In times of high stress and anxiety, yoga is a go-to for many. So what better time could there be, given our current state of affairs, for the Kennedy Center to offer free yoga on Saturday mornings?
The classes will take place in the Kennedy Center’s Grand Foyer, so you can expect lots of natural light to accompany the vinyasa yoga sessions. All experience levels are welcome, and the classes will be taught by a rotating instructors from local studios, including East Side Yoga, Sculpt, Core Power Yoga, and Spark Yoga. There’s no need to register for the class, but the Kennedy Center requires you sign a waiver. Make sure to bring your own mat and to show up early—the classes will be filled on a first-come, first-serve basis.
The hour-long Community Yoga classes are kicking off March 4 at 10:15 AM and will run on Saturdays through August 19 as a part of the Kennedy Center’s Sound Health partnership with NIH. This partnership was begun to look at the “surprising connections between the performing arts and mind-body wellness” and to open up new opportunities to study how music and brain function overlap.
“A growing number of reports are appraising where music therapy has provided benefit to individuals with medical conditions as diverse as autism, chronic pain, and stroke,” said NIH director Dr. Francis S. Collins in a press release. “But there is still so much we don’t know about the effects of music in health broadly, and this partnership aims to explore this uncharted territory.”
In addition to free yoga, the partnership is will also include a “Joy of Motion” dance lesson series that’s starting February 26, a “Music and the Mind” event with the National Symphony Orchestra on June 2 and 3, an electronic music performance on April 16, and a performance by hip hop artists Dead Prez with a food demonstration and 5K run/walk on April 28 and 29.
For more information on upcoming events, visit the Kennedy Center’s website.
Caroline Cunningham joined Washingtonian in 2014 after moving to the DC area from Cincinnati, where she interned and freelanced for Cincinnati Magazine and worked in content marketing. She currently resides in College Park.
