exploration that children have, and in yoga we take many shapes to recreate or re-experience that feeling of adventure, wonder and exploration as adults. When I walked into the Museum, it made so much sense to combine it all and have a centralized experience for exploration, adventure and wonder no matter your age or experience.
Q: What style of yoga is being taught at the Museum?
J: We teach in the style of Vinyasa, which can translate to “breath to movement” or “to place in a special way.” It is considered a highly active style of yoga and we approach it as a moving meditation and a physical experience/metaphor for real life experiences.
Q: How is teaching or participating in a yoga class in a museum different from being in a studio?
J: They are different environments that affect your energy, intention and experience. In a studio we can treat it like school or work where we are doing everything we can to get stronger, longer and “better.” Once we step onto our mat outside of the studio space, it becomes a full immersion and connection of the space, the people and you. It becomes an adventure.
Q: What do you hope people will take away from these yoga classes at the Museum?
J: I hope they take a piece of advice from the Museum, the children it serves and yoga – to believe in the magic of exploration and wonder, and to do both more often.
Juan will be teaching our next Yoga Mornings class on September 21 from 8:30-9:30am. For this class, we will have child care services available for an additional fee during the class. Classes are friendly to all levels of difficulty and participants must be 18+. To learn more and reserve a spot in the class, click here.
