Kyra Strasberg

In her words: After a long and wonderful career as a ballerina I was broken on many levels. Physically, emotionally and spiritually. The daily grind of trying to be picture perfect, fit into the costume, use every single muscle even in my pinky had left me feeling lost. The day after I retired, I sat on my front steps with a bloody Mary and cigarette in hand and decided I needed to figure out who I was. After all, as a dancer I had spent my entire life trying to be someone else. Yoga was on the list. I tried it several times over the years, but it wasn’t until Rolf Gates class and his famous quote “we show up, burn brightly in the moment, live passionately and hold nothing back....” that I realized I had found a place to call home for all of my parts. My body loved the flow and breath of vinyasa, but most of all I realized that my spirit and soul were all mine and all perfectly imperfect and that was ok. I had been a teacher of teachers for Romana’s Pilates, the most authentic and classical version of Pilates. I trained over 2 dozen teachers in only a few years. When I moved back to Columbia, I lost myself again. It wasn’t until I found the courage to open Yoga Masala that I began to realize that I was not alone. That we all feel lost in life. That we all need a place to be able to shed our skin. That we all just want to be ourselves. That all of the conditioning we grow up with is wonderful. It’s kept us safe and helped us grow. But there is still a hole that even the most wonderful family in the world cannot fill.