By some scholarly studies, yoga may have been practiced as early as 3,000 B.C. Soapstone seals found in the Indus Valley of India appear to depict various yoga-like poses.
Kate Drake, a semi-retired occupational therapist, in a desire to “improve myself” discovered yoga about seven years ago. It wasn’t long before she became “hooked” on this ancient discipline, she said. Though initially thought to have been designed to help one attain a certain mental clarity in a quest for spirituality or enlightenment, its benefit as an exercise has helped it become accepted in modern times by an estimated 18 to 30 million Americans.
After dabbling in it for three years or so, Drake’s enthusiasm for yoga led her to “talking to my teachers” as she thought about becoming a certified instructor.
“I started to think about my retirement plans,” she said, asking herself. “In five years, where do you want to be? What do you want to do and so that is when I really started thinking. I really have a passion for it, I love it and I think it’s not well known.”
“People, when they talk yoga … they think you need to be a pretzel and that’s not the case at all. The case is that you are doing to for yourself, and it’s not just for physical practice.”
She expounded on the calming, the mental benefits people can derive from yoga, both of which helped her decide two years ago in September to rent the upper space at 149 Main St. When one enters Every Body’s Yoga Studio (accessible from the back of the building by parking behind the Town Hall), the space grabs your attention. The high windows that face Main Street allow sunlight to come in on the wide open floor that can accommodate 20 or so students.
While Drake said she knows that she can overcome people’s misunderstood nature of yoga, but she is having a harder time getting the word out that the studio is in Dansville.
But, she is making headway into that as well, and even though she said the “summer months are kind of slow – everybody is so busy,” she has about 50 to 70 students who attend the many classes she schedules. She has beginner classes that can lead to more intensive ones as students desire to push themselves, she said. She also holds specialty classes upon request; kids yoga, tween yoga, family yoga, pre/post natal yoga among them.
