Congratulations on starting your yoga practice! We are so pleased you will be joining us for classes.
Location: Public classes are held in a variety of venues on Capitol Hill. Please note the location in the class description when you register.
Please be aware of classes that may be in session. We schedule 15 minutes between most classes. If are early and there is a class immediately before yours, please be sure that it has concluded before entering.
Please do not hesitate to call or e-mail if you have any questions before the course.
Our main contact information is:
telephone: (202) 599-0434
inquiries [at] breathingspacedc [dot] com *replace the [at] with @ and [dot] with .
What to wear: Please wear comfortable, stretchy clothes that are not too loose. For prenatal and postnatal classes, it is important that you be comfortable but that your instructor be able to see the alignment of your joints while you are doing yoga poses. Please note that yoga is done in bare feet.
What to Bring: A yoga mat and water. Most venues have mats to loan but you may wish to invest in your own. Any other necessary yoga props will be provided for your convenience, but you may, of course, bring your own if you prefer them.
Our Tot Yoga and Preschooler Family Yoga are an exception. We do not use mats except for final relaxation and occasional games. Feel free to leave your mat at home.
Baby Yoga & Play classes do use mats, but most venues have enough to lend if you’d rather not carry one. Do plan to bring a small blanket to cover our mats/blankets and a small toy to use during class.
Please no shoes in the studio: To keep floors clean, our venues request that you not enter the main classroom wearing your shoes. Please take a moment to remove them before walking in, and feel free to ask for help if your hands are full.
Avoid: Wearing strong scents such as perfumes, deodorants, essential oils, or cologne. Please ensure that your mat, clothes, and body are odor-free to help maintain the purity of the practice space and enjoyment for everyone.
Get there early: Please arrive 10-15 minutes early on your first day to address any administrative questions and settle in. Children especially.
Please turn your cell phone off. Even a vibrate setting can be disruptive during quiet moments in class.
Communicate: If you have any injuries or limitations, please notify your instructor before class begins so they can help you stay safe.
For families with children:
Let Go of Expectations: We don’t expect full participation by children, and sometimes hardly any on the first day. Some children will be most comfortable observing and some might even wander the room and appear not to be participating. This is all developmentally appropriate and totally fine. Yes, try to engage your child in class, but feel free to simply relax and enjoy your child however they choose to participate.
Parent Participation: Parents should plan to participate fully in family and early childhood classes. The more yoga you do, the more your child will do (even if not until you get home). One adult must be present for Family Yoga and any class for children younger than 3 years. Up to two adults are welcome to participate in these classes on weekly basis and the same adult need not be present every time. Kids and Tween Yoga classes not described as family classes are for the children only. Due to limited studio space, family members and friends are asked not to observe these classes.
Stroller Parking: Most of our venues have limited indoor space. We have a cable lock for securing strollers to the fence or bicycle rack poll out front. Contact us for the lock code. Please do not leave strollers in entryways or stairwells.
Eating/Drinking: Please bring only water or milk/formula for babies in closed-top containers into the yoga classroom. Breast or bottlefeeding is always welcome.
Consider leaving water bottles out of sight.
Please, no photos during class. Not all parents are equally comfortable with having their children photographed and phones are potentially distracting, even to toddlers who are pretty savvy about what they do. If you would like photos of your little one doing yoga, please take them before or after class or during the last two weeks of the class when the instructor suggests group photos. If one of our instructors takes photos at any time, feel free to request a copy of your child or watch for logo-ed version to turn up on our social media sites so you can re-share. You can also feel free to ask that you or your child not be photographed.
Things to leave at home: Toys, stuffed friends, and even lovies (if at all possible). Very special friends can watch class from the windowsill if necessary, but toys of any kind just cause conflict in class.
Questions about make-ups, drop-ins, refunds, or other policies? See our class policies page, or contact us with any questions.
Classes are most likely in Drummond Hall on the first floor. Check the info board by the reception office at the 9th Street entrance (ground floor.)
All strollers should be parked on the ground floor, near the kitchen. There is also a bicycle rack at the top of the 9th Street driveway.
Please plan to leave all non-valuable personal items outside or store them on the shelves in the classroom to keep the floors clear. There will be a coat rack in the hallway outside the classroom for your coats and larger bags.
Hill Center is an easy walk from Eastern Market metro and bus stops.
Street parking can be found on Pennsylvania Avenue or E Street. Please do not park in the very small Hill Center lot. That is reserved for loading and staff use.
Parents and children should still wait on the ground floor for classes to start, if the room isn’t open yet. There is usually seating near the kitchen and always seating in reception.
Breathing Space Family Yoga’s studio is located at 641 Pennsylvania Ave SE (map), Lower Level. (Some families may remember this as the old Realignment Studio or Capitol Hill Yoga space.) The studio is easily reached by the Eastern Market metro stop and several buses along Pennsylvania Avenue or 8th Street St.
All of our classes are on the lower level, down a flight of stairs.
Both children and adults are kindly asked to remove their shoes before entering the classroom space.
Cubbies are available in the classroom space for storing personal belongings.
Please pack dirty diapers away with you.
