Community Yoga Center Opening in Emeryville

Square One Yoga Collective, a new studio offering low-cost yoga classes and community events, is opening March 1 in the Triangle Neighborhood of Emeryville.

Katy Cryer, a neighborhood resident, is teaming up with 11 other Bay Area yoga teachers to make the transformative art of yoga available to everyone, regardless of income. At the heart of Cryer’s vision is the belief that yoga has become too expensive for many of the people who need it most.

“Yoga changed my life,” she said, “It helped me become calmer, more centered, more self-assured, and more compassionate toward others. It even helped me break a 15-year tobacco addiction. Everybody should have this.”

Cryer plans to offer classes for $10 — two-thirds to one-half what most other Bay Area studios charge. Neighborhood residents for whom even $10 is prohibitively expensive will be given the opportunity to apply for scholarships.

San Francisco architect Pablo Ortiz Pena is designing the interior of the studio, while Leigh Okies of Leigh Okies and the Office of Fine Print, also in San Francisco, is meeting all of Square One’s graphic design needs. Both Pena and Okies are working pro bono, sharing Cryer’s belief that yoga is a conduit for social and personal change.

“Many, many hours of their hard work is making Square One not only the most affordable of Bay Area studios, but also perhaps the most beautiful,” Cryer said.

All events and classes on opening day (March 1) will be free and open to the public. Classes will begin at 9:30 am, 11:30 am and 4 pm. There will be a reception following the final class of the day. Sein Feit, an Oakland musician, will hold a kirtan (call and response chanting in the Hindu tradition) at 7:30 pm.

For more information, please contact Katy Cryer at 510-547-9700 or 415-652-8229, katy@squareoneyoga.com, visit website at www.squareoneyoga.com, or drop by the studio — Square One Yoga Collective, 4336A San Pablo Ave., Emeryville, CA 94608.