Dharma Yoga Center Reviews

I’d like to preface this review by saying it will be based on my opinion and preference. I’ve been practicing yoga for 13 years and have studied and taught the practice for 7 of those years. I hope it will be helpful for some. When looking for studios in NYC, I was recommended the Dharma Center by several peers. While in town, I visited the center and had a class with Dharma Mittra. It was easy to sign up for the class online and we were greeted very sweetly by the front desk staff. They made us feel welcome and showed us around the studio. I was grateful for that since it was my first time. Upon walking into the class, I realized it would be a different experience than I’m used to. Before class, students were filming Dharma, taking photos of him, and practicing physically advanced asanas chaotically throughout the room. I felt more assured after an introduction from Dharma with lots of thought provoking spiritual ideas and practices. But once the class started I realized I was out of my element. The Saturday morning class is definitely for physically advanced practitioners. It was a choppy sequence of incredibly intense and quick moving vinyasas, balancing postures, and back bends. Students who were hyper flexible folded into the poses while the rest struggled to unsafely follow. Dharma regularly used the phrase “if you’re flexible” and pointed to students who were exhibiting the ‘perfect’ alignment. It was certainly not a class for everyone but for the few ‘fit and flexible.’ We were being taught in a way that implied you’ll only be able to do a certain posture in a certain way if you practice more; completely disregarding the idea that someone could have an injury or other limitations. At one point during class, I was prompted by the instructor to change my alignment in lizard (a deep hip opener). Without asking, he pushed my low back aggressively towards the floor and said, “keep striving.” I have a very sensitive low back due to long-term injury and this was traumatizing to say the least. A few times during class, folks stopped to film his demonstrations but they were also panning the camera across the room to record other students in the class. This made me uncomfortable and took me out of what little meditation I could find. This was a fascinating experience. A few times during class I felt so uncomfortable that I wanted to roll up my mat and leave. I’m sure there is plenty of Dharma’s teachings that I’m missing or that I’m ignorant to. It’s clear he’s doing important work and his message and style resonates with a big group of people. I’m just not one of them. I saw that there are gentler options on the schedule. In hindsight, I would have opted for one of those.

I have been a student of the Dharma Yoga Center for over 3 years now and have taken three teacher trainings with them (200, 500, and 700 hour). I absolutely love that Dharma Yoga is not overly focused on physical practices but truly nurtures and teaches other facets of yoga that are equally important, such as meditation, and breathing. lifestyle. The teachers and staff are passionate the community and always a pleasure to communicate with. I highly recommend the Dharma Yoga Center to all, beginner, and advanced students.