In March I traveled to Austin for what I believe was my 10th SXSW in 11 years. Despite barely drinking and walking / biking everywhere; as many know, SX is a BEAST. No matter how healthy one tries to be, it is an insane zoo of people and a massive influx of stimuli.
Thus, I was super psyched when I had time to squeeze in a yoga class the Sunday of Interactive to help get my head and body focused for the upcoming music week.
I looked into Wanderlust yoga, but unfortunately (though understandably), their space had been rented out for the week which I realized when I saw Whitesmith comedy client W. Kamau Bell speak on a panel for Pivot. Google's new Maps is very frustrating to use and one can't search by distance from a location any more but amazingly I spotted a small red dot about a mile away from my hotel when searching for the nearest studio.
I was very pleased to have found Practice Yoga Austin on the East side: http://practiceyogaaustin.com/.
I took a Vinyasa II-III (re: not for beginners) at 1:15 on a Sunday. It was a substitute teacher and I absolutely LOVED the class. The instructor did two postures that were new for me; which is always nice, but they weren't new in the sense that it felt too modern and trying to change tradition. It was a great experience and I felt loaded with prana, especially for an express type of class. That being said, it did run about 15 minutes long; which I feel is important to note, especially for midday (or morning or evening) classes as many folks are on a schedule. But I didn't mind :).
I ended up talking to the owner while I was putting my shoes on who explained that they were new and were going to work on their SEO. Additionally, he had thought of closing during SXSW, but I encouraged him not to. Both the locals and folks in town need a space to decompress during the madness, and also send a little love back out to the world.
Thus, I give Practice Yoga Austin 4 out of 5 stars. Yay! xo
