I would give this studio 2.5 stars but I rounded it up since I want to give them the benefit of the doubt.
PYC Oakville was not really what I was expecting for Oakville -- which I guess is good and bad. The vibe is very informal, with people chatting a lot before the class inside and outside the practice room. I was a little surprised to find dance music blaring in the practice room before class. Generally with yoga, I'm looking for a more zen vibe, even if it's a power class. There's something nice about grounding yourself and calming down before the class builds you up. I was not finding that vibe here at all. Having been to a ton of different studios in Canada and the US, it wasn't the first time I encountered this approach to a yoga class, so I was okay with letting it go.
The instructor, Marianne, entered the room in a manner that can only be described as "barging". She has a very shrill voice and barked orders at the class immediately. No warming up, no slow movements into a flow. Just BAM! let's do these poses. Okay, that's cool, but the class wasn't really advertised as "yoga boot camp", which it felt like I was in. Her pacing was insanely fast - faster than anyone in the class could keep up with. If this is a vinyasa class, where you're supposed to follow your breath, the class would have been collectively hyperventilating at the speed of her orders. I'm familiar with sun salutations and yoga poses, but the speed at which she had students rising and folding seemed dangerously fast, to the point that I was worried someone would faint from the blood rushes. It just seemed so unnecessary. She also seemed to have a difficult time reading her class... in a class of maybe 40 students, only 2 or 3 were on cue halfway through the class and a bunch were folded up into child's pose, or leaving to get water. She "coached" everyone by telling the class not to give up, but did it in a manner that basically made you feel guilty for taking a rest. In fact, not once during the class did she offer child's pose or savasana as options if the heat was too much.
I was a little disappointed by the communal nook to store items. With people wandering in and out, I didn't really feel like my items were secure in a cubby in an open space, though it's Oakville -- it's not like it's a big petty crime area. The studio was bright but could have done with some mirrors for self-adjustment. I like the idea of a cool towel on your head at the end of class, and this is only the second studio I've been to (out of dozens) that does this so that was good, but the towel itself smelled like industrial cleaner, which was kind of disappointing.
Will I return? Maybe. I want to give the studio another shot as it has a more extensive class list than my local studio. I actually didn't mind the more energetic vibe pre-class, and I found that the studio had a nice "community" feel. I didn't feel that the studio was pretentious and the majority of the students were not there to "show off" (clothes or yoga poses). The studio could benefit from markings on the floor for mat placement as it seems like the classes can get very busy and the mats were all over the place and not really in the most efficient order. I will probably try another teacher and hope for a better experience, but overall I was pretty disappointed with PYC Oakville. read more
