• Dharma Yoga Brooklyn

  82 Sixth Ave., nr. St. Marks Ave., second fl., Park Slope; 718-395-7632

  Video Made in Partnership With NYC Media

  In a city where Vinyasa-induced calm is often offset by $20-a-class rates, instructors Lily Cushman and Jeremy Frindel felt moved to do something different. The pair turned a former hair salon into a candlelit yoga haven with stained-glass bay windows, just five instructors (Cushman herself teaches fifteen sessions a week), and—most impressively—a true pay-as-you-wish policy. There’s no check-in desk or awkward badgering; rather, participants drop anywhere from $5 to $20 into the small metal box near the doorway, unprompted. As Cushman put it, “You’re not just coming to tone a six-pack or get your money’s worth out of an overpriced unlimited card.” Classes max out at 25 attendees and most last 90 minutes, and the population is as democratic as the pay system, from toned twentysomethings to graying kombucha swillers.

  See Also: Highly Unorthodox Poses From New York’s Yoga Vanguard

From the 2011 Best of New York issue of New York Magazine