“We’ve moved!!!” says Liberation Yoga Co-Owner Christine Burke. It is not an easy thing for a yoga studio to do, but Liberation Yoga has changed locations after 15 years. And successfully.
Creating Community on La Brea in LA
For 15 years, Liberation has lived in the heart of LA on La Brea. They’re still on La Brea, so look carefully at their new address, near the intersection of La Brea and San Vicente. This neighborhood is a culturally and socially diverse, budding Arts District. The streets are filled with a community in resurgence, lovingly attended to by its residents and businesses. Liberation Yoga Co-Owners and married couple Christine Burke and Gary McCleery are OG community members and longtime “Mom and Pop” business-owners, who came to yoga through their beginnings as performance artists. Their values create a studio that gives people a safe space to be unique. This is represented by the teachers who have followed them from the very beginning in 2002, me included. Christine and Gary’s support of their students is reflected in how many have moved with them.
Christine Burke: Student, Author, Teacher
Christine came into yoga as an actress and dancer in New York, studying with David Life and Sharon Gannon (Jivamukti Yoga), Integral Yoga, and Om Yoga until she moved to Los Angeles in 1994. Her influences are many and diverse, and that same eclectic approach is reflected in her teacher training programs; the willingness to be open to new ideas and the richness of a wide range of backgrounds. In addition to teaching, Christine is an accomplished author, of the books The Power of Breath and Hand Yoga: Pranayama and Mudras for Health and Wellbeing, as well as The Yoga Healer: Remedies for the Body, Mind, and Spirit.
At Liberation Yoga, you can come as you are and expect to be fully accepted by everyone you meet. If you come with the mind of a beginner, the instructors are genuinely interested in meeting you “where you are.” If you come with the mind of a seasoned yogi the instructors will honor your practice and offer support as you continue your quest for deepening your own work.
Whatever your level, your practice will thrive here.
I am the founder/instructor for the Yoga for Parkinson’s class and Liberation has offered a home to my students where they can develop healthy, strong, vibrant bodies, and cultivate creative, tranquil minds. Through the kindness of Christine and Gary, this class has been offered for free for 10 years.
When Christine was looking for her “forever home” for Liberation, she had a lot of criteria to meet. These included keeping the new location close enough for her devoted students, and finding a space that continued to develop her dreams of lifting up underserved communities. In the process, she remembered the Parkinson’s students and the need to make sure the new location is accessible. Everything is here in Liberation’s new home. As Christine maintains, “Liberation Yoga is dedicated to promoting health, peace, and freedom in the community and on the planet.”
Find Liberation
Liberation Yoga
1288 S. La Brea Ave.
Los Angeles, Ca 90019
323-964-5222
liberationyoga.com
Kathleen Ross-Allee, C-IAYT is Managing Director for the LMU Yoga Therapy Rx Program. Kathleen has developed yoga therapy programs to support cancer treatment and she teaches a weekly gentle yoga therapy class for people with Parkinson’s Disease, which she offers free at Liberation Yoga in LA: leenbodies.com.