Though perhaps no bigger than your living room, Artisan Square’s new studio Sweat The Technique has steadily been building a home for local fitness students for a few months now.
Natasha Currah opened the studio just eight months ago, though she is a long-time Bowen resident of nearly nine years. Currah came to the island seeking a more relaxed pace after spending her life in Canada’s biggest city.
“I had a really busy career teaching yoga in Toronto and I was doing a lot of teacher trainings for the anatomy portions of yoga teacher training and just kind of thriving in that city,” she says. But with two young kids her and her partner were looking for a new place for their family to call home.
“We found out about Bowen through friends. The time that we were at in our lives, we were really thinking that we wanted a change and to be a bit more rural,” says Natasha.
Since arriving Currah has taught yoga at some of Bowen’s local spaces, including classes at the former Well yoga studio (also in Artisan Square), Nectar Yoga, and Positively Fit, among others. She eventually transitioned to focusing on the realm of mobility training.
“For a few years I was immersing myself into a new medium of movement and understanding of the body. Since then it’s kind of been this slow build of teaching in other people’s studios… and just finding I was at this moment where I needed to consolidate and find a space of my own to welcome everybody that I’d been seeing in all these different places. When the space came up it was the perfect time and place,” explains Currah.
Natasha used her past classes to set her list of initial offerings, including skill sessions, conditioning, a men’s circuit, and even baby classes. These have stayed available from the outset, which Currah says allows her to develop both a regular group of students, and to make sure they get the most out of each class.
“I was trying to encourage the possibility that change is possible, and it takes time. There’s not going to be a class where you come in for one session with me and feel like, that’s it you’re healed. It’s a commitment. So I think when people show up week after week they start to get what I’m after – It doesn’t come quickly, it’s like learning a new language,” says Currah.
She adds that the small setting also guides and refines her own instruction too. “I can be accountable for everybody in the room, and be able to still have the same space where it feels really comfortable to have a one-on-one session – it’s not a vacuous space.”
Events are not confined to traditional workouts though. For several weeks at the beginning of the year Currah organized weekend polar plunges for brave souls looking to get their heart rates up during the winter months. She’s also held various workshops, had a pop-up swimsuit sale, and recently hosted a book club where participants read ‘Breath’ by James Nestor.
“Building this community, and bringing people together who have a shared curiosity for pushing themselves into cold water, or reading a book,” says Natasha of her additional offerings. “We’re just continuing to feel like this expansion of curiosity into our health and well-being beyond what a movement class can do.”
Reflecting on Sweat The Technique’s first few months of existence, Currah says the years leading up to this building relationships in the community were ultimately the key in the studio’s successful launch. “The clientele has grown so well, I think I’ve tripled since I opened which has been amazing, and I only just hope to keep going.”
“This is everything that I wanted and I’m really happy to have found it here, and to have had the history on this island before deciding to open up. I feel like I’m ready,” says Currah.
Natasha’s studio can be found at 582 Artisan Lane, and offers regular classes Monday to Saturday, along with her other various workshops and events.
