Dear Sangha Community,
We want to share something real with you — something that’s not easy to say, but comes from a place of deep honesty and trust.
This past year has been a struggle.
We’ve felt the ripple effects of a changing Burlington: fewer people downtown, fewer new faces coming through our doors, and word-of-mouth — especially among college students and newcomers — just isn’t what it used to be. We’re still waiting on long-promised COVID-era IRS funding, which now seems unlikely to arrive. And, while we opened a new studio with the hope of expanding access to yoga, unforeseen staffing challenges meant we couldn’t build the student base we needed — and we had to make the difficult decision to close that location.
At the same time, month after month, we’ve seen a decline in memberships and class attendance.
These are hard things to share. We carry them quietly because our vision has always been rooted in hope — in showing up, in making something beautiful happen together. We also try to walk the line between transparency and the awareness that so many of you depend on our commitment to accessibility and community care. We know people are more financially cautious right now. And, we know there is an abundance of need for aid elsewhere in the world right now too. We see it. We feel it too.
For a long time, we answered the question “How’s the studio doing?” with: We’re still recovering from COVID.
But now — five years out — we know it’s not just about recovery. It’s about transformation.
The world is different. The way people practice yoga is different. And that’s not a bad thing. We love that so many of you have cultivated home practices or found other ways to move and connect.
And yet — studios like Sangha are left needing to adapt. To pivot. (Remember that word?) We still believe in the power of in-person practice, of shared space, of sangha — community. And we want to keep going.
With the heaviest of hearts, we are sharing that we are closing our downtown location on Pine St. As many businesses downtown have now shared that they have closed or are facing closure, we too, are struggling to navigate the challenges of construction, the shifting climate of downtown, and the lack of real and impactful services being provided to vulnerable populations, alongside the ripple effects of downtown Burlington we mentioned already. We have done our best to pay our bills at all our studios, but these combined factors mean we are left to now make this hard and heavy decision.
We still believe in the power of this community and the wonderful students and teachers that continue to make Sangha a special place. We’ve always said Sangha isn’t going anywhere, but now that path feels less clear. We ardently believe that it isn’t yoga unless the space is open to anyone who wants to practice regardless of ability to make a financial contribution. We are committed to keeping that true within our spaces - always. If you have a desire to practice, you have a mat spot with us.
And, we live in a world driven by capitalism and so does our staff. Balancing truly letting folks pay whatever they are able, whilst keeping what we pay at a fair rate is a challenge. With downtown rent continuing to increase, our commitment to paying teachers the same rate regardless of how many folks come to class, and with less and less folks coming in-studio to practice, and honestly, with those who are coming needing to access yoga at a lower rate, we simply cannot sustain the cost of the Pine studio.
This studio space holds so many special memories for us, and we know many of you feel the same. Over the coming months, we will share more about what moving out of Pine will look like. In all truth, we don’t have a full plan in this moment, and we are wanting to call you all in to the goodbye and journey forward with us. We do know we want to host a few gatherings in our Pine St. studio space as a way to honor the memories the building holds and as a way to say goodbye to space that has meant so much to so many.
With so much love and gratitude for what’s next,
