For Yogafly Studio owner Peach Dumars, yoga was always second nature, but until she moved to Auburn, opening a studio had never crossed her mind.
“I grew up with a mom who owned a yoga studio, so it was kind of in my blood,” Dumars said. “But I lived in California for six years, and when I lived in California I would have never dreamed of opening a studio because there’s so many. There’s a yoga studio on every street corner.”
For that exact reason, Dumars said she was in shock when she moved to Auburn with her husband to find no trace of a yoga studio.
“I do feel like it was a gift to me,” she said. “I moved here and I was like this is something I can do and bring. I just feel like the community was really ready for it.”
Claudette Lewis, a junior in nursing, said Yogafly, which opened in July, was exactly what she had been missing in her life.
“It’s just a peaceful, calm environment, and I like that because it’s a nice change if you have a high-paced schedule or you’re really busy,” Lewis said. “It’s nice to go in there, and just have time for yourself.”
Dumars said it’s the particular form of yoga practiced in her studio that creates the calming environment.
“This is a vinyasa yoga studio, and in vinyasa yoga we link movement with breath,” Dumars said. “It’s a flowing style of yoga. You almost feel like it’s a dance or like a wave, kind of everybody’s moving together in a wave-like motion.”
Frances Capps-Palmer, 60, said her weekly visits to Yogafly, located above Behind the Glass on Magnolia Avenue, are working wonders for her body.
“It’s a connection of my body, my spirit and my mind, and it relaxes and energizes me all in one,” Capps-Palmer said.
Dumars said even many Auburn athletes have signed up to experience the relaxation and energy Yogafly gives.
“We’ve done some private classes for the woman’s swimming and diving team, and we are doing some private classes for the men’s golf team,” Dumars said.
Dumars said Auburn swimmer and Olympic gold-medalist Tyler McGill frequents the class on his own time.
“I’m thrilled about that because I feel like yoga for a long time has had this reputation of being gentle and easy,” Dumars said. “What I’m finding is the athletes come in here, and they’re awesome to work with because they know their bodies really well for their sport.
“But suddenly they’re asked to do something new, and it shifts their entire relationship with their body.”
Dumars said the versatility of Yogafly members stretches beyond skilled athletes.
“We have pregnant women come in,” she said. “We have men and women with multiple sclerosis come in. I have a woman healing from breast cancer coming in. So you can be an elite Olympic athlete, and come and enjoy the benefits.
“But you can also be coming from a place of really needing to heal and start from the ground up. “
Dumars said she cultivated this environment by creating all-level classes for majority of the timeslots.”
“That means we have beginners and advanced students in the room together,” Dumars said. “That’s intentional because I want to build community, a sense that we’re all here together to help each other grow.”
Capps-Palmer said her personal growth is one of the main reasons she returns to Yogafly each week.
“Part of it is what I can accomplish and how much better I can get,” Capps-Palmer said.
Though setting goals is only natural, Dumars said she chooses to emphasize to her students the importance of being OK where they are, first.
“Our advanced students are never judging the new students or feeling held back by them,” Dumars said. “It’s really beautiful to see all levels come together, and be in the same room. There are not a lot of sports where you can do that.”
Claudette Lewis agreed with Dumar’s philosophy.
“It doesn’t matter what the person next to you is doing and what their level is,” she said. “A perfect example of that is, in class they’ll be doing headstands, or people do the backbend, or they’ll just do a bridge. You know, you can do any kind of level that you want, or are able to do.”
Lewis said, contrary to popular belief, the class is open to all skillsets and all body types.
“You’ll see people like Peach, who are really tiny and tall, and then people who are built and athletic,” Lewis said. “You have people who aren’t athletic, and are just trying to find a way to get in shape and do something healthy for their body.”
In her earlier efforts to promote healthy bodies, Dumars published a book titled “Diary of an Exercise Addict.”
“It’s a story of my journey into and out of anorexia and exercise compulsion,” Dumars said. “I worked for a long time as a yoga instructor, but side-by-side I was working in the field of eating disorders”
During that time, Dumars said she spoke across the country at universities and conferences on the topic of exercise and eating disorders, and taught yoga to men and women recovering from such disorders.
“That’s the reason I love yoga because yoga asks us to be mindful,” she said. “You can go run and pound your body into the earth to burn calories, but when we come to yoga that is not the intention. The intention is to care for our bodies.
“It’s all I do now for my own physical activity, and I feel really healthy, in great shape and totally at peace with it.”
Lewis said Dumars is what makes the Yogafly experience what it is.
“She’s just so exuberant; I guess it’s the best word to describe her,” Lewis said. “She’s really friendly and outgoing, and you can tell she really loves what she does and she’s really passionate about it.
“Everything about the essence of yoga, you can tell she really believes, and she really wants it to shine through in Yogafly,” Lewis added.
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