Small folding strollers are welcome inside, but please leave jogging-style or bulky strollers locked to the bike rack or otherwise secured outside. For safety reasons, strollers cannot be left in the stairway or on landings.
Eastern Market studio lobbyEastern Market studio prop areaEastern Market studio main classroom
Directions
Breathing Space is on the south side of Pennsylvania Avenue. Look for the glass door with our lotus flower logo.
From the Eastern Market Metro: From the top of the escalator or elevator, turn around to face 7th Street SE. Cross 7th Street and walk along Pennsylvania Avenue on the same side of the street toward the Capitol.
Parking: Metered parking is available on Pennsylvania Avenue, and 2 hr parking is available on many of the nearby residential streets. There are garages underneath 660 Penn (Penn Medical) and 700 Penn (Trader Joe’s).
Studio Etiquette
Please leave shoes and coats in the lobby area along with bulky non-valuables. Bring valuables – phones and wallets – into the studio space and store them on the cubby shelves. While we do lock the studio door once class begins, we cannot be responsible for missing valuables.
Please leave all toys and lovies in bags, completely out of sight. Consider leaving water bottles in your bags during toddler classes. Water bottles are shockingly distracting, both for their owner and other children. Adults and older children/teens should feel free to have their bottles with them.
There is a changing table in the right side bathroom, but diapers may be changed wherever is comfortable for you and your child. However, there is no daily trash pickup at the studio. Please pack dirty diapers away with you.
If you are running late . . .
Don’t worry. You can let us know – text: 202-544-0434.
We lock the door after the welcome song or the initial warmup. If the teacher knows you are coming, they can leave the door open for you. For kids’ classes, it is totally ok to ring the bell or knock to get the instructor’s attention if the door is locked. Be aware that you may need to wait a few minutes if the instructor is engaged in an activity.
If you are entering late, please do so as discreetly as possible. The instructor will assist you with setting up if necessary. Please make eye contact in case your instructor has laid a place for you.
Please note that the warmup in adult class serves an important safety function. If you join late, take a couple of minutes to do some gentle movements before jumping into the instructor’s sequence.
Loaner Yoga Mats
We have a number of studio mats that we can loan out. If you are using one for an adult class, we request that you wipe it down afterward. Look for the teal blue disinfecting wipes near the mats or on the white cubbies.
Stroller Parking
Families are welcome to lock strollers up out front. We provide a cable and lock (check your registration receipt or ask your instructor for the code)
Families may also bring strollers downstairs if they can be safely carried down. Please fold strollers whenever possible to reduce tripping hazards in the lobby. Strollers cannot be left in the entryway, even folded, because they are a fire hazard.
Finding good stroller parking out front isn’t always easy. We have arranged for additional stroller parking around the corner. Let us know if you will need a lock (text: 202-544-0434), and we’ll bring one out. On rainy days, we will provide a tarp as well.
The most prominent part of the building is the Nave, or sanctuary. For BSFY events, enter through the A-Street courtyard. Use the door by the bike racks and take the stairs or elevator to the left of the entry way. Classes are most typically in the dance studio on the second floor. Camps are held on the basement level.
Strollers can be left in the lobby downstairs or brought up and stored outside of the studio door.
Please remove shoes before entering the dance studio.
Open Barre is located at 7338 Baltimore Avenue, Suite 200, in College Park, Maryland in the College Park Shopping Center. The studio is right above Cava and Starbucks.
You can find Open Barre by going all the way up the stairs next to Starbucks (if you park in the main front lot), or you can come in through the office building behind the main shopping center (if you park in the back lot).
The parking lot is on Knox Road, across the street from South Campus Commons and adjacent to Knox Towers. Parking is free on Sundays, when early childhood classes are held at this location.
Accessing this space does require stairs. There are fewer if you enter from the back lot. Strollers that are small or can be folded may be left in the hallway outside of the studio or secured to the fence in the rear parking lot. Please do not bring strollers into the studio, and do not block stairs, doorways, or walking paths with strollers.
The building is located at the corner of Sherman Ave and Columbia Rd NW.
The Brazilian American Cultural Center is located at 3001 Sherman Ave NW, Washington, DC 20001. This location hosts weekly early childhood classes. We are pleased to offer early childhood, family and baby yoga there starting in January 2023.
Yoga Heights Takoma Park is located at 255 Carroll Street NW, Washington, DC 20012. This location hosts baby yoga, infant massage, tot yoga, and preschooler yoga. Classes are available on weekdays and Sunday mornings.
Street parking is generally available nearby, and it is walking distance from the Takoma Park metro and bus stops.
The studio has a ground level entrance with no steps required. There is plenty of space in the lobby for stroller parking.
If one of our instructors takes photos at any time, feel free to request a copy of your child or watch for logo-ed version to turn up on our social media sites so you can re-share. You can also feel free to ask that you or your child not be photographed.
The Brazilian American Cultural Center is located at 3001 Sherman Ave NW, Washington, DC 20001. This location hosts weekly early childhood classes. We are pleased to offer early childhood, family and baby yoga there starting in January 2023.
