City sounds are not often associated with serenity, but one local project sought to find peace within the urban noise on Saturday at Civic Space Park near the Downtown campus.
The Community Yoga Project, hosted by ASU, the City of Phoenix, Karuna Village, Urban Yoga and Sutra Yoga, is a free yoga class in the park open to community members every Saturday morning.
Volunteer yoga instructors from across Phoenix donate their time to teach the course. Each week’s class usually has a different instructor.
Inga Brooks, a sub-instructor at Urban Yoga who taught the course this weekend, said she came the week before to participate and enjoyed seeing individuals return from the previous session.
Brooks said the purpose of the class “is to bring the community together and participate in the community project.”
Beginners to advanced practitioners can join the class that runs for about an hour beginning at 10 a.m.
Chelsea Black, a Glendale Community College student, said this was her first yoga course.
Black learned about the class from an e-mail and came “because it’s free, outside and it’s nice weather.”
Community members attending the class are advised to bring their own yoga mats, blankets or towels to practice on.
Brooks said people should attend the class to support the community and practice with each other.
“If you are new to yoga, it’s a great way to get to know people and start a practice,” she said.
Brooks led the class in the style of Hatha Vinyasa, which she defined as linking the breath.
Participants moved through poses and stretched on the grass underneath the landmark net sculpture of the park.
“It’s a flowing class that involves the breath and linking it to the movement,” Brooks said.
Several students joined the yoga course in the middle of the park.
Sidney Carthell, a future ASU student in the upcoming spring semester and three-month yoga practitioner, said he came to the class last week and decided to return.
Carthell said he thought the course went well and offered “a lot of stuff for beginners and some stuff for the intermediate.”
Pedestrian traffic through the park and city noise, such as the light rail and construction, did not distract from flow of the practice.
Black said she enjoys yoga in the downtown atmosphere, believing the surrounding city noise does not detract from her practice.
For Black, the stretching and health benefits of yoga are of most interest.
The class went through a series of poses that included positions like Downward-Facing Dog, Triangle, Cobra, Tree and Happy Baby.
“For me, yoga is important for not only my physically well-being, but also for my mental well-being,” Brooks said.
Brooks has been practicing yoga for more than 10 years and has recently started teaching at Urban Yoga.
She added that there are many reasons and benefits for trying yoga and hopes that more people will decide to join the class.
Reach the reporter at lpalmisa@asu.edu.
