Miami's Bayfront Park can be a place for reflection, especially with the Dade County War Memorial and the monument to Chicago Mayor Anton Cermak, who died from wounds suffered during a 1933 assassination attempt on Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
Down a walkway from those two monuments, at the Tina Hills Pavilion, a different sort of reflection is available. Three times each week people gather here with their mats and their water bottles for yoga classes, free of charge. On a recent summer day, instructor Jannee Alt was guiding about 70 students through various challenging moves. 'Imagine your favorite dessert, it makes it a little more bearable,' Alt tells the class, eliciting laughter.
One student is Dean Nieves of Miami, a self employed real estate investor. 'I was doing yoga at home and I found a better place,' says Nieves, who has been coming to the class for about two months.
This month marks the third anniversary of the free classes, which have become increasingly popular, especially with people who work in nearby office buildings. 'One afternoon, some people came to me from a bank across the street with their yoga instructor, and they had been doing yoga at the bank,' recalls Bayfront Park's director, Timothy Schmand. 'They asked me if they could do yoga in the park.'
Schmand thought that was a splendid idea, and so, with his blessing, the first class took place September 12, 2005. According to Schmand, a grand total of eight people showed up. One recent class attracted more than 120 participants.
by Sylvia Gurinsky
THE LATEST FREE YOGA NEWS, FROM IT IS YOGA
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