Dazzling array of yoga options arrives in Fairbanks

FAIRBANKS — When flyers, websites and social media outlets here began announcing "Laughter Yoga," "Aerial Yoga," "Essential Oil Yoga" and even "Grateful Dead Yoga," it was apparent another Alaska city was entering a new era of the ancient Indian practice of linking breath to movement.

Yoga is far from new in the Golden Heart City. A small number of yogis have practiced for decades but the scope of it has blossomed to include eight University of Alaska Fairbanks classes in the spring and fall semesters, five privately owned studios and classes offered at venues including athletic clubs, art studios, senior centers, schools and breweries. There is yoga for military veterans, yoga for pregnant women, yoga for babies, yoga for the elderly and several options for therapeutic yoga to help with physical and emotional trauma.

No place is the expansion more obvious than the UAF Community Yoga Club. In its 15th year, attendance has swelled from a handful of participants to 40 or 50 at Saturday morning practices. Club founder and faculty adviser Maya Salganek recalls early days when she volunteered to teach every weekend.

"Somebody always showed up," she said. Back then, there were only three or four yoga instructors in town. Now she estimates there are at least 60.

Cross-training with yoga

Salganek recalls the yoga craze across the country in the late 1990s and early 2000s — a trend slow to reach Alaska.

"It became more commonplace, more about fitness," she said. "Before then, it was seen as a New Age, off-center practice. Then it changed to fit the Western culture from its Eastern spiritual roots, luring younger generations.

"Even the NFL was cross-training with yoga instead of ballet," she said.

In Fairbanks, would-be instructors left town to take a variety of yoga training courses before returning to share them. "It took awhile to catch on in Alaska," Salganek said, "but suddenly there were so many choices."

Today an assortment of people show up at yoga classes, workshops and retreats. "Some are curious," she said. "Then there are people like me who are addicted and can't imagine life without it. We are yogis for life."

Salganek said it's hard to tell whether today's yoga craze will become passe, but yoga is a 5,000-year-old practice. Her hope is that people become interested not only in the physical aspects but the philosophical ones, too. "It's just as liberating," she said.

"Yoga means to bind, to yoke yourself, channeling the physical energy to your body as your move."

But she's wary of today's rampant commercialization — wearing the right yoga pants or using the perfect mat. "There's a Western bastardization of what yoga is," Salganek said. "I hope people get interested in the roots, the legacy of it as well as its future. Yoga is about having nothing but yourself."

She tries not to be too impressed with the growing numbers. "I was happy having one student," she said. "The fact that there are so many who feel called to practice is hopeful and surprising, but it doesn't matter if it is one or 100, the practice is the practice."

'Hitting the reset button'

Yoga suits Fairbanks, she contended.

"It physically opens the body and makes you aware of where you are in space. It's like hitting the reset button. It makes us a healthier community."

Jacie Sturm, whose Pop Up Yoga (spur-of-the-moment outdoor classes) is wildly successful, said it's a fun way to get people together. The donation-based classes are at public locations with class sizes between 40 and 100.

"I think people really like the sporadic nature of the classes because we all love being able to get out and enjoy the sunshine at a moment's notice," Sturm said.

In December, Sturm opened Fairbanks Yoga in a west-side shopping center. "I'm thrilled that yoga has become so popular in Fairbanks," she said. "It's a healthy, creative outlet for movement and wellness for people of all ages and abilities. And I think that's why so many people are drawn to yoga.

"The great thing about having so many yoga classes in our town is that we now have access to such a wide variety of styles and teachers. If someone were looking to start a yoga practice, I encourage them to try out a few different instructors at different studios to figure out which style of yoga they prefer and to make sure they really jive with their instructor. Having an instructor you connect with and trust is so important."

'Wow'

Jody Hassel, founder of a nonprofit studio named Blossom House downtown, said, "One of my favorite aspects of the practice of yoga is the act of simply being present with others in community. And there are so many different styles offered here in Fairbanks. Diversity makes it more interesting, and I hope we continue to grow in terms of integrating tradition with what's … vital for us."

Donna Lanni, co-owner of Heart Stream Yoga and Golden Heart School of Yoga, said, "About the yoga explosion, all I can say is 'wow.' A lot has changed since the early 1990s when I began teaching. The thought of studio spaces, layered schedules, promotions and yoga-based clothing and the myriad of types and styles of yoga was not even considered.

"Back then, yoga was spiritual and a pathway to realization.

"Now, yoga is all across the board from traditional to exercise-based. And, if you are not practicing yoga, you are wearing yoga clothing with symbols on them that were once mysterious. I love the explosion. As a yogi, having so much yoga in town brings awareness to the practices that are deep and inherent to yoga, such as meditation, a focus on breath, asana and relaxation.

"I don't care what type of yoga you are practicing in town, there will most likely be those four components in the practice," Lanni said. "Everyone in the world needs this now."

To her, the spiritual element is essential.

"Practices that do not include this aspect are simply exercise," Lanni said. "We all like Fritos, but do they sustain us? Maybe for a while, and then the empty calories will show in our energy, our body shape, our outlook on life. So it is with yoga."

Despite the explosion of yoga in Fairbanks, Trax Yoga's lead instructor Dee Gard believes there's more to come.

"Though we now have more studios than ever, and more offerings for the general public, I think where it's most needed is where it's not — at the schools, at the jail, on the military bases, as a regular part of the training programs for our athletic teams," she said.

"We still have a far way to go."

Nancy Tarnai is a freelance writer who has been living in and writing about Interior Alaska since 1995. She wrote about village life for We Alaskans in the late 1990s. She can be reached at njtarnai@gmail.com.