Business & Tech

Venture Yoga Position: New, Open, Welcoming

Inner peace and a warm community are two things Erin Huot hopes clients will get from her new yoga studio in downtown Darien.

A place not only to find some inner peace but also to connect with your community is how Erin Huot describes , which started offering classes on Friday just above .

A is scheduled for 5 to 9 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 8, with $10 admission.)

"Right now we have 11 really amazing teachers that all practice a really fun, energetic Vinyasa floor yoga," Huot said in an interview early last week. She auditioned 50 instructors to get those 11.

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In Vinyasa yoga, the instructor will choose the order of positions and moves to lead participants during each session. Vinyasa can be done in high-temperature rooms, or in a higher-speed way in rooms with a somewhat lower temperature, and Venture offers both kinds.

Classes can be with groups, with only a handful of participants or even by individual appointment, Huot said.

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A new mother might take a post-natal class, later a "Mommy and Me" class, and then other classes to transition back into regular yoga. Some classes are offered as early as 6:30 a.m. for those who have to catch a train at the nearby Darien Metro-North Station.

Community

Huot hopes to foster a community with clients who will get to know their fellow participants who may be in classes with them five or six days a week.

"Everybody's there trying to leave everything behind and focus and being still and trying to create mindfulness in themselves."

Venture has a partnership with , another recently opened Darien business that offers juices and salads. A Venture client can order a particular juice from Green & Tonic by a certain time before a class and have it waiting for them, just made, when yoga class is finished.

Venture will also have a nutritionist, Peggy Lyons, offering advice to clients and even special classes, Huot said.

Private workshops on topics like "how do you get into an inversion" (a yoga position) or "maybe what healthy eating habits can we get into with fall vegetables," Huot said.

Life

Huot, who grew up in Florida and went to college in Rhode Island, was a financial adviser with UBS, working with private accounts out of that company's Westport office when she first moved to Fairfield County several years ago.

After getting laid off in the Great Recession, she got married and worked for a time as a personal assistant among other jobs, then decided to start a business around something she'd practiced for years and loved.

Space

Huot spoke as her husband, a contractor and Stamford firefighter, scrambled to finish off the refurbishing of what was once a storage area above Darien Social.

The 3,800-square-foot studio is on the second floor of 10 Center St. at the corner of Tokeneke and Post roads. The entrance is at the Center Street parking lot at the corner nearest the train station.

Mind

The space has wooden floors, high ceilings and a lot of light from windows and large skylights. What it won't have are lots of mirrors in the studio rooms, Huot said.

"I just think it [having a mirror] creates too much anxiety," Huot said. If you're always looking at a mirror while going into and maintaining a pose, "your mind is just not there," and instead of relaxing, you're checking to see if you're positioned correctly.

"I want people to come and forget whatever is going on in their lives and just enjoy that hour to themselves—a way to forget work, kids, problems in life, etc."

Editor's note: This article originally was published on Saturday, Sept. 8. The time stamp has been changed for layout purposes on the Home page of Darien Patch.


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