Several Denver-based yoga studios and groups offer classes specifically for children and/or adolescents: Between the Bones, a movement and dance group operating at the Sixth Avenue Church of Christ, offers Storytime Yoga, Girl Power Yoga, and Peaceful Warrior Yoga; Yoga For the People matches volunteer instructors with nonprofits who help at-risk youth; Yoga for Young Warriors offers classes in several Denver locations; Karma Yoga Center offers Kids Yoga several times a week; Vital Yoga offers a Vital Kids class in Cherry Creek.
Several studios offer a parent-and-child styled class (“Mommy and Me” or “Daddy and Me”). A simple Google search reveals classes at Belly Bliss, Pearl Street Yoga, and Spiral Yoga.
Additionally, Yoga Teacher Trainings designed to address children are becoming more and more available – in Denver, Prana Yoga and Ayurveda Mandala will offer an introduction to children’s yoga on January 21, 2011 and beginning February 3, 2011, will offer “Denver’s First Comprehensive” children’s yoga teacher training.
Of the classes and programs mentioned, only Yoga For the People and Yoga For Young Warriors offer the possibility of addressing the needs of many DPS students: they propose to bring yoga to the school building in after-school or in-school programs. To take accessibility a step further, Yoga For the People relies on volunteer instructors to make yoga classes financially accessible – this potentially addresses both the dominant culture and populations at the fringe of the dominant culture that DPS aims to “[arm] with everything they need to forge a great future for themselves.”
It used to be that our program was all or nothing. People would sign up for the program, with a good deal of faith, never having experienced the teachings first hand. While many of the instructors and I offer some classes around town, it is not the same as attending an actual Axis Yoga oriented class. What we offer is quite unique.