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| - I've been in the yoga community from both sides of the check-in desk around Madison for quite awhile, but currently I just attend classes as a paying member, which is new to me. I have heard and responded to every possible complaint and concern that a yoga client can have, in the past, and find myself now in their shoes (or bare feet).
The Studio is undeniably the finest physical studio I've ever taken classes in. The high, rough hewn wood-beamed ceilings, the huge windows overlooking the lake on one side and a historical lake side area on the street side. The dimly restful lighting. The blessedly superheated classes that melt the winter chill away. The couches, floor pillows, the tea, it's all very beautiful.
But here's the thing. For a lot of people, yoga is an expensive, carefully-budgeted-for extravagance of self-care. It's a serious thing, and over time most practicing yogis do develop more of a rapport with a certain instructor or instructors styles, energy and vibe. The body attunes to it, the spirit releases with it. Yoga instructors encourage and depend upon a loyal following to some degree, as well.
For non-yogis, think of yourself setting up a haircut appointment with someone who 'gets' your hair, someone that you've been going to for a long time. You arrive for your appointment and surprise, it's a stranger. You have prepaid and you cannot cancel or get a refund, even though you didn't know about the substitution.
This is how I and many others feel when we sign up in advance for a certain instructor's class, look forward to it, prepare for it, and then are expected to stay and pay/use a class pass when someone we don't even know appears to teach. It's *not* that that person is a bad teacher, or incapable or any of that. It's simply not what we signed up for.
If a substitution is last minute due to some emergency, clients should be allowed the option to reschedule and not lose one of their passes. But to leave the well known teacher on the schedule when there is a known, pre-arranged vacation, and then not update the schedule with that change in time for people to be allowed to change or cancel the class, seems disingenuous and unfair.
The result is that I cannot register for classes in good faith that I will get what I signed up for. I will have to make a second visit to the website each time I plan to attend, before the cancellation window expires, just in case they've switched it at the last minute.
The other thing that astonishes me is that there is no one else assisting in the huge classes, just the teacher is there alone. No one comes around to offer adjustments, no one is going to notice if someone needs help to avoid injuring themselves. As a longtime yogi now dealing with some limitations of movement, I expected some simple guidance. Despite how beautiful The Studio is, there are things that could be done better.
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