Today we’d like to introduce you to Claire Asmann, Joy Lipson and Noah Villalobos.
Claire first heard about BSY from her friends at Texas State University in San Marcos, Texas, where she was studying to receive her bachelor’s in Communication Studies. She was curious, yet so excited that she would often find herself making the 90-minute commute on the weekends to Austin, where one of many BSY studios would eventually be built. BSY first opened in 2009 and the original location was on West Fifth. Michael Gray founded BSY.
Eventually, Claire ended up completing her teacher training at the West Fifth location, receiving a 200-hour RYT certification and teaching there for a year and a half. She has been teaching for six years and practices vinyasa and Acro yoga. Her passion for teaching led her to open two other BSY studios in Houston, where she would settle before coming to Dallas. She says she wanted to become a studio owner and spread the love so that people could experience BSY for themselves and be transformed. She wanted people to feel the magic and find their purpose.
Claire feels the most fulfilling aspect of her yoga journey has helped her stay internally focused, rather than getting caught up in external situations.
“No matter how much chaos is going on around me, yoga provides me with the tools to find calm in the eye of the storm. Yoga ultimately allows me to accept the present moment as is, while staying in a peaceful state of mind.”
Joy completed her yoga teacher training at Urban Yoga in Phoenix during the months of June—August 2012. She earned a 200- hour RYT certificate and has been teaching for six years, while practicing yoga for 15 years. She enjoys practicing both vinyasa and yin yoga, formerly known as restorative yoga. Later, Joy moved to Houston in 2014, where she met Claire. Claire wanted to open a BSY studio in Houston and Joy was her number 1 fan. Once Claire opened BSY Houston, Joy taught exclusively full time and was the teacher training leader. Upon moving to Dallas, Joy became a BSY studio owner. Joy says she decided to become a BSY studio owner because it is her passion and she wants to take everything to the next level, rather than just teaching classes and leading teacher training. She said, “The most fulfilling part of becoming a BSY studio owner is the ability to express yoga in the way that resonates with my personality and vibe.”
Noah had an unlikely start towards practicing yoga. At age 16, he was in a serious car accident that broke his jaw, caused internal bleeding and left him with a lacerated spleen. In addition to this, he also lost 25 percent of one of his kidneys. Noah was a football player at the time and could not afford physical therapy, yet he wanted to remain athletic. Even though the accident left his body in a bad state, Noah believed healing was possible and was willing to try something new.
In college, at The University of Texas at Austin, Noah says he took free yoga classes around the city because he refused to pay for them. As a result, he learned about BSY and the various locations in town. He never practiced at any of them but managed to sign up for teacher training. Having signed up, Noah completed a nine-week program done during the weekends in the summer of 2013. He earned a 200-hour RYT certification from BSY. He has been teaching for five years but practicing for eleven.
Noah specializes in teaching vinyasa yoga, but loves practicing Acro yoga with Claire, whom he met in Austin at BSY. He says that after he met Claire and saw the impact she was making upon the company, he realized that what she was doing was integral, so he needed to become more involved in BSY’s development.
Noah has worked for all three Austin studio locations: Westgate, Orchard and Anderson. He selected the Anderson location site and helped build it, while renovating the Orchard and Westgate studios. After detailed discussions with both Claire and Joy, the decision was made to move to Dallas and build a studio here. Noah has both a bachelors and masters in Accounting from UT Austin.
Noah loves doing what he calls “Breath Hype,” or Kundalini exercises to hip-hop music. He says it helps him get fired up to teach his classes, while keeping his body properly oxygenated. He enjoys teaching yoga just the same.
“My favorite part is being a force of positive change. I love helping people out by bringing them together and inviting them to experience all of the healing benefits that yoga brought to me.”
Claire, Joy, and Noah decided to expand to Dallas because of the numerous inquiries and demand of students wanting a BSY in Dallas and to be closer to family.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Opening a business is never a smooth road, but as long as you are following your passion and living your purpose, anything is possible. Some struggles have been trying to find a location (and still looking for future locations with parking-let us know if you find any!) and working with difficult contractors during buildout.
We’d love to hear more about your business.
On behalf of Black Swan Yoga, our mission is to get more people to try yoga and spread the love because we believe yoga should be shared with as many people as possible and that’s why we make it affordable and accessible. We offer yoga classes all day everyday (76 classes per week) and you can pay whatever you can afford to take class. We would never want to deny anyone from practicing yoga if they cannot afford it that is why we offer two simply payment options: pay per drop in by donation or an unlimited month to month membership for $88. We know deep down that the world needs more people doing yoga so we are just doing our part and trying our best to make the world a better place and share the love. That is also why Noah, Joy, and I continue to teach as much as we can while simultaneously operate studios in Austin, Houston, and Dallas.
What were you like growing up?
Claire loved to dance and would twirl around everywhere she went. Joy was super energetic and lively. Noah was very athletic and energized.
Pricing:
- Donation by drop in (pay whatever you can per class)
- $88 per month for an unlimited monthly membership. No contracts. No hidden fees. Just yoga
Contact Info:
- Address: 5118 W Lovers Lane, Dallas, TX 75209
- Website: blackswanyoga.com/dallas
- Phone: 469.607.1110
- Email: dallas@blackswanyoga.com
- Instagram: @blackswanyogadallas
- Facebook: blackswanyogadallas
- Twitter: @bsydallas
Getting in touch: VoyageDallas is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
