Yoga studio fulfills dream of a dancer

Since she was a little girl, Hannah Harris has had a passion for performing art.

Until she was 14 years old, the Portland native was a dancer. Then, she discovered yoga.

“I just felt that yoga was really dance like,” Harris said. “I liked doing the stretches and sequences of movement.”

In 2015, Harris moved to Fort Wayne, joined a yoga studio there and fell even more in love with physical, mental and spiritual aspects of the art.

After moving on to work at Jay Community Center as a fitness instructor, Harris realized she wanted to do something else.

“I was all about fitness there,” she said. “I wanted to work in a studio where class would be organized to quiet and calm the mind. All about neutering the body inside out instead of just focusing on fitness.”

So that’s what she did. After going through a seven-month certification process and teaching yoga for two years, Harris, 23, opened the Sunnybite Yoga studio in Redkey in July.

As the yoga instructor, Harris leads multiple classes, $10 each, for all ages.

Classes include:

•Beginners yoga — sequences of stretching and poses for beginners, teaching the basics for more alignments and cues.

•Yin yoga — a form perfect for beginners, featuring gentle stretches, most of which are seated.

•Vinyasa Flow yoga — featuring salutations and moving meditation, guiding participants to move from pose to pose with breath as the guide.

•Power yoga — a more vigorous class that works on muscle sculpting poses and is good for improving cardiovascular health.

•Lunar Flow Moon yoga — form-based on sequences and slow flow with yin poses.

For each class, Sunnybite Yoga provides mats to participants if they are unable to bring their own.

In addition to the classes, the yoga studio also hosts seasonal events. In celebration of Halloween, the studio has offered candlelight yoga sessions throughout the month of October.  

While yoga may seem intimidating to beginners at first, Harris said, each class is personalized for each customer.

“I really like to gauge what I’m teaching based on students,” she said. “I get to know their injuries and what their limitations are. It’s very relaxed as I walk through with everyone on how to meditate and calm the mind.

“Yoga really is for anybody of any size and age. If you breathe, you can do yoga.”

While being a business owner can be stressful at times, the past couple months have been smooth for Harris, which she says could also be because her family is just a couple shops away.

“My mom and sisters own The Kindred Spirit,” Harris said. “It’s nice being together in Historic Redkey and having family right there as a support system.”

Harris said her customers, so far, have also felt like family as many frequently return after their first class.

“All the students I end up getting to come to my class, it becomes almost like a family,” she said. “Everyone gets real close and engaged with one another.”   For now, Harris’ goal for the yoga studio to continue to build clientele. But, even if the business expands, she said Redkey will always be her home base for yoga.