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Community Corner

Try Circus Yoga, Acro Yoga, Healing Yoga and Kids Yoga at Santa Cruz's New Studio

DiviniTree Yoga Studio and Art Workshop is a divine entry into the Santa Cruz market.

Santa Cruz's newest yoga center—DiviniTree Yoga and Art Studio—branches off into some of the latest and most unusual forms of this ancient physical, mental and spiritual discipline.

The studio at 1043B Water St., which opened to great fanfare at the beginning of the year, not only offers exotic types of yoga, but it serves families and children, as well as single spiritual seekers. 

“We are creating a community center where people can feel comfortable and accepted, assisted on their own unique ways to wholeness,” said one of the two founders, Ann Averbach.

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Children can do yoga there, including an acrobatic form called Circus Yoga, and they can take art classes in an attached studio while their parents stretch their muscles and soothe their minds.

Santa Cruz has been a mecca for yoga practitioners since the 1980s, when Kali Ray conducted classes in town. There are many fine yoga centers from Bonny Doon to Watsonville, with extremely high-caliber teachers.

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Averbach and her friend and business partner, Sky Lukco, decided there was still room for more, especially one that bridges the gap between families and singles and offers classes on a sliding scale from $10-$20.

“We have a place for kids to enjoy being creative when their parents are taking a yoga class in the next room," said Lukco. "That way parents don't have to get caught up in raising their kids at the expense of their practice, their own well-being."

Julian, Elyas and Tryndl Skye-Olson were quietly and totally absorbed with their colors, paper, glue and scissors when Patch took their photo with Lukco. When their mother came in, refreshed from her yoga class with Alok Rocheleau, the three brothers showed off their creations.

“We used to work festivals around the country, setting up our booth to sell the fair trade imported goods made by the collective of single mothers at Mayan Connection," said Averbach. "We'd spend five weeks, day in and day out, at the Union Square Holiday Market in New York. Sky and I spent years selling at sustainability and music festivals to promote the economic well-being of Guatemalan women."

They were ready for a change.

“Finally, we got tired of traveling so much and decided to establish a place where I could teach yoga and Sky could do art,” said Averbach, who has taught yoga for 10 years since she was 21 and studied with some of the best in the field, including Ana Forrest, an inspiring teacher who overcame great handicaps to become a leader in the field.

“We are acutely aware of our good fortune, because we can control our lives here in ways many women in other countries don't," said Averback. "We have the freedom to live our dreams."

When they opened earlier this month, a week of free classes introduced Santa Cruz to what Divinitree offers, and hundreds of locals went to see and stretch.

The center's teachers are certified by Yoga Alliance, and they are all passionate about the physical and mental health that yoga fosters. They teach a variety of styles. Averbach teaches Gypsy Flow on Tuesday evenings, which she describes as a “power vinyasa flow that is rigorous and dynamic." 

Averbach also teaches a healing flow class on Fridays and promotes kirtan, a call-and-response kind of devotional chanting in Sanskrit that people swear by for stress relief and uplifted spirits.

Then there's Acro Yoga  which is its own system, taught by Amy Impellizzeri. This method combines yoga, acrobatics and Thai massage. The Acro Yoga school accepts only 20 students per training every two years

She donates the proceeds from one Acro class a week to the Africa Yoga Project, said Averbach.

When Patch attended Circus Yoga, which is colorful and acrobatic, the adults were outmatched by children, who let us play with them in delightful ways. It's a whole new way to look at yoga. The photos show the kind of fun all ages have in this class.

Sky Lukco's life was transformed when she took an art class in high school, and now she wants children and teens to have the benefit of making art. Kids get to her art workshop by passing through Ann Averbach's yoga studio, a wooden-floor room with a centerpiece wall that is a mandala of softly brilliant colors, a goddess-like but still very human woman radiating qualities that enhance yoga practice.

Lukco's greater vision is to work with at-risk kids who can put their energy into art, “opening up a new world of possibilities for them. I'll do a lot of outreach in Watsonville, because I speak Spanish (as does Averbach) and I want to help in a place where low- to almost no-income and gang pressures make life hard," said Lukco.

“I have taught art to developmentally disabled adults and youth," she went on. "I'm inspired by Kim Evans of Young Artists' Studio, where developmentally challenged teens are paired with kids their same age to make a public mural, for example. I love to be around children and teens.”

Her work at La Cambalacha, a free art school for indigenous youth in Guatemala,  showed her the transformative power of art for at-risk youth.

"Eventually I'd like to make the 'art' in 'art and yoga' a nonprofit, making it totally accessible to families," she said. 

Averbach plans to offer a free yoga class on Thursdays for Latinas, whose kids will experiment with art while mommy learns a new way to relax after a day of hard work.

Averbach and Lukco are expressing the best qualities of young visionaries: love for community, acceptance and diversity, manifesting their visions, serving others' growth and doing it all beautifully.

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