Home » Local Yoga Studios Flow Through Changes

Local Yoga Studios Flow Through Changes

by Andrea Fereshteh

Two local yoga studios in the area are flowing through some major changes this summer.

studiOMango, currently located in the same building as Jazzercise on Rt. 31 in Pennington, will close and reopen as Honor Yoga Pennington in mid-September in the space vacated by Huntington Learning Center near Stop & Shop in the Hopewell Crossing Shopping Center. The new location will feature two studios for yoga and a lounge area.

Photo courtesy of studiOMango.

Photo courtesy of studiOMango.

“I am so excited to partner with the ladies of Honor,” said studiOMango owner Julia Ruocco in a recent email. “Their passion for the practice is inspiring and their compassion for the community is unsurpassed! Together we strive to create a space that is friendly and accessible, a place where yoga is for everyone!”

Maria Parrella-Turco founded Honor Yoga more than a year ago with partner Melody Appel, opening their first location in Hamilton’s Buckley Plaza.

“Our mission is to provide a sustainable space of healing by offering a loving and approachable yoga environment for humanity to honor their mind, body and self,” Parrella-Turco wrote in a recent email.

In addition to the Hamilton and Pennington studios, the Honor Yoga team is opening another studio in Mansfield and is looking into options in Hillsborough and Manalapan.

Parrella-Turco says she and her sister, Laura Caponi, also a partner in the Pennington studio, currently live in Lawrenceville and are moving to Hopewell in the next year. They were interested in doing business together and focusing on their local community, leading them to settle on Pennington as a location for the new studio. Following the yogic practice of “Ahimsa”, or not doing harm to others, Parrella-Turco says the Honor team reached out to Julia at studiOMango before moving forward. Ruocco came on board as a partner and will manage the Pennington location when it opens.

Parrella-Turco says with the two spaces in the new studio, Honor Yoga will offer classes for kids, tweens and teenagers, as well as all the traditional classes ranging from vinyasa flow and hot yoga to gentle, restorative and power yoga.

“Our new class Broga (yoga for guys) will also be launched there,” Parrella-Turco wrote, adding that the studio will “offer birthday parties for all ages in addition to our series and workshops which include everything from tai chi, meditation, couples yoga and more.”

Bethany Diddle of Shaka Yoga. Photo courtesy of Shaka Yoga.

Bethany Diddle of Shaka Yoga. Photo courtesy of Shaka Yoga.

Down the road in Lawrenceville, Shaka Yoga is also closing in late August and reopening as Bambu Yoga. Open since April 2012, Shaka Yoga took the space formerly occupied by studiOMango next to TJ’s Pizza on Rt 206. Owner Bethany Diddle is moving out of state where she hopes to take some time off from teaching to focus on her own practice and participate in intensive training.

“Opening and running Shaka Yoga in Lawrenceville over the past two years has been one of the most inspirational experiences of my life,” Diddle wrote in a recent email. “I always felt supported by the community and believe that Lawrenceville and the surrounding area very much embraced our cozy space of practice and the idea of having a neighborhood studio where everybody knows your name.”

Bambu Yoga will open in the same space in September. New owners Jen Hillis and Kim Winnick, currently teachers at Yogasphere in Newtown, PA, plan to offer 20-25 weekly classes ranging from gentle/restorative to hot vinyasa flow levels as well as specialty workshops. Those interested in receiving more details about the new studio can sign up at www.BambuYoga.com to receive information about the grand opening and the fall class schedule.

For the next few weeks, the studio is offering a “rise and shine summertime yoga special,” Saturdays through August 9 from 8:30 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. at Willows Private Swim Club, 40 Willow Road in Lawrenceville.

For a $10 to $15 suggested donation, a yoga class will be followed by open swim at the pool.

“I believe that what we offered [at Shaka] – a well-rounded, sensory-based, non-competitive, internally-focused yoga experience, was understood by practitioners and adopted as an approach to their practice and life,” said Diddle in her email.

“I am proud to have been a part of it, and I am proud that a little piece of Shaka will live on through Bambu Yoga.”

About Us

MercerMe is the only hyperlocal, independent, online news outlet serving Hopewell Valley in Mercer County, New Jersey.

Contact us: [email protected]

Search Our Archives