Yoga teaching booming

Two instructors demonstrate ``restorative'' yoga that combines yoga postures with essential oils in Space Yoga's new premises in Tienmu. The new location is scheduled to open officially this Friday. PHOTO: LO PEI-DER, TAIPEI TIMES

The latest addition to the recent deluge of investment in premium yoga centers is Space Yoga's massive new Tienmu (天母) center which opens this Friday. Custom designed to produce a relaxed and "homelike" environment, it is targeting Taiwan's well-heeled expatriate community and also Ｗesternized Taiwanese.

Yoga has long been part of exercise programs offered by health centers worldwide, and establishments such as Chiu Su Jen Yoga Center (邱素真瑜伽天地) have been in business for 20 years. But the last year has seen an explosion in yoga teaching in Taiwan, with the opening in October last year of True Yoga, the launch of a flagship store by Chiu Su Jen Yoga Center, and the establishment of Space Yoga, all in Taipei's upmarket east district.

According to Matthew Allison, the founder of Space Yoga, Space has already had 10,000 members in the year since it opened in Anho Road. Allison said that Space distinguishes itself from the other centers in focusing exclusively on yoga, and rejecting any branching out into pilates, taichi or dance styles.

In creating the new center, Allison said he wanted to make a relaxed space in which people could come to get away from the noise and crowding of Taipei, and where they could seek both physical and mental repose. He emphasized that yoga at Space was a lifestyle choice rather than just exercise, a fact also underlined by the center's merchandizing its yoga mats, rugs and other items.

Allison said that the yoga market was growing rapidly in Taiwan, and that while Space would restrict itself to being true to the various forms of traditional yoga, the spread of yoga through other centers was certainly beneficial to the market as a whole.

Increasingly, the yoga market is distinguishing itself from the physical fitness market. Alexander Health Club (亞力山大), one of Taiwan's best known fitness and beauty brands, has begun to promote yoga, setting up its New York, New York branch as a dedicated yoga center offing a wide range of yoga and related exercise classes.

True Yoga itself is a branching off from the traditional fitness market through its founder Jeffrey Shih (史奎謙), who was connected with both the California and Hollywood fitness centers, and won the license to introduce the True Yoga franchise to Taiwan.