Think beyond classes: Eight options of teaching yoga

1. Drop-in classes in traditional locations (yoga studio, gym, wellness center). This has been the most common way of teaching yoga in the West in the past century. It seems like most exercise facilities offer yoga now, and members come to expect it. This is one of the most accessible and cost-effective ways of practicing yoga, as yoga classes are often included in the cost of membership. It also means that a wide range of people with a wide range of abilities show up for those classes, which makes it a bit harder for the teacher to accommodate everybody’s needs. It also makes it more challenging to facilitate and evaluate students’ progress, because different people show up for different classes. The process of applying for work at a location like that is usually pretty straight forward – if they have an opening, you would fill out an application form, have an interview and get selected (or not) to teach a particular class.

2. Drop-in classes in non-traditional locations (library, office building, retail store, brewery, city park, chiropractor’s office, etc.). More and more often we see businesses offering yoga as a perk to their patrons. This can be a one-time offering, or an ongoing arrangement. Those kinds of classes are useful for bringing in students who don’t normally go to more traditional yoga or exercise locations, and can prompt their interest in yoga. Those types of classes have the same challenges for the teacher as classes in traditional locations (hard to cater to everyone’s needs, hard to develop progression), but they also have unique spatial challenges. For example, in a retail environment you would have to maneuver around racks of clothing, in an office space you would have to deal with extra furniture, florescent lighting and preset temperature, in a city park you would deal with weather, uneven surfaces and onlookers, and so on.