Q&A with PopUpAsana

You’ve seen them at M Street Park. Mats unrolled, downward dogs, taking in the summer breeze. It’s PopUpAsana and they’re combing yoga with some fun and creative venues including parks, distilleries and restaurants. We sat down and had a little Q&A with Jenna and Kristin from PopUpAsana to find out what they’re up to this summer.

How did you come up with the idea for PopUpAsana?
This past May marked our one year anniversary of founding PopUpAsana which is so exciting! The idea of pop-up classes came up while we were working with a business coach. She kept encouraging us to get out of the studio as a way to increase income and create a sustainable business that would allow us to continue to teach. We love studio classes, but there’s something really special about bringing yoga into unexpected places like breweries, or in the middle of a park, and giving people who normally wouldn’t go to yoga a less intimidating way to try it out. We both teach full time, so PopUp Asana allows us to keep our studio classes while expanding our own offerings that we have complete creative control over. It is important to us and our business that we partner with and support local, growing businesses! Long term, we hope to be able to provide well-paying teaching opportunities to other teachers.

How long have you been practicing yoga?
Kristin: I’ve been practicing regularly for about 8 years.
Jenna: I rolled out my mat 6 years ago.

What is your favorite pose?
Kristin: It’s so hard for me to pick a favorite… it really depends on what my body is craving that day. But favorites these days are half moon (super freeing), half pigeon (anything hips!) and working on my handstands.

Jenna: This changes often for me. Right now backbends, like urdhva dhanurasana or wheel pose, are my jam. There is no pose that offers my body freedom like a good backbend.

Do you have a favorite PopUpAsana event?
We’ve held so many fun and unique events over the past year, so it’s really hard to choose! It’s been wonderful to partner multiple times with businesses like Taza Chocolate, Bully Boy Distillers and Bantam Cider. They have amazing spaces and people always come back for more!

Strangest spot you’ve had an event?
Technically not an event, but we held our first retreat at Shiva’s Cave Yoga Retreat Center in the Dominican Republic this past April and we actually practiced yoga in a real cave(like in the side of a moutnain cave), spiders the size of your head and bats included. It was incredible!

Do you ever get hecklers at park yoga?
No hecklers but definitely a few gawkers, and maybe the occasional dog who is eager to join. ;)

Upcoming events?
We have 3 – 4 events per month planned for this summer, in addition to weekly Park Yoga classes at M St. Park in Southie and Maritime Park in the Seaport. We also are excited to start up weekly classes on Thursday afternoons and Sunday mornings at the ICA! All events can be found at our website!