Yoga mat? Check. Lululemon yoga pants? Check. Weekend yoga certification? Check. You’ve got it all, now all you have to do is make a living at it.
Wondering what that really means in a place like L.A. where you can hardly throw a rock without hitting a yoga studio? A new TV series, Namaste, Bitches, from Summer Chastant (who created, wrote, produced and stars as Sabine) is here to give us a comedic, albeit cynical, peek into the “underbelly of the yoga world.”
See if anything in this description sounds familiar:
Sabine, an up-and-coming yoga teacher from New York City, has recently moved to Los Angeles to hit it big in the Hollywood down dog scene. Hoping for a warm welcome from the local community, she is instead greeted with a trial teaching position at a small studio and a frosty reception from image-obsessed LA instructors. When corporate studio Yoga World opens up nearby, Sabine is pressured to maintain her fledgling student base at any cost. Sabine’s moral compass is tested by rival teachers, greedy studio owners, judgmental students and her own self-destructive tendencies.
We all know many dedicated, professional yoga teachers and studios who do wonderful service, but this series is a good (and occasionally amusing) reminder that those who teach yoga need to not only “manifest a vision,” but also eat and pay the rent (a mortgage is unlikely without a sizable “following”).
At it turns out, making a living teaching yoga may not be so different from high school in some ways, or succeeding in any other career. Check out the first two episodes online.
