As you climb up the stairs to Essential Yoga’s studio, you’re either washed over with a sense of calm from entering the studio or embraced and called by name by the studios owner, Francesca Ter Poorten.
That sense of closeness and community through the practice of yoga is what Ter Poorten views as the cornerstone of her business.
“One of my goals of Essential Yoga has always been to create community,” said Ter Poorten. “I love when people meet in yoga and they recognize each other when they’re out in the city, that, to me, is so much fun.”
The yoga enthusiast admits that she will often get involved with the lives of Essential’s members.
“I know what’s going on with their grandkids, with their kids and that, to me, is a big part of the yoga community,” she said.
Building that kind of relationship has been a decade-long process for Ter Poorten, as Essential Yoga celebrated its ten-year anniversary this year.
Having worked in a spa and garnered a loyal following in Vermont, she moved to Fernie for a community-minded space to raise her children.
Despite the traditional leanings of skiing and snowboarding in a resort town like Fernie, Ter Poorten had faith that yoga would be the perfect complement to the city.
“I think yoga fits in to anyone’s lifestyle,” commented Ter Poorten. “I’m noticing that whether you’re in an office and have a super stressful job and you’re not connected to any kind of humanity because you’re in an urban environment or whether it’s a place like Fernie where we’re so active and so community-minded, [yoga] fits in perfectly.”
When she first opened the space, Ter Poorten said it began with educating people in the city about yoga.
“I had some people ask if it was a religion,” she said. “My first class here I had 20 people, the next day I had two and I got worried that maybe I’d scared people off of yoga.”
Now, Essential Yoga offers classes that cater to people of all ages, walks of life, ability levels and needs. The studio offers classes for flow, core strength, relaxation, stretching and more.
“We have all walks of life here, we have so many classes that appeal to different people,” explained Ter Poorten.
In addition to classes, Essential Yoga also offers clothes, sweaters, undergarments and jewelry that all cultivate a yoga lifestyle — an aspect that Ter Poorten loves. In a way, Essential Yoga provides the lesson in the studio and the lifestyle to go with it in the shop.
S. Kucharski
Ter Poorten doesn’t underestimate Essential Yoga’s role in Fernie’s slow embrace of that lifestyle.
“Fernie is becoming a yoga town and Essential Yoga is a big part of that,” she said.
Ter Poorten exemplified that perfect pairing recently when she began leading a yoga workshop specifically for skiers and snowboarders.
“I have so many people who come into the studio throughout the winter who have injured themselves or don’t know how to stretch out or are super sore, so for me one of my goals was getting them into the mindset of preventative rather than after the fact,” she explained.
The three-hour session highlighted Ter Poorten’s emphasis on core strength and building muscle and flexibility in all aspects of one’s body to prevent injury.
“We had a lot of fun, it was awesome and [we had] a great group of people. I think everyone learned a lot,” said Ter Poorten.
Beginning in January, Essential Yoga will offer weekly après-ski yoga classes on Saturday.
But what her studio will always essentially boil down to is the community.
“It’s community, it’s wellness, it’s preventative health, it’s meeting people’s needs where they’re at,” summarized Ter Poorten.