Black People Don’t Do Yoga?

Do Black folk do yoga? Leader of the #DopeYogis, Danica Warden, has been a Frederick yoga instructor for years. She has been the sole local black yoga guru in the city and is encouraging others like her to join her.

Danica, whose yoga alias is dtrueyogi, recounts how she started yoga.

“Why yoga…why not,” Warden says. Before she was a yoga instructor, Danica always attended classes filled to capacity with the same faces over and over again. She figured there had to be something special to the art. She was already into meditation practice. It was when she felt the need for change that she picked up Russell Simmon’s book Do You and her journey began.

I’m not sure what I was looking for but he talked about changing your way of thinking, like cognitive restructuring. So I figured it couldn’t hurt. Then, he talked about meditation, right on the floor in my living room — I was turned out. Like taking a double-stack Ecstacy pill in the early 2000’s. I meditated everyday after that, then yoga just came naturally after that.

She asks all of her attendees what their goals are for yoga practice: body, flexibility, relaxation and breath work, not sure? She encourages blunt honesty and inquires when and why one took his or her first yoga class.

My goal is to gain your insight and feedback on stuff we do in class and lifestyle stuff that will help me learn how to better tailor the class more towards your individual needs and goals, physically and yogically, um, is that a word , it is now!?! And of course, to learn so I can be your #Dopestt teacher ever!

As the only black female yoga teacher, Danica provides insight on the diversity of yoga classes in Frederick and why she thinks it is so. She believes that yoga has been westernized and commercialized to cater to specific groups of people. As a result, the lack of diversity is because of lack of availability, accessibility, and affordability. 

Diversity in yoga classes in Frederick? Ain’t none, I’m it. Now when I travel to DC or Baltimore for a class, it’s a bit more diverse, but you have to seek it out. I believe the lack of diversity is because it is just not available to them, or tailored towards them and sometimes a single class is just too damn expensive before pay day. 

It is Danica’s number one mission “to bring yoga to my sisters and brothers, the freaks geeks and stand-outs or stand alones.” She believes the gifts of yoga are endless and enhancing and everyone deserves to experience it.

“So, as we huff, puff and stretch our way into…”

Want to try yoga? Contact Danica here!