Human Race Yoga: Part of a Bigger Community

Stacey Vespaziani

As a theater major, Stacey Vespaziani was required to take a yoga class. She put it off until her senior year because, in her own words, she “thought [yoga] was so stupid!” As soon as she began, however, she loved it! Suffering from a foot injury, she couldn’t run as she usually did and began practicing even more. Later, in New York City, she found that practicing yoga was the only activity where she could find quiet.

Moving back to Pittsburgh, Stacey was increasingly dissatisfied with her job as a court journalist. She signed up for yoga teacher training, and wanted to line up a place to teach upon graduating. Attending a play reading at Union Project, she peeked into the Atrium, and saw the “perfect space” for her class. The next week she called and became the first community class instructor to teach at Union Project.

As she taught yoga more and more, she longed for the time when she could run a studio of her own. “Incubating” her growing class at Union Project allowed her to reach the point where she could quit her day job. After four years of teaching her Human Race Yoga classes here, Stacey was able to open her Dormont studio, South Hills Power Yoga, in April 2011. She is thankful for her experience at Union Project, remarking that, “I’ve been able to take some chances here that I wouldn’t have been able to if I was just at someone else’s studio teaching classes. We’re part of a bigger community here.”

To learn about Stacey’s classes, please visit southhillspoweryoga.com.