Is all the news and talk of Ashtanga equaling more students?

Yoga’s been in the news lately. A lot.

There’s been the whole “yoga science” book and its various angles — yoga as sex cult, yoga’s gonna hurt you, yoga gurus invariably fall and yogis are surprised.

Speaking of gurus falling, there was that other A-yoga scandal. (For those curious, two more, in-depth news stories today on it. One at the Daily Beast and the other at NY Magazine. I haven’t read either yet, so I can’t forewarn you.)

Even Ashtanga is getting in the news, with the Vanity Fair article on the Jois Yoga expansion and this past week’s opening of the new Jois Yoga studio in Greenwich. Plus, there was the big Tudor Jones grant to the University of Virginia to establish a Contemplative Studies Center. (Associated Press story on it right here.)

I also hear the stars came out in Greenwich this weekend for Sharath and Saraswathi. I haven’t confirmed that, but supposedly a good part of the Confluence teachers were there:  Eddie Stern and his wife, Richard Freeman and his wife, Mary, David Swenson and Shelly Washington (both Richard and David were in New York for the Yoga Journal Conference, so that fits). Also: some guy named Sting.

[Update: Our Confluencers were there. Here's a photo from Facebook. Oh, and that Sting guy.]

Ashtanga (and yoga) are getting some publicity, in other words. What I wonder is: Is it translating to more students?

I ask because we heard reports during the past week of some upswings in Ashtanga classes in and around Los Angeles. Nothing solid (we haven’t seem comparison numbers of anything), but we pondered whether Ashtanga is seeping into some yogis’ awareness and whether that’s translating into some first-timers giving the practice a shot.

Anyone noticing a few extra people in your classes? (And it’s April, so we know they aren’t Resolution Yogis.)

Posted by Steve