はい、ゴシック ヨガは流行っていて、バーバンクのオカルト ショップでは盛況です。

火曜日の午後 7 時 50 分、薄暗い形而上学的な用品店に入ったとき 曲がった道。屋内でさえ、ほとんど閉鎖されているように見えます。クリスタルのネックレスがちりばめられた壁、ルーン文字のボウル、そして周りの長い黒いキャンドルホルダーがかろうじて見えます。半分入ったガラスの瓶（おそらくポーション？）が店の細長いバーである薬局の向こうに置かれており、そこでは黙った黒服の男がエジプトの神々の姿とドラキナという名前の大きなニシキヘビを私のヨガのクラスに指摘しています。

ゴス ヨガ LA が本拠地と呼ぶバックルームは、すべて黒いペンキ、紫色のライト、セージの香りで覆われています。頭上のスピーカーシステムから音楽が不気味に鳴り響きます。熱心な人々は、火曜と木曜の夜6時半と8時に開催される有料の親密なクラスに集まります。アップサイドダウンでのオープンマイクナイトのようで、そう、みんな黒い服を着ている。ゴスヨガLAのリーダー、ブリンナ・ビートニクスを除く全員。今夜、Beatnix はさらに隠れた Y2K グラムを披露します。彼は隅で大の字に寝そべっているタトゥーの濃い男性と雑談し、試しに中を覗いている濃いアイラインの年配の女性を歓迎する。正しい場所にありますか？もちろんそうです。

Students take part in a Goth Yoga LA class, complete with burning incense.

Goth Yoga LA’s masterminds are Beatnix and her partner, James David (who DJs each class). The couple has been active in L.A.’s goth/alternative music and event scene for years, co-creating the popular outdoor roller disco event Skate Oddity during the pandemic. This “goth club on wheels,” brought an inspiring blend of physicality, niche goth music and connection to alt-Angelenos at their most isolated.

As Skate Oddity (and athletically-forward goth events like it) became more popular, so did some pretty gnarly injuries. As a response, Beatnix began hosting communal stretching sessions before the events, complete with vibey dark ‘80s, goth and post-punk soundtrack. “It started as a gathering,” Beatnix said. “And with James and my background in nightlife and music, it gained momentum and grew.”

Soon, Beatnix got her yoga certification and a couple of her goth friends, Sal Santoro and Popi Mavros, offered the backroom of their Burbank-based occult store, the Crooked Path. And from the shadowy, crystal-studded darkness Goth Yoga LA was born.

Brynna Beatnix’s classes are defined by deep stretches and dark sounds.

DJ James David provides the music for Goth Yoga LA classes.

Beatnix and David created and practice Goth Yoga LA much like yoga itself — slowly, with intentionality. It took them years to fuse music and movement to “get the space right,” and they hope that the result helps participants’ mental health. “The music and the alternative world can already be a coping mechanism. Well, yoga is also a great coping mechanism. So let’s combine the two.”

What resulted is an intimate, therapeutic yoga class shrouded in darkness (literally), where goths, alts, punks — anyone feeling outside of the norm — can work through “heavy feelings” via moody vinyasas. “It just feels really nice to be in a room of people who are kinda literally leaning into the discomfort of being in the chaos of the world right now,” says Heather Hanford, a regular at Goth Yoga LA.

For many, it’s not just about mental health but simply a more welcoming alternative to the Lululemon-coded homogeny of L.A.’s wellness culture. “Some people feel scared of going to traditional yoga studios. One, the prices are really high. Or they don’t really feel accepted there,” Beatnix says. “I’ve even had guys be like, I’m scared to go, because people are going to look at my tattoos and think that I’m a satanist and stare at me.”

The intimate Goth Yoga LA classes are distinctive because they are mostly shrouded in darkness.

And, of course, it’s not just for goths. Class participant Hanford, who identifies as a neurodivergent non-goth, experiences Goth Yoga LA as much more regulating than a mainstream yoga class. “The lighting and mood music makes it easier to focus on the internal experience than other classes I’ve taken,” she said. “Either intentionally or not, really helps minimize sensory overload.”

As we cat-cow to the Cure, the irony that goth yoga is more approachable, more calming and far less expensive than most traditional classes isn’t lost on me. With its donation-based entry, alternative clientele and bespoke DJ experience, Goth Yoga LA is like the anti-yoga of L.A’.s yoga scene. “I didn’t particularly want to rebel against the yoga studios, I just … am,” Beatnix tells me later. “We just saw something that didn’t exist, and wanted to create it.”

I know the class is coming to an end as ambient noiserock leads us into corpse pose. I inhale, letting new smells — something minty and palo santo-y, maybe? — waft over me. Now back into our original sitting positions, I’m not expecting a namaste. No, I have been warned this class concludes … differently than most.

Class participants Ellie Albertson and Jenn Rivera recline in corpse pose.

In Sanskrit, namaste translates to mean “I bow to you,” or, ”the light in me honors the light in you.” It is meant to be an invitation: a means of being deeply and profoundly seen.

“But that’s just ignoring the dark,” Beatnix says. In her opinion, to truly be seen we must acknowledge our alternative natures, our shadow sides, the otherness of our beings. “My ending is — and it ranges class to class — but generally I say, ‘the darkness in me honors and acknowledges the darkness in each and every one of you.’ We have both light and dark. We are both.”