WILLIAMSBURG — If you're yearning to flow through your warrior poses and backbends in a candlelit, rap-pumping refuge, a new boutique yoga studio is ready to lead the way — in a style the founder equates with a more laid-back version of the trendy-music-pumping cycling hub SoulCycle.
Y7 Yoga Studio ("Y" for yoga and "7" for the seven chakras) is launching this weekend with free classes at its interim spot in a loft over Roebling Tea Room, and in August the center will open in its own space nearby at 88 N. 1st St., director Mason Levey said.
"The best thing you could compare it to is SoulCycle, it's usually candlelit, they have great music and it's a very challenging workout," Levey said of Y7's parallels with the spin center. "It's like that experience but a little bit chiller."
Levey's studio — which will "incorporate music heavily" from the XX to Jay-Z, will be constantly candlelit to "allow you to look inward," and will be heated to about 90 degrees "enough to sweat out toxins" — will hold intimate 10-person classes in its North First Street location for a personalized experience, he said.
"We make it an athletic, challenging, core-style vinyasa practice," he said of the flowing yoga style. "Our whole thing is a boutique model with a strong emphasis on adjustments and help from the teachers."
But at the Roebling Street loft, Levey is spreading Y7's message by kicking off with 50-person classes that people can register for online.
"We have five teachers who’ve taught at studios all around New York and we interviewed about 100 to get down to them. There are a lot of yoga teachers in New York," he said.
But Levey, a Michigan native who hopes to recapture the experience of a dynamic studio he frequented there, said he would rather take Y7's classes than teach.
"I want to be a student of the practice," he said.
