Thomas Edison's Floorboards
I know a warehouse in Williamsburg where you can get seriously lit. The bar at Verboten–a sheet-metal factory turned dance hall–is closed, but on a wood floor that once carried the footsteps of Thomas Edison, yogis spread their mats and their limbs. They gather to blur the boundaries between mindlessness and mindfulness, dance and stillness. This is Deep House Yoga; it's asana under a mirror ball; it's a light show; it's a catalytic beat—especially when Tasha Blank is behind the turntables. Tonight’s flow, led by Elena Brower, was as much dance party as vinyasa. Her voice is both fierce and kind, inviting us into brave exploration.
In contrast to the name of the space—Verboten, or Forbidden—the event is dubbed “Wilkomen." To my mind, yoga is itself another kind of “forbidding welcome.” It's open to anyone with a body, and it's a way to open the body, even as each pose introduces us to limitation. A new kind of experimentation is at work on Edison’s floors. And I’m wholly buzzed. The light in me greets the light in you.
