OUR STORY
Village Yoga opened its doors in Toronto's Forest Hill Village in 2002, and has been thriving ever since. What began as one of the city's first neighbourhood yoga studios, quickly evolved into a well-respected centre for Therapeutic Yoga and helping people get out of pain.
Along the way, owner Leonor Mowry trained the Village Yoga teaching faculty on the principles of Therapeutic Yoga and how to teach yoga safely to people with different physical needs. This unique focus on pain relief, body mechanics and proper alignment led to an increasing demand for private lessons. More and more, students came to the studio for help to rehabilitate from injuries, relieve chronic pain, manage disease and adjust to life during medical treatment and after surgery.
With the demand for private lessons now exceeding that for group classes, Village Yoga closed its studio space and went mobile in 2014. As representatives of Village Yoga, Leonor and her teaching faculty now visited students in their homes around Toronto, providing custom tailored classes to address the students' specific needs. Leonor also rented space in a nearby church to continue to provide group classes to Village Yoga students, and keep the community alive.
Everything was going beautifully, and in 2020, things changed again. Pandemic! The day before Toronto's first full lockdown, Village Yoga went entirely online and began to teach all of its private lessons and group classes on Zoom. In a time of uncertainty and fear, Village Yogis had uninterrupted access to their stress and pain relieving practices, and a big dose of positivity and hope with every single class.
Village Yoga's online business model remains successful, and now serves clients internationally. Things continue to evolve. Leonor has relocated to The Blue Mountains, near Collingwood, ON, and now offers private and group yoga classes, and Reiki treatments in her new neighbourhood.
At Village Yoga, we seek to honour and share not only the fundamentals of proper anatomical alignment, but also the essence of yoga itself: the ability to be truly present; to live life one precious moment at a time. We hope to have the chance to show you why Village Yoga has continued to thrive through all these years of loving service.