Next Generation Yoga

Review on New York Today, January 19, 2001

A class in the colorful one-room studio. (Rebecca Cooney for New York Today)

Jodi Komitor began work one recent afternoon with a strap-on animal nose -- a bunny nose to be exact. Founder of Next Generation Yoga, the only U.S. yoga center just for children, Komitor squatted on her feet and inhaled like a bunny. The two six- to-eight-year-old girls in class (two boys were out sick), followed suit. Next, the three balanced on one leg while wearing a flamingo nose; then they stretched like cats on their hands and knees with a cat nose.

This class is not typical of the ones held in this colorful one-room studio. But no class is representative of the others here, since Komitor, author of "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Yoga With Kids," fashions each session to the age group of its students. Using props, such as hula hoops, books and toy instruments, Komitor manages to hold the short attention spans of young children, while teaching them the basics of yoga. For instance, during sun salutations, the little yogis wear sunglasses; and during a beach-themed class, the kids swim on their bellies, flap their arms like sea gulls and do the "fish" pose.

With rainbow-hued curtains, red, yellow and blue floors and fabric butterflies, dragonflies and flowers on the pink ceiling, Next Generation Yoga resembles the New Age for the young age. But surprisingly, not all the parents of the children do yoga themselves. In the class I witnessed, only one child had yogis for parents; and in the following class, only half the students' parents did yoga. But that may not hold true for long -- Next Generation Yoga holds "mommy & me," "daddy & me" and family yoga classes.

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