Louisville Magazine

JUL 2013

Louisville Magazine is Louisville's city magazine, covering Louisville people, lifestyles, politics, sports, restaurants, entertainment and homes. Includes a monthly calendar of events.

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PEOPLE I Poised Beyond Poses Celebrated Yoga East owner/teacher Laura Spaulding has made running a business part of her ashtangagoverned dynamic fow. By Cary Stemle Photos by Mickie Winters 34 LOUISVILLE MAGAZINE 7.13 f you think yogis are somehow inoculated against personal turmoil, think again. Te past winter was agonizing for Laura Spaulding. Yoga East, the nonproft yoga studio she'd been asked to help lead nearly 20 years ago, had grown to the point that managing it was a hassle. Te lease at the Holiday Manor studio was coming up for renewal, and Spaulding, who had just turned 60, was fnally staring at a dreaded decision that had been two years on her mind. Holiday Manor serves the city's highestincome demographic and generated the highest revenue of Yoga East's three studios. Tat much was clear. But it also cost fve times more to operate, and a new lease would run for six more years. If Spaulding were ever going to begin lightening her load and easing toward retirement, now was the time. Her initial impulse was to close the site. "I was thinking about how I really want to spend the next six years and just didn't know if I could make that commitment again," she says. "After we got the frst ofer, I thought it would be a bad idea to sign another lease. I just said, we can't do this another six years." Te fact that Spaulding was stressed might have come as news to all but her closest associates. Because, frankly, many students fnd her to be totally Zen and more than a little intimidating. Tat may be because she studied with Shri Krishna Pattabhi Jois, who invented the system of yoga that frst penetrated the Western world some 40-plus years ago. But it could also be her perfect posture and stoic exterior, or how, when she expounds on a point in class — whether it's a technical description of the anatomy involved in a pose or a whimsical chat about the benefts of folding arms behind your back instead of in front, as Westerners tend to do — she seems to measure her words carefully. Yoga East teacher Susan Reid, who trained under Spaulding in 2009, says she both respects and trusts her, "which is rare in my experience." Reid isn't overawed by Spaulding. Tat's not the word. She simply doesn't want to disappoint her or trivialize the teacherstudent relationship in any way. "You can come late to my class," Reid says, "but I wouldn't want to show up late for one of Laura's classes. She wouldn't say anything, but you'd know it from the look." Spaulding turned that look on herself when decision time came for Holiday Manor. She was already wrestling with a couple other moves — closing a studio on Frankfort Avenue and opening a new one in St.

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