The yoga studio Karma Shala has quickly become central to the wellbeing practices offered in the Laurentians. And yet, as for many small businesses, the unprecedented crisis we’re going through has prompted Melisande Turpin and Jimmy Adduci to reinvent themselves. The result? We have by no means seen the last of this spiritual space, which has been such a magnet for both yoga followers and teachers.

The story of its success

In November 2015, Élise L’Ortie, yoga teacher, and Jimmy Adduci, co-owner of two businesses at Station Mont Tremblant, decided to create a space dedicated to yoga,  inspired  by Montreal studios. The former Video 8, at 651 rue Labelle, was renovated and underwent the transformation needed to make the project a reality.

From the very first week, Melisande became part of the adventure. She developed a marketing strategy and created the studio’s website. Shortly thereafter, the young woman left to undergo yoga training in India to perfect her knowledge and become a teacher herself.

An intensive year of daily classes, teaching and memorable encounters followed, following which Élise stepped away from the adventure. Since then, Karma Shala’s success is due to Melisande and Jimmy, partners in life as they are in business.

 A community is born

Today, ten or so qualified yoga teachers, each from a different discipline, make up the Karma Shala team. The clever mix of different areas of expertise has allowed the studio to establish its credibility and provide a wide choice of classes such as aerial yoga, hot yoga, yin yoga and Hatha yoga.

According to Melisande and Jimmy, the range of offerings and the quality of the teaching have permitted Karma Shala to distinguish itself from other studios, which are often more connected to just one type of yoga. With 20 classes being offered a week, there’s always something that will suit beginners to experts. As a result, a community has formed.

“We wanted to bring something unusual to Mont-Tremblant, providing a range of different styles,” Melisande and Jimmy explain. “In our travels, our entrepreneurial curiosity led us to visit as many yoga studios as possible. We have never found this kind of diversity in one place,” he says. “We would buy a pass, and that would allow us to try all the classes available. That has helped us create a community, because the students have come to practice every day.”

 Opening up to the world

With the new health measures required, Karma Shala, which could accommodate 30 people per class, could suddenly allow only five to participate. Now there’s a video camera and lighting in the studio, which herald the future. As they wait for a return to normal, the two partners are busy creating video content so they can offer their classes online.

The goal, by the end of June, is to offer between 30 and 50 yoga classes on their website.

“We hope to provide, in addition to a library of videos, “live” classes,” they explain. “That will ensure some continuity of the spirit of community that we have built up until now.”

“We are also working on a page that will permit question-and-answer exchanges between the teachers and the students, which are essential to the teaching of yoga,” Melisande emphasizes.

The concept of multidisciplinary classes that characterize Karma Shala already exists on the internet, particularly in the field of getting back in shape. There are platforms offering myriad training programs created to suit the largest possible number of people, through an annual membership that is quite affordable.

Will Karma Shala manage to survive? Quite possibly, if you look at the success the Mont-Tremblant studio has won with yoga practitioners from this area, and even beyond.

Karmashala.ca