Photo by Susannah Moore for Alexandria Living Magazine
Refresh Yoga's new location
Refresh Yoga is getting a refresh.
The yoga studio has been a fixture on the second floor of 110 King St. since it took over the space from Radiance Yoga in 2013. Now, Refresh Yoga is moving to a new location at 1011 King St., which was formerly occupied by Inq Tattoo. The new yoga studio will open by Sept. 1.
Lindsey Canaley took over Refresh Yoga in 2017. Canaley, originally from Los Angeles, grew up doing yoga. She moved to the East Coast in 2008 after graduating with a political science degree with a plan to work in politics. She worked in health policy for almost eight years before taking a job working for Yoga Alliance, the leading non-profit overseeing the teaching of yoga. She also taught yoga at a number of yoga studios in the area, including Refresh.
At the end of 2016 and early 2017, Canaley and her business partner at the time were supposed to open a yoga studio in Alexandria’s West End at the Landmark Mall redevelopment, but delays and uncertainty over the redevelopment caused the lease to fall through. Soon after, they were asked is they wanted to take charge at Refresh Yoga which was going through a shift in management. Soon after, Canaley’s business partner had to step away due to family obligations.
2018 and 2019 were great years for Refresh, but 2020 and the COVID-19 pandemic was challenging for the studio. Not only did they have to shift to online, outdoor and smaller indoor classes, but the landscape of the waterfront shifted significantly with the closure of lower King Street into a pedestrian only zone.
While the closure was good for the restaurants in the block, who suddenly had more outdoor dining space, it wasn’t so great for some of the other businesses. “What it ended up doing was it took away a lot of parking. A lot of our clients are part of our community but not necessarily the lower Old Town community, it ended up really hurting us,” explained Canaley. This caused her to begin to look for new space for the studio.
Todd Tupper, a friend of Canaley’s, opened a karate dojo during the pandemic and began to share space with Refresh. They decided to go in on a new space together. Canaley had been to Inq tattoo when it was open, and knew it had been closed for some time. While walking by the building one day she decided to look into renting the space for Refresh.
The new location will give the studio more parking and a visible street presence, something it doesn’t have currently. Although the space is not much larger, the layout will give the Refresh much more studio space, enough for up to 40 people in one class.
“The studio itself is a new business because we are combining businesses, the karate dojo and the yoga studio. So the idea is to have it less one modality to a more overall, comprehensive approach to wellness,” Canaley described.
Refresh Yoga’s old studio will have its last day on Aug. 30. The new space will start hosting events over the coming weeks, with plans to open officially on Sept. 1. Visit Refresh Alexandria's new website to find out more.
