Healdsburg’s only full-time yoga studio, the nearly 20-year-old Yoga on Center, is moving back to the downtown area this summer—two-and-a-half years after the owners say they got kicked out of their original location at 401 Center St.
It was a light-filled space overlooking one of Healdsburg’s most bustling streets, and owners Jenn Russo and Katina Knapp were devastated when they lost it.
“We have been trying to find a space in town ever since,” Russo says. “We are thrilled to be moving to Mill Street.”
In early August, they plan to reopen their yoga studio at 44C Mill St. in the Mill Street shopping center—the same space where the Top Cheer Elite gym used to live, right next to the Speed of Sound music shop and across from the Elephant in the Room pub. (TCElite recently moved into a “much bigger space on the back side of the building,” in the 44B unit, according to Russo.)
Yoga on Center’s new space is “basically a big, open rectangle, which is really what we needed,” Russo says. “It’ll be light and airy and a good size for classes.”
Since the start of 2022, Yoga on Center has been running yoga and dance classes out of the idyllic little Felta Schoolhouse along Westside Road, about a 5-minute drive into the countryside from town. But it wasn’t large or central enough for the business to thrive.
While the schoolhouse fits around 20 people, the new Mill Street studio will fit closer to 40 or 50. It also has the foot-traffic factor.
“It’s hard for the visitors and tourists to get out there [to Felta School] because they don’t always have cars,” Russo says. “Now, they can walk from the square and walk from hotels, and go get a coffee after and things like that.”
The new studio needs some work, though. Russo and Knapp launched a fundraiser last month on the BetterWorld platform to help pay for renovations. As of this writing, they’ve raised around $22,000—nearly 75% of the $30,000 they’re shooting for.
“The Healdsburg community is in need of a space for yoga and one with the flexibility to support other classes such as dance for children and adults,” their fundraising page says. “To bring our dream studio into reality and keep rent manageable at the same time, we must assume responsibility for a few improvements, including a new floor.”
Classes
Dance classes already planned at 44C Mill St. this fall include an “intro to ballet and contemporary dance for beginning (or returning) tween/teen dancers” and, for kids ages five to nine, a class called Make Your Move that allows them to “build their own movement style developed through playful games and creative challenges.”
Local dancer and artist Greta Schoenberg, one of four women in town who launched the Healdsburg Dance Collective last year to “bolster community support for dance,” will teach both. She has since taught ballet and other styles at Yoga on Center’s Felta Schoolhouse location, as well as the Parkpoint gym and The Studio fitness space in the CVS shopping center.
Another local dance group that stands to benefit: The UPside Dance Company, which had to move rehearsals to the Santa Rosa Junior College campus when Yoga on Center left 401 Center St. UPside will now be able to practice here in town again.
“Losing that space on Center Street was a huge blow to us as a dance community,” Schoenberg says. “So having this return of an even larger space right in town—one that will be convenient for our students—is a huge asset, and we’re really excited to be a part of it.”
Back on New Year’s Day 2022, Yoga on Center co-owner Knapp wrote on Facebook: “The tears are flowing with no end in sight. We have only 2 more days left at our current location of Yoga On Center. It has been the heart of Downtown Healdsburg for 17 years.”
Russo says it’s now time to “let go and move on.”
She and Knapp aren’t about to cut ties with the brand and legacy they built on Center Street, though—including the name Yoga on Center.
In years past, when Yoga on Center tried opening a second location on First Street in Cloverdale—a dream ultimately crushed by the pandemic—they kept its name then, too.
Russo says of the Yoga on Center moniker: “Everyone thinks it’s because we were on Center Street. Which definitely was a part of it. But also, we come to yoga to find our center—and that’s everywhere, wherever we are.”
Locals can donate to the Yoga on Center fundraiser online at yogaoncenter.betterworld.org/campaigns/help-bring-yoga-back-healdsburg.
