In a dimly lit room, students unfold their yoga mats and form a circle. A candle burns in the center, and the beats of a Thievery Corporation song play in the background. The class, called Punk Rock Yoga®, is being held at Home Alive, a nonprofit organization in Capitol Hill that teaches self-defense classes. Punching bags, mats, and self-defense posters serve as a backdrop to the Punk Rock Yoga poses.
During her yoga teacher training, Punk Rock Yoga founder Kimberlee Jensen Stedl began teaching outside of regular yoga studios as part of a community service requirement. After seeing excitement build in her students, she realized that she wanted to continue to teach Hatha yoga classes in an unconventional way. To help keep classes accessible and fun, they’re offered at affordable rates at venues that aren’t used solely for yoga, and are often accompanied by live music.
A common misperception of Punk Rock Yoga is that it’s a class for people with lots of piercings, tattoos and Mohawks—people who fit the typical “Punk Rock” stereotype. But that’s not what it’s really about, Jensen Stedl explains in the mission statement: “What I learned to love about the name Punk Rock Yoga is that it challenges stereotypes. It confronts the notion that punks are angry miscreants and that yogis are contortionistic hippies…. My feeling about punk rock and yoga is that both are raw, honest, accessible, empowering, resourceful, independent, provocative and energetic. These concepts drive Punk Rock Yoga.”
One comment Jensen Stedl often hears is “I can’t do yoga,” meaning “I’m not tall, thin, white, and flexible,” the image of yoga typically portrayed in the media. Yoga veterans will find themselves doing familiar poses, but she makes it a point to teach to different body shapes, and to give plenty of options for the poses so students can work where they can work. She has to extend that forgiving attitude to herself, too. During one pose in her class, she laughs, “My shoulder isn’t doing this today. I’ll do it this other way instead.”
But what about the spiritual and meditative aspect of yoga? “That depends on how you define it,” Jensen Stedl says. “We typically work with themes. We use a broader, more base-level spirituality, and allow students to fill in their own blanks. Students can go deeper into their own spirituality, not mine.” She recognizes that to some students, walking into a studio filled with incense, Sanskrit chanting, and images of deities can be overwhelming. Or the opposite can be true, that students think those things are required to have an authentic yoga practice. “You don’t need a whole setup,” she explains. “Any space can be sacred, it’s what you bring to it.”
You can find more information about Punk Rock Yoga, including a class schedule, at www.punkrockyoga.com.