Anna joins the Fierce Grace

 

When: Fri 31 Jan 14, h 19 - 20.30

Where: Fierce Grace North, NW5

How much: Drop in 16 GBP

 

The Fierce Grace North studio is not that easy to find, hidden on the second floor of a shabby building, above a Pound Store and a deli in NW5. Frankly, though, the darkness and the pouring rain do not help my cause. Anyway, I made it: this evening Michele Pernetta - Fierce yoga’s founder - is teaching and I look forward to the class. 

Fierce Grace ( integration of male and female forces giving rise to vibrant health, emotional balance, and mental clarity) is a new yoga system, based on classical Hatha yoga, Bikram, Ashtanga and Power Yoga. Michele, I learn from their website, is the one who brought Bikram Yoga to London in 1994. After about 20 years she has recently decided to spin off and create a new brand, her own, for the 4 studios she manages in London. Their offering is more varied than Bikram and includes five types of classes - Core, Classic, Fierce Grace, Fierce (aka The Beast) and The Fix - designed to give students different options to suit their experience, schedule and mood, but based on the same core poses and principles (and yes, in a hot room). 

As I get to the reception area, I instantly know I am in the right place: friendly faces, nice vibe, tons of mats, towels and water. My class (90m) is described as the 49 steps to peak fitness and health. A challenging but user-friendly general level class, with hip openers, upper body strength, bum toners and core stability for a fully rounded workout. The room, a bit scruffy, is full, about three dozen of people, most over 35 years old I’d say - and quite surprisingly no less than 40% are men! And they all seem regular. I am not a big fan of hot yoga, but I confess it is so cold and wet outside that I do not mind at all the 38 degrees of the hot studio (if only there was not carpet on the floor, Om om om). The class flows slowly, it is indeed quite balanced and approachable by all levels. Michele guides from pose to pose with grace and authority but I wish I could get more alignment cues and breath calls. And I wait and wait for any hint at yoga philosophy, but in vain. As the class ends, Michele invites everyone to extend the savasana or meditate after class for as long as we want.  Briefly after, in the changing rooms, Michele and I are queuing to get a shower - so I chat her up and ask her why she departed from Bikram. ’20 years are long, and I felt I wanted to do something more complete. Bikram does not let you do anything else but his sequences. There is an advanced, and also an intermediate series but we cannot teach it. And if you do not like his way of doing things, then it is divorce’. Michele is not only friendly, she has the ‘yogi aura’ (if this makes any sense to you...). Both her and the senior teachers at Fierce Grace can design their own classes, while junior teachers follow set sequences, that are anyway revised from time to time. And sometimes they play music too. It all seems very nice but I am not entirely satisfied, as if something is missing….Is this one of those cases when the idea is better than the real thing? Hats off anyway, they are definitely great in P.R. - I like their ironic website, their manifesto and their video is hilarious (http://www.fiercegrace.com/our-story) - a good lesson for those who are taking yoga too seriously.