Kentucky Street History

Maja Trigg, our founder, was teaching out of her house on Lyndon Lane when I first met her in 1990.  Later she moved to Whipps Mill Road.  She was influenced by the Iyengar yoga system and we used the text Yoga the Iyengar Way in our teacher training in 1994.  After she left Louisville, we found a small basement room on Grinstead Drive in a building then owned by an engineering firm (it's now Gilda's Club).  While there, I found Ashtanga Yoga and began teaching a series of Ashtanga Yoga classes at 6:00 am on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. The classes were an hour long and included sun salutations and standing poses.  Classes were packed full from the first class.

We moved from there in 1996 and opened our first Kentucky Street studio at 1119 E. Kentucky Street. I taught half-primary series (up to Navasana) on Tuesday nights at 6:00pm and full Primary series on Saturdays at 8:30 am.  Classes were very popular.  In 1999 we moved the studio across Beargrass Creek to 1135 E. Kentucky Street.  We hosted workshops there with David Swenson and his brother Doug Swenson.  We started our first Mysore classes there in 1999 at 6:00 am, but very few students came. People could not understand what "Mysore-style" was.  We were more successful with led classes in the afternoons and had Ashtanga classes on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 4:00 pm.  Mysore classes really took off in 2002 after we had invited Sharath, K. Pattabhi Jois's grandson and assistant to teach in Louisville in June 2003.  We had morning Mysore, afternoon and evening led classes.  Sharath came in 2003 and taught led classes for us at 6:00 am for two weeks at Holiday Manor.  Classes were filled.  People came who had never done yoga before because they heard we had a teacher from India.  Sharath visited the Kentucky Street Studio and held conference there on Saturday.

In August 2006 the roof catastrophically failed and collapsed (no one was hurt).  In 2007 we moved back to Kentucky Street to the present location. 

Yoga East's Kentucky Street studios are the home of Louisville's oldest Ashtanga Yoga Mysore program. I took my first Ashtanga Yoga class with Richard Freeman in San Francisco in 1996.  I started studying with David Swenson in 1998 and later took further training in 1999 with Larry Schultz and Tim Miller, two early Ashtanga teachers who studied with Pattabhi Jois, the master and founder of Ashtanga Yoga. With the encouragement of Tim Miller, I traveled to Mysore to study with Mr. Jois in 1999 and studied with him until his death in 2009. Pattabhi Jois authorized me in 2004, and I received Level II authorization from Sharath Jois in 2009. 

Since then, I've studied with Mr. Jois's successors: his daughter Saraswati and her son Sharath. I was invited to two teachers courses with Sharath (2009 & 2014). I've taken spiritual journeys (yatras) to the Himalayas with Sharath and Saraswati in 2015 and with Sharath in 2018.  Yoga East is the only Ashtanga Yoga studio in the world to host both Sharath and Saraswati Jois.  I've mentored four authorized Ashtanga teachers, including two Level 2 authorized teachers. Yoga East provided grants for study in Mysore to our students and teachers including Kim Porter, Joe Autry, Shae Bryant, Kim Eisner, Allison Longino and Catherine Followell. We started our Mysore program in 2002 and have kept it going throughout the 2020-2021 pandemic and shutdown via Zoom. We continue to offer Mysore-style classes 6 days a week and half-Primary led classes Tuesday & Thursdays mornings.  Additionally, one of our Authorized teachers, Karen Cairns, is also authorized to teach The Active Series, a new series Sharath developed for athletes right before his death. That class is taught on Saturday mornings.  Yoga East is a Trini Foundation partner and we offer Trini scholarships to students in recovery plus our own scholarships for students with financial need.  I actively teach yoga classes every day, Mysore classes six days a week and I maintain an Intermediate Ashtanga practice.

--Laura Spaulding AYRI, KPJAYI, Level 1, Level 2, RKC, AKC, E-RYT 500