Yoga gets an edge in Chakti, where twerking is encouraged.
THE LIGHTS ARE LOW. The music is loud and heavy on the bass. You do some downward-facing dogs and some chair poses. And you shake your butt. A lot.
It has a name, this twerking yoga. It’s called Chakti—a reference to the chakras, or energy centers of the body, and Shakti, the Hindu goddess of power. From the outside looking in, it may seem like a bastardized version of your typical yoga class, replacing all the ohms and stillness with hip hop and cardio.
But Lauren McAbee—the 36-year-old yoga instructor,holistic life coach, and mother of two who created Chakti— believes firmly that your standard yoga class isn’t the only path to Zen. “We’re meant to move this way. It’s part of who we are,” McAbee says. “My hope is, when people come to the class, they leave feeling empowered and balanced.”
Those people (mostly women, but men, too) do come. McAbee and Chakti have attracted a diverse following in Charlotte largely through word of mouth. Move Studio, the Plaza Midwood dance and yoga studio where McAbee teaches, doesn’t even list Chakti on the schedule. You’ve got to know about it to find it, and yet almost every class is packed with 40 or so people, who find their way there through friends, or friends of friends, or the almighty Instagram. They are financial advisors and small business owners, sales reps and single moms, 20-somethings and 50-somethings.
And for 60 minutes, three times a week, McAbee is their common thread.
This story is from the February 2018 edition of Charlotte Magazine.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the February 2018 edition of Charlotte Magazine.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
‘This Is How We're Going to Make Your Child Better'
Pediatric neurosurgery is technically and emotionally complex—and traditionally dominated by men. As Novant’s first female pediatric neurosurgeon, Dr. Erin Kiehna Richardson has had to learn the intricacies of a demanding field and battle sexism along the way
The Dumbledore of CMC
A surgery resident wrote a series of children’s books and created a special kind of medical magic
LGBTQ HB2+5
Five years after the furor of House Bill 2, the LGBTQ community—in Charlotte, in North Carolina, and across much of the nation—fights attacks on new fronts
Oh, Snap!
New ‘selfie museum’ in Concord celebrates the 1990s
ALLISON LATOS
The WSOC anchor on her hard trek from one episode of loss and grief to another—and the meaning of resilience
GOOD HEALTH
For years, Charlotte has been one of the largest American cities that lacked a four-year medical school. The health care professionals who finally made it happen overcame a series of setbacks, false starts, and failures, and they plan to use their clean slate to create a new kind of community asset
Summer Partee
From woodwork to retail, the kindergarten teacher-turned-designer has learned how to do it herself
Uptown or Downtown?
Archives illuminate how long we’ve argued over the perennial question
NOW OPEN NOVEL ITALIAN
Paul Verica brings a simpler version of the city’s hottest food trend to NoDa
TOP DOCTORS 2021
The annual list you can't without
