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FILE - The exterior of Yoga to the People is seen in Berkeley. The popular yoga studio chain with additional locations in San Francisco and Oakland, as well as New York City and Tempe, Ariz. will close amid allegations of sexual assault and racial discrimination.
lessPhoto: LadyRay G./YelpFILE - The exterior of Yoga to the People is seen in Berkeley. The popular yoga studio chain with additional locations in San Francisco and Oakland, as well as New York City and Tempe, Ariz. will close amid
... more
FILE - The exterior of Yoga to the People is seen in Berkeley. The popular yoga studio chain with additional locations in San Francisco and Oakland, as well as New York City and Tempe, Ariz. will close amid allegations of sexual assault and racial discrimination.
lessFILE - The exterior of Yoga to the People is seen in Berkeley. The popular yoga studio chain with additional locations in San Francisco and Oakland, as well as New York City and Tempe, Ariz. will close amid
... moreThere’s the yoga instructor who says she was told by management that if she “wore sexier clothes,” she would be allowed to teach more classes.
And another who said she noticed a security camera in the changing room, giving her a sneaking suspicion that she was being filmed as she dressed for her shift.
Others still described the grueling training required to become an instructor in the first place: teaching several classes without pay for weeks, as well as the expectation to stay at the studio long after their shift was over to perform free tasks that fell outside of their job responsibility in order to "prove their loyalty" to management.
The stories become increasingly disturbing from there. Others alleged experiences of emotional manipulation, racial discrimination and varying levels of sexual misconduct and abuse that occurred during their time teaching or attending classes at Yoga to the People, a nationwide chain of yoga studios with locations in San Francisco, Berkeley, Oakland, New York City and Tempe, Ariz.
Founded by Greg Gumucio in 2006, the studios were popular for their overarching principles of accessibility and inclusivity for teachers and students at all experience levels, regardless of their ability to pay. Classes were offered at a suggested donation rate of $12, with mat rentals available for $2 — a bargain compared with most studios in San Francisco, some of which require participants to shell out hundreds of dollars for a monthly membership.
But late last week, Yoga to the People closed all of its locations for good as hundreds of testimonials poured in to @YttPShadowWork, an anonymous Instagram account that serves as a space for people to report accusations of harassment and abuse at multiple studio locations nationwide.
Many of these submissions described the aforementioned culture of systemic harassment against employees, as well as the obstacles that prevented them from speaking up for themselves for so long.
“Stepping out of line or becoming unfavorable might mean receiving less classes to teach, which as a struggling teacher might mean the difference between eating or not,” read one anonymous testimonial.
Several of the unnamed paid instructors reported that they received an hourly wage of $17.50, which didn’t add up to much when they were working only a few hours a week.
“The willingness to do work for free is groomed to be seen as loyalty and might be rewarded with receiving more teaching time or other forms of favorability,” continued the submission. “Getting scheduled for less or no classes was a huge threat to survival.”
One person recounted an incident when several instructors had showed up to volunteer to help repaint the interior of the studio in Berkeley. One of their coworkers — who was working between that location and the studio in San Francisco at the time — had yet to arrive.
“[Name redacted] noticed this and loudly said to everyone, ‘Of course the Black guy doesn’t show up,’” wrote the instructor. “I was shocked that they felt comfortable enough to say something so blatantly racist, and that everyone was laughing along.”
Numerous accounts described a particular session during teacher training referred to as “arm-raising,” in which one instructor faced the group as everyone held their arms out parallel to the floor for an entire hour. The practice was described as “physically intense” and caused participants to cry out in pain as they were forced to keep going.
“Our teachers were slowly lifting our arms inch by inch. Being in that room full of 60+ people, the mass hysteria, the trainees were yelling, crying, growling and so on,” read one anonymous submission.
The practice also carried an unsettling emotional effect. Afterward, the trainees were allegedly told to stand in front of the rest of the instructors and, one by one, share a secret about themselves that “no one else knew,” causing discomfort for several of the participants involved.
“It is my own personal opinion, but they used the tactics that are used in cults,” continued the submission. “They strip people down, making them emotionally vulnerable and easier to affect and control.”
The time Greg’s friend physically attacked me and the current director of @Yogatothepeople punished me for it. #yoga #assault #yttp #yogatothepeople #allsurvivorsrise #exhale #ha #triggerwarning pic.twitter.com/LKTfD8CEGJ
— Xanadu Yoga | Brytta (@XanaduYoga) July 8, 2020
Over 100 other submissions were shared since the Instagram account made its first post on July 3, with many accusations of sexual assault and harassment directed toward Gumucio himself. He denied those claims in a company-wide email sent on July 6.
“Where I can say that the representation being put out there feels malicious to me, I also want to say that if people felt wronged by their experience at YTTP or myself, it never happened intentionally,” wrote Gumucio. “Good intentions can cause harm because we have our own lenses to life. It is clear that these actions were taken due to strong feelings of hurt. In the more than dozen years of providing yoga, for anyone who has felt wronged I genuinely apologize for any part I contributed.”
Read the full email from Gumucio released by Broke-Ass Stuart here.
Two days later, Yoga to the People’s website was all but erased completely. On Sunday afternoon, the site’s homepage simply read, “Yoga to the People is permanently closed and will not be reopening after Covid-19.” Gumucio allegedly accused the @YttPShadowWork account of hacking the studio’s website and email list, though the administrators of the page said the claim was “unequivocally false.” In their most recent post, they said they would take a short break over the weekend before sharing more testimonials using the hashtag #AllSurvivorsRise.
“We will be back on Monday to ensure every last voice is heard,” they said.
SFGATE reached out to Yoga to the People and the administrators at the @YttPShadowWork for additional comment, but did not hear back by time of publication.
Amanda Bartlett is an SFGATE Digital Reporter. Email: amanda.bartlett@sfgate.com | Twitter: @byabartlett
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