Butterfly Yoga in the News

Jackson Free Press - Best of Jackson 2005, 2006

Best Place for Yoga: Butterfly Yoga
3025 N. State St., 594-2313

From the 2005 JPF "Best Of" edition - A true sign of a progressive, creative community is a plethora of yoga studios. And we have them. And we have yoga of various types, which is important because one style does not fit all. This year, though, one yoga studio stands out above the rest for JFP readers: Scotta Brady’s Butterfly Yoga. Scotta made a big move last year, taking over the old Studio Chane building in Fondren (a gas station even before that), painting it hot green and opening her yoga there. Inside, she teaches Anusara yoga to a growing group of Scotta groupies. Her students love her! And for good reason: She is funny, beautiful, hip (I always picture her at Elixir’s opening in a groovy mini dress and go-go boots) and, most importantly, knows what she is doing. She will stop in the middle of a class and give one student individualized attention depending on your needs. And she is not shy about presenting a well-rounded yogic experience, complete with chants and a Buddhist prayer bowl. Scotta is making a name for herself in a city with many good yoga options—from Joyflow to Courthouse to the YMCA to Triangle (which offers my personal favorite, Iyengar) to the new “hot” studio, Bikram, out Lakeland. Cheers to Scotta and our other yogis who are determined to help us rid our bodies of stress and pain. We need you all.  — Donna Ladd

 



Planet Weekly
January 2004

Jackson Free Press
May 2004

 

 

 

 


 Yoga instructors turning to colored lights for focus
 April 11, 2006 - By Nick C. Sortal, South Florida Sun-Sentinel

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Drivers look at a red light and think "stop." During Kmart's heyday, a blue light meant run like heck and grab that bargain.
    And, if you're a yoga student, you associate white light with the top of your head.
    In the thousands of years that people have twisted and turned to yogis' directions, many have assigned colors to each of seven vital areas of the body, known in Eastern philosophy as chakras.
    Visualize a green ball of light at your heart, yoga teachers would say, and improve your ability to love and balance.
    That color-chakra business has become more concrete in the past year, helping yoga students glide into their happy place.
     Follow this link to read the entire article on the Clarion-Ledger website.



 


Vickie D. King/The Clarion-Ledger
 

Yoga, water classes offer relief without drugs
June 21, 2005 - By Julie Goodman

Let your head float on top of your spine like a helium balloon. Allow your breath to flow smooth and steady and unbroken. Let your inner body brighten.
    "Beautiful," Scotta Brady says. "Let the heart shine."
     Brady, an instructor at Butterfly Yoga in Jackson, leads one of her regular classes on a recent weekday morning.
     But her words, mingling with a broadcast of sacred chanting, are more than just a relaxing dose of therapy for Susan Ferber, who sits on a mat contorting her body into the "humble warrior" and the back-arching "Halloween cat." 
     (Story archived on Clarion-Ledger's website.)


Vickie D. King/The Clarion-Ledger

 


Brady assists student Susan Ferber in performing the extended side angle pose, which strengthens the arms, spine, thighs and torso, and also aids in digestion and blood circulation. Ferber suffers from chronic pain and participates in the yoga classes at Butterfly Yoga on State Street as an alternative to taking pain medications.

 


 Fondren businesses, residences make a bold statement
Sept. 12, 2004 - By Sherry Lucas

In Fondren, they're kicking local color up to the next level.

It shouts, "Here I am!"

Distinctive hues — cobalt blue, yellow, red, purple, pink, sky blue and lime green put a bright banner on the neighborhood's business district.		  



 



 

Brian Albert Broom/The Clarion-Ledger

Scotta Brady of Butterfly Yoga opted for lime green to draw attention to her business, which has been converted from a gas station.

Now, color's creeping north, up the street and onto the exteriors of residences along North State Street.

Jazzed by the book Painted Ladies, Real Estate Solutions President Alan French figured the same approach that stamps San Francisco's Victorian neighborhoods could pump up the profiles of rental property along North State Street.

Fondren comes closer to an actual arts district than any other place in Jackson, but "everything was bland — either tan, white, khaki," French said.

He wants to bring identity to the street — where drivers on U.S. 51 (North State Street) won't have to say, "Hey, I'm in Fondren." They'll know it.

"We're trying to drag a little color down here and create some of the energy of the business district," he said.

One house at a time

"We're definitely doing everything we can to put Fondren on the map, one house at a time," added Brent Yurtkuran, director. Of the almost 400 properties the business manages in Jackson, probably 12 to 15 line Fondren's North State Street corridor.

A two-story duplex in spring green sticks out beside another duplex in peeling pale peach. There's a building in salmon.

