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| Om Factory 265 W 37th St, New York, NY, www.omfactorynyc.com |
If you read the little bio on the side of this blog then you know I'm a vocalist/musician as well as a yogini. Tomorrow I am on my way to Paris for the first time with a band called the Burnt Sugar Arkestra Chamber. I'm so excited as I have never been to Paris before.
On the day of the last Burnt Sugar rehearsal before Paris I decided to get a little yoga in. I looked through my Passbook and found Om Factory. The yoga studio is on W. 37th street, which put me really close to the rehearsal studio on W. 30th street.
Om Factory has a nice vibe to it. It has three very nice size studios and the changing room is cool as well. There are cubbies to leave your belongings on the right as you walk in, which is a also a sort of lounge area with benches and shoe storage.
The room we practiced in was orange and had a great symbol painted on the wall. I was one of the first people to class so I put my mat down and relaxed for bit. The teacher was in the room getting himself together and two other women were in the room with me as well. The teacher came over and introduced himself (you know how I love that), his name was Faramarz and he complimented my t-shirt I had on for class. He informed us that he would be teaching that day in place of Kelly who had an emergency. Well the ladies in the room didn't seem too pleased about that. They kept talking about Kelly's class and how challenging it is. I mean they went on almost to say that it was going to be hard to fill her shoes. Now I had never had class with Kelly so as far as I was concerned Faramarz was my teacher.
Soon the room began to fill up and class began. Faramarz had us begin in a restorative pose to help open the shoulders. We started on the floor, but it only went up from there. The class is called Vinyasa: Foundation Level, but it was challenging for sure. I kept chuckling to myself thinking that those ladies probably put the "I'll show you" into our teacher for the day and he was giving it to us. LOL! I know that probably wasn't the case, but it sure felt like it.
Usually any class that says "Foundation," "Basic" or "Level 1" won't take the students through certain things like chaturanga (at least not right away), but that was not the case here. We jumped right into it. There was no talk of kness, chest, chin. Of course we could modify, but he didn't call it from the beginning. So you know this class was off the hook. Once during class I glanced over at the two ladies who were raving about Kelly. I think they were wishing for Kelly to come back...soon!
All in all it was a great class! Faramarz is a great teacher. He had jokes and reminded us to smile though the poses. He would demonstrate harder positions and come by to help people. Maybe this was "Foundation" test day, but whatever, it was a great class.
When it was all over I had to talk to Faramarz and get a picture for the blog. After chatting for a bit I found out that he is the owner of Om Factory. Well no wonder that class was as challenging as it was. HA! I could only laugh.
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| Me & Faramarz |
I'm going to do my best to find some time to get a yoga class in while in Europe. I would love to get my downward dog on in the UK!
Namaste.
