Yoga en Español instructor Maria Lopez. (Photo used with permission by Space & Grace)

The Space & Grace yoga studio in Germantown has been open for almost two years, with a full lineup of classes ranging from Beginner Beginner (it’s really a beginner class) to a community yoga class on Monday nights. 

This fall and into the winter months, the studio will also offer Yoga en Español, a yoga class with instruction completely in Spanish. 

Aisha Waters, Space & Grace’s owner and founder, was excited to offer the class as part of the studio’s regular schedule. As one of the few Black-owned yoga studios in Philadelphia, she likes to ensure the space is accessible to many different types of students and yoga learners. 

“It’s a different offering,” says Waters. “It’s not something that you would see on most yoga studio schedules. So having that unique offering, building that part of community is very important and speaks to the Space & Grace mission.”

Almost 25% of Philadelphians speak a second language at home, according to U.S. Census Bureau data from Pew, the most common being Spanish: 45% of non-English-speaking Philadelphians over age 5 speak Spanish—up from 22% in 1980.  

Maria Lopez, the instructor of Yoga en Español, has taught yoga for about nine years, getting her certification in Lancaster at the Evolution Lancaster studio. 

She recounted how she first started using Spanish while teaching yoga at a gym in Northeast Philadelphia. 

“I realized that even after I was cueing the postures, even after I was naming the postures, there were some students in the room that still weren’t following along. And I just gave it a shot, and I just started throwing some words in Spanish, and I noticed that the room was a little bit more cohesive, and people were really responding to what was being said. So once I started putting two and two together and it felt appropriate, I just started going back and forth with English and Spanish,” said Lopez.

Yoga en Español at Space & Grace will be entirely in Spanish, which was something Lopez needed to acclimate herself to as well, even though she is bilingual.

“It’s very easy to do the Spanish thing where we jump back and forth,” said Lopez. “And as soon as we forget whatever word we’re trying to pull in a certain language, we can just easily jump to the next language because it pops up in our head sooner. So (I’m just trying to) stay consistent with my Spanish language.”

Her favorite yoga style is Hatha Vinyasa, where the practitioner holds the poses for at least three to five breaths each. In the Yoga en Español classes, sometimes she takes it even slower, going through each step in Spanish and making sure she is being careful with people who are trusting her with the movement of their bodies.

Lauren Lockette, an occupational therapist, just moved to the Germantown area a couple of years ago. She took yoga classes off and on through the years in various settings, but it wasn’t until she moved to the neighborhood and happened to walk by and see Waters practicing that she really started taking classes more regularly. 

She credits Waters and the rest of the teachers at Space & Grace for creating such a welcoming environment.

Lopez’s classes are Lockette’s favorite at Space & Grace in general, but when she found out Lopez was teaching the Yoga en Español class, she became even more interested. 

Lockette spent some time living in Spain and grew up in an area in New Jersey with many Spanish speakers, and always felt an affinity for the language. So, a chance to do yoga and converse in Spanish was ideal for her. 

“I’m passionate about Spanish, so to hear that they were offering that was very exciting to me. The majority of my clients are Spanish-speaking, so I love accessibility. So I was really excited and proud to hear that they were trying to reach a different space,” said Lockette. 

Lockette brought a friend who was born in Puerto Rico to one of the Yoga en Español classes recently and afterward checked in with her. English isn’t her first language, and she told Lockette it was a nice way to ease into the yoga experience. 

“It’s just nice to know that something that has been so healing and something that has given me such community is also available to those who maybe otherwise wouldn’t have had it available,” Lockette remarked. 

Waters hopes that the class welcomes Spanish-speaking individuals who would love to take yoga but also individuals who want to brush up on their Spanish-speaking skills. 

Yoga en Español is currently being offered on second and fourth Sundays at 7:00 p.m. at Space & Grace studio at 6120 Greene Street, Suite B. Space is limited, and the studio asks folks to pre-register for classes.