Still in progress is a fourplex that's yellow, with mandarin orange trim, hurricane shutters and a foundation in turquoise. "It looks like something out of the Caribbean," French said.

Their office, at North State and Pennsylvania streets, also got a new coat of paint — Biscay Green, described as a "sour apple green," with trim in black and white.

Such bold brush strokes cause doubletakes by drivers and a bit of private grumbling on some of the palette.

"The thing is, you put one up, they're kind of shocked," French said. "The second one, they're still shocked, but a little more accustomed to it."

Artist Ellen Langford finds her drive from home to The Art of State Studios more exciting because of it.

"To get to experience really lively colors on such a large scale — that's one of the things I really like about Portland, Ore. — people paint their houses really delightful colors, strong and unexpected."

French hopes to start a synergy with neighbors. "Maybe by the time it's over with, they'll stand back and they'll get it. And we're hoping some other homeowners will pick it up ..."

"Or ask us to do it," project manager Matt Herndon said.

No regulations

"The wonderful thing about Fondren is, we don't have any historical regulations to prevent owners from expressing themselves," said Camp Best, executive director of the Fondren Renaissance Foundation. "No controls."

Neighborhood developers and entrepreneurs often come by the foundation office for an opinion. And, "I really feel like, if I called Brent and called Alan and said, 'That doesn't quite work. Would you consider something a little different?' they would."

"I like to see the infusion of color," foundation president David Dinkins said, adding a qualifier. "I think great attention needs to be made as to how that's integrated. Used in mass, it's extremely effective."

Dinkins gave French a reference book on Caribbean style and plans to take him and Yurtkuran to view Starkville's Cotton District, a prime example of the trend in new urbanism, for ideas.

Plenty of reaction

Some paint jobs do the color equivalent of sending up a flare.

Scotta Brady wanted a bright green — green is the color of the heart chakra (energy center) — for the new location of her Butterfly Yoga studio, in a converted deco gas station on North State Street. And, "I had to get something to cover the gray," she said.

The lime Vista Green does the trick — plus, it can be easily covered. "And of course, I did want to draw attention to the building."

Mission accomplished. Ron Chaney, former occupant and leaseholder, was shocked the first time he saw it. "Holy crap — my retina's burned!" But, if the property manager was cool with it, so was he. "I like things loud anyway."

Bob Smith, owner of Bob's Cut & Curl, went with spot color on the strip of shops anchored by the Pix (old Capri) Theater.

"I wanted something that'd be pleasing and would stand out," Smith said of the golden yellow. An interior decorator with neighboring Seabrook, an art major and a Seabrook co-owner weighed in on his decision. Selected red stripes on the awning add detail.

Smith said one client teased him, "I will keep coming back to you, but if people start making fun of it, I'll have to start coming in the back door." Another praised the bold move — and the fact that he could now spot the business from a block away.

Next door at Campbell's Bakery, longtime cake decorator Annette Ficklin recalled the hullabaloo when the previous owner painted the outside hot pink about a decade ago. "I thought it was jazzy. A lot of folks didn't like it, but I did. It kind of woke it up."

New bakery owner Lisa Lovell put on a fresh coat of pink, and is going with yellow on paneling inside — an homage to the King Leo candy sticks of her youth. "Pink is a fun color. It's Barbie. It's bubblegum. And it says a lot about what's inside," including the pink flower cookies with yellow centers.

Developer Mike Peters picked the Fondren Corner blue, and credited the facade's bold red and yellow to "complete blind trust" in architect Bob Canizaro, who thought all blue would be too blue. "He really picked that out, and it mixed in perfect," Peters said.

Seeing purple

Also owner of the small building next door, Peters said the desired color scheme of New Vibrations shopkeepers — purple and lime green — gave him pause.

"You know me, Mr. Conservative. Purple is my wife's favorite color, so that was OK, but I don't know about the lime green ..." Best told him it'd look good, though, and Peters trusted that.

"It definitely did what we wanted it to do," New Vibrations owner Karen Parker said. "We're getting a lot of comments, a lot of people who drive by and do doubletakes like, 'Wow, what is that now?' "

The "store of spiritual and cultural diversity," as Parker described it, is very eclectic and different and, "I knew the outside had to match the inside."

Any negative comments? "Just from the guys that were painting it," Parker said, chuckling. Otherwise, "People are kind of laughing and saying it was sure easy to find."

Gallery 119 owner James Patterson, who encountered love-hate reactions to the paint on his old (very) Blue Cafe downtown, said color suits the diverse, livable, not-so-stately neighborhood of Fondren, the gallery's new home. "We're not cosmopolitan. ... It's a small-town thing.

"It's hard to get uppity when you're living next door to an orange and lime green house," Patterson said. "It kind of keeps you in your place."
 

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