Corepower: BOH

After looking deeper into Corepower yoga’s back of house operations I was slightly surprised by some of the things that I heard. From greatly enjoying every experience I have encountered with Corepower, I assumed that they had very smoothly running back of house operations. Which they do, don’t get me wrong, but they also have their flaws. Given the opportunity to chat with a few staff members at the North Park location is what allowed me to get a different perspective. First, I met with Amore, the studio manager. She gave me details on what the staff goes through before having the opportunity to become an instructor at Corepower. Which includes what they call teacher in training, a three month long yoga training process to teach you all you need to know about yoga from original names of poses to different variations of each pose. Once that is completed you become an intern for 30 classes and audition to become a full time teacher. After that, instructors are scheduled to teach their own classes with the added perk of getting to practice yoga for free in the studio for themselves and a friend. Instructors are required to follow certain rules and adhere to Corepower’s weekly focus in their own creative yoga flow. This allows them to feel empowered and let their creativity shine for the students, because students are the focus of Corepower’s mission. To keep instructors motivated and continue improving their own practice, they are required to participate in continued education throughout their time at Corepower. Amore was very informative about the functions behind the back of the house. She was very passionate about Corepower and seems to enjoy her job very much. When I spoke with some of the other staff members, Jenn and Aaron, they mentioned things about how expensive the continued education was, something paid for on their own dime. Instead of feeling motivated and invested in they felt slightly cheated because of the high price they were required to pay, as well as the fact that their education extensions were lead by other Corepower yoga instructors. Many instructors also felt criticized by management if their classes were not full, given feedback that was not received very well and believed that if you were part of the “in-group”, you were stuck teaching the undesirable class times. The instructors told me that their main reason for staying is their students. Seeing them grow in their practice and creating relationships with them is rewarding.