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STUDIO DIRECTOR INTERVIEW
Sandy Gross, E-RYT, is the founder and director of Evolution Yoga, and is a certified OM yoga teacher at the 500 hour level. Voted "best yoga teacher" by the readers of the Cleveland Jewish News, Sandy has taught various fitness, stretch and movement classes since the 80s. Her personal yoga practice has evolved from years of investigation into creating nourishing, meaningful movement, and her teachings cultivate curiosity, spaciousness, and soft-heartedness in life and practice. Sandy is a great believer in the evolutionary power of yoga to create optimal physical, spiritual and emotional health and her classes are moving meditations infused with mindful intention, clear alignment, very breath centered and balanced with a playful, open-hearted attitude. She is known as a teacher of "gentle strength", guiding you to your teacher within, encourages students to work deeply, yet with great awareness and compassion.
Sandy is part of the OM yoga teacher training faculty and directs the OM yoga teacher training at Evolution. She studies regularly with OM yoga teachers and travels to assist OM yoga founder Cyndi Lee and her husband, well known dharma teacher, David Nichtern. An evolutionary teacher at heart (“Life is my guru”), she continues to evolve her personal practice and teachings informed by all the many amazing teachers she hosts monthly at Evolution and in her home: Cyndi Lee and the OM teachers, David Nichtern, Bryan Kest, Shiva Rea and her teachers Simon Park & Twee Merrigan, Kofi Busia, Elise Miller, Cameron Shayne, Duncan Wong, David Romanelli, Kathryn Budig, Ashley Turner and many more to come.
Why did you decide to affiliate with OM yoga and what does that mean?
It means after 10 years of exploring many, many styles of yoga, I noticed my studies kept going back to Buddhist teachings of precision, mindfulness & letting go as they relate to yoga & life. This was happening for me quite naturally, as was the deepening of my friendship with Cyndi Lee, creator of OM yoga. In fact, I was noticing some of the most influential teachers that I have hosted or traveled to see were on a similar path as well. In addition to offering OM yoga classes at Evolution, mentoring teachers and directing Evolution's OM yoga 200 teacher training, we are excited to bring to Cleveland, OM yoga's 500 hour advanced teacher training curriculum set to begin this fall, open to anyone 200 hour certified (although some weekends will be open to the public). I look forward to increasing NE Ohio's opportunities to study with OM's awesome senior teachers in areas such as therapeutics, advanced anatomy, breathwork, dharma studies, restoratives, special needs such as cancer survivorship, and more. One of the things I admire alot about Cyndi & the OM teachers, is that they are encouraged to deepen their studies beyond dharma, they study with Sanskrit teachers and pranayama experts, senior Iyengar teachers, Restorative Yoga teacher trainings, and enjoy experiencing many styles of vinyasa—all areas of interest to me as well. We will continue to offer a variety of styles of yoga and all of our classes share one thing in common: a comfortable space and community in which to explore the body, mind and soul.
What is the question you get asked the most?
When we moved to Eton in 2003, some skeptics questioned the whole "yoga in a mall" idea, but as I thought about it, there really shouldn't be a conflict between yoga and money or a separation of practicing yoga from anything at all. Yoga means that we acknowledge that we have a relationship with everyone and everything, and money is a tool to put our yoga into practice off the mat. Like shopping or food (or the poses we practice), money is neutral. As Cyndi Lee says, "It's about how we relate to these things that creates attachment and aversion, negativity and positivity."
At our old space, our boutique was growing organically and had always featured eco-friendly products, so moving to Eton was an exciting opportunity to teach yoga off the mat in the form of conscious consumerism. I have been very interested in the "green" thing since I was a kid in California, my roots. I find it is just as fun and important to bring to market hip & stylish clothes made from organic cotton or from recycled plastic bottles as it is to teach yoga classes. There are so many cool companies run by people, some green pioneers, who share our values, it is a thrill to be in partnership with so many of them and educate about green living. Come shop with us…green is the new black!
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