Zen Den, a new yoga studio, opened up on the east side of Iowa City this week at 2203 F St., Suite 2. Owner and instructor Kelli Jackson took a moment to sit down with Little Village and talk about the process of opening up a studio, owning a business and building up community on the east side.
When did you start doing yoga?
I started getting serious about fitness about five years ago, and it became a really big part of my life. Eventually, a few years after that I became Body Pump certified, which is a weight lifting course. When I started doing that I realized I needed something to strengthen in different ways and also to stretch and learn to breath properly. So I started taking some yoga classes and really enjoyed them.
How long after you started doing yoga did you decide you wanted to get certified?
It was two years after I started practicing. I have a friend who is a yoga instructor in town and she put me in touch with a trainer. The more common training schedule is the two-week immersion. Which are 12 hour days, but with my schedule that wasn’t realistic. So, I found Traci Cooley, and she basically asked what my availability was, and we were able to work it out.
What did the training entail?
It was 21 full days of training. It was pretty intense. It’s technically called the 200-hour training. But, I don’t know how I could be at the level of understanding without that much training. As a trainer, I need to know what people need from me, they need to get the most out of every pose, every breath. It’s time consuming, but so necessary.
When did you decide that you wanted to open up your own studio?
I thought it would be an eventual thing. I was originally thinking that it would be a few years down the road. But I came over here to visit Kris (Endorphinden Tattoo) at her new location, which is right next-door. And Kris brought me over, saying how great it would be to have a yoga studio here. I didn’t feel ready, but about four days later I called Michael Chamberlin, who owns the building as well as the Broken Spoke. He was really hoping to get three female owned businesses in this space, so we could work with and off of each other. So it was really serendipitous.
So the location kind of fell in your lap?
Yeah, it was kind of perfect. I couldn’t find anything like this downtown. It’s a convenient place. The east side is booming. I live over here, I want to promote this neighborhood. And with Endorphinden on one side and Mop Salon on the other, the three businesses just feel like a little community and are really complimentary of one another.
What was in the location before?
The whole building was the Vintage Shop, and now it’s split into three smaller business. Everything has been completely renovated on every side.
What type of yoga will you focus on?
I’m going to start with Vinyasa, which is a sequence of movements. It focuses on strength, endurance and flexibility. I will also have a bootcamp class that will be yoga with high intensity weight training worked in. But, this is not a hot yoga studio, all classes will be taught in a traditionally temperate studio.
Are you going to vary classes based on experience or levels?
No. Something that I learned as a teacher is that if you’re a good teacher, you can teach to any level in that class. You focus your attention where it is needed and have all different levels of experience in the same room.
What kind of schedule are you planning?
I have a full time job, so I’m going to focus on morning, evening and weekend classes. Monday through Friday there is a 5:30 a.m. class and a 6 p.m. class. I will alternate everyday between bootcamp and Vinyasa so if someone wanted to take two classes in one day, it would be two different classes. There will also be regularly scheduled weekend classes.
Do you have any special events planned?
Once a month I’m going to do wine and yoga nights. We will have an hour-long yoga class, followed by wine and snacks. The special events are now set for once a month and are going to be outside of the regular schedule. The first wine and yoga night is set for Oct. 16.
One thing about yoga that I absolutely love is that it’s about community. So if I don’t offer a certain kind of yoga, I will tell you where you can go to take that class. It’s not about competition, you want to build everyone up. Eventually, I would like to have beginner series, prenatal series, and I’m hoping to do a kids yoga series, but along the way.
What are the class capacities?
The capacity of the room is 30, but I would like to see six people in each class. I want to be able to help each student and see everybody. In smaller groups you can do more hands on assisting.
Are you going to offer packages or monthly subscriptions?
Any new students … will be offered a week of unlimited classes for $20. Then there will be a 10-punch pass, a monthly unlimited pass and walk-ins are always welcome!
Do you have any plans for merch?
The merchandise for sale will be the stuff that I use, things that I like. I plan to sell homemade mat cleaner that I use, and eventually have some t-shirts with my logo on them.
Zen Den yoga studio opened up at 5:30 a.m. on Monday, Oct. 5 and is now offering regularly scheduled classes.
