[People in My Neighborhood] Silver Lake Yoga’s Jonathan Emerson
By Colleen Paeff, Ledger Contributing Writer
In 1991, Jonathan Emerson was at a rehearsal for Love’s Labour’s Lost with the Los Angeles Shakespeare Festival when he noticed a fellow actor doing a yoga pose.
“I kind of sidled over to her and said, ‘Oh, you do yoga? Well I know this swinging little yoga spot,’” said Emerson.
Four years later the couple would be married, having their first baby and opening their own “swinging little yoga spot,” Silver Lake Yoga.
“It was mostly just, ‘Hey, you teach the advanced classes and I’ll teach the beginners,’” said Emerson, “’and we’ll get a little space and we won’t put a lot of money into it and we’ll see what happens.’”
What started with 11 classes each week—taught by three teachers in a tiny studio—has grown to more than 65 classes per week taught by more than 20 instructors. The tiny studio is also more than twice its original size.
“We were surprised and pleased that it took off,” Emerson said.
Emerson had trained as a yoga teacher a couple years before opening Silver Lake Yoga and credits his instructor, Erich Schiffmann, with inspiring him to become a teacher.
“[Schiffmann] encouraged teachers to teach from their own experience,” Emerson said. “…It was all about sort of finding the teacher within. If I’d had a teacher who was more dogmatic I don’t think I would have pursued it. ”
At Silver Lake Yoga, Emerson specializes in teaching beginners.
“I think a lot of people are intimidated by [yoga],” he said “But I think that I make it easy for people who could never imagine they could do, to do it and enjoy it. That’s one of the strengths of our studio.”
Another strength, according to Emerson, is their prenatal program. Spearheaded by his wife and studio co-founder Juliette Kurth, the program benefits from Kurth’s experience as a doula.
“I‘d say we have the best prenatal program in the country,” said Emerson. “Juliette’s very knowledgeable and she’s trained some superb teachers.”
Emerson emphasizes the studio’s focus on creating a warm atmosphere as well.
“We try to be a welcoming studio,” said Emerson. “We believe yoga is for everybody, so we try to create an environment that is welcoming and low key.”
This philosophy, plus the studio’s location in Silver Lake, has made for a very diverse clientele. Emerson said he loves that.
“We can have a retired school teacher in one corner and a kid with a tattoo and a nose ring in the other…So that’s interesting and also challenging to teach a kind of yoga that meets the diverse needs of the community,” he said.
References
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