The Uber of Private Yoga Sessions?

Photo: Stocksy/Kate Daigneault
Calling a cab is just a click of an app. Ditto a massage. And one New York City-based company wants booking a one-on-one yoga session to be just as easy. Private yoga lessons in NYC? It's happening.

Provita, launched by New York yogi Danielle Tafeen Karuna and her business-minded husband, Kristopher Krajewski Karuna, allows you to order yoga-class delivery in as little as two hours. Hello? Yes, I'd like a fast-paced vinyasa with an extra side of inversions...

So if you're craving vinyasa at 3:00 p.m., you can have a teacher leading you through sun salutations next to your couch by 5:00 p.m. "You can order a car or dinner so quickly, now you can order a yoga session when you need it, how you want it," Tafeen Karuna says. (It's New York, people.)

Provita co-founder Danielle Tafeen Karuna (Photo: Danielle Tafeen)
Provita co-founder Danielle Tafeen Karuna (Photo: Danielle Tafeen)

Provita offers "signature sessions," like vinyasa, and body-specific options like "Liberate" for lower back relief. And it also does custom sessions. "If you want to zone out, we’ll just provide, but wellness and fitness should be a two-way street where you have a say in what you’re going to do," she says, meaning maybe just a bit more savasana?

There are now close to 100 New York yoga teachers participating in the service, and Tafeen Karuna keeps the quality of instruction high by requiring them to have had a minimum of 500 hours of yoga instruction (a basic teacher training is 200 hours), and three years of teaching experience.

Of course, the cost of an instructor who makes house calls is less in line with Yoga to the People and more in line with an at-home massage: hour-long rates start at $169 (and get as low a $129 a session if you buy a membership package.) It's a luxury, yes, but one that might have benefits for your practice.

And Tafeen Karuna says that Provita is not just providing a high-end service for well-heeled city dwellers who don't want to brave the freezing streets (or just the subway) with their yoga mat. It's also helping yoga teachers who struggle to fill their schedules, and their pockets.

"There are so many teachers that need to fill their time with making money," she says. "We want to help yoga teachers and trainers who aren't necessarily [just] supported by the studio model."

Provita is also bringing yoga to non-studio settings, like hotels and corporate offices, having partnered with the Dream Hotel in the past, hosting Sunday morning yoga and meditation classes. And the service has now expanded to Los Angeles, where it's much easier to get to a class—but why go out if you don't have to?

Speaking of next level yoga, have you heard about horseback yoga? And find out why some people are spending $1,000 on a special mat.

Originally posted March 4, 2014. Updated October 24, 2016.

 

 

 

Tags: Yoga

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