The celebration for Shelburne Falls Yoga wasn’t supposed to be for the 15th anniversary. Kate Pousont Scarborough purchased the company in March of 2011, and had planned to celebrate her 10th year at the helm. The world, of course, had other plans.
“I’m excited about this anniversary, because my 10th anniversary, where I thought we’d have a big party, it was COVID, and we had a very small party outside,” Pousont Scarborough said.
Like many business owners, Pousont Scarborough found that the COVID-19 pandemic arrived at the worst possible time. She had just moved from her long-time location on Deerfield Avenue — her company’s home from 2011 to 2020 — due to a roof leak and water damage. She had spent less than a month at her new space in The Mill at Shelburne Falls before she realized “something was about to happen,” as she put it.
Now, five years after that postponed milestone, the party Pousont Scarborough has been waiting for will take place on Saturday, April 25. The celebration will feature a no-cost, donation-based class followed by a reception and fundraiser for the Born Free Food Pantry, operated by one of her students. The event includes a raffle for a decorative maple and walnut shelf built by Pousont Scarborough’s husband.
The path to this 15th-anniversary date, which fell on March 1, faced one final hurdle. Her husband’s woodshop was destroyed in a fire in February, and she felt it wasn’t the right time to ask him to build the raffle prize. But now, everything has finally come together. Shelburne Falls Yoga is ready to host a celebration 1,872 days in the making.
“I’m really excited to celebrate [Pousont Scarborough],” said Nancy Parland, a long-time student. Parland has practiced with the studio since before the change in ownership, but notes that under Pousont Scarborough’s leadership, there is a “welcoming and openness to really pay attention to your body… to do the pose that feels like what your body needs, and not what some picture or somebody else [is doing].”
Since the pandemic, Shelburne Falls Yoga has offered remote classes alongside in-person sessions at The Mill. Pousont Scarborough admits times were tough, but her community stayed loyal during the transition to virtual learning. She views Saturday’s event as a way for students who have only met online to finally connect in person.
One of those students is Mike McCusker. While he doesn’t call himself a “serious yogi,” he practices daily. “I don’t know if I was one of the first kids on the block [at Shelburne Falls Yoga] or not, but close to it,” McCusker said. “I’ve experienced maybe a dozen teachers … [Pousont Scarborough] is one of the best.”
Another student of Pousont Scarborough’s, Judith Wombwell, says that while she’s a great instructor, that’s not what makes her classes better than others. “Most of all, I value that she’s a compassionate person,” Wombwell said. “She centers each class, and I always leave uplifted.”
McCusker credits the inviting environment to Pousont Scarborough’s background as a dance instructor. Having danced since age two, she recalls her early teaching days in “pretty intense” and often unsupportive environments. Those experiences fueled her desire to create a studio where “anybody who enters will feel comfortable.”
“Pretty much from that first moment, I was like ‘I want to figure out how to do this in a way that supports these people,'” Pousont Scarborough said. “I think that all of the experiences that I’ve had are within me, they’re part of me. The lessons that I learned even as a young person … all of that stuff absolutely shaped my journey as a teacher.”
One way she creates this supportive environment is by tailoring her classes to the specific people she is teaching. Pousont Scarborough has taught students ranging in age from 3 to 97 and ensures each session is suited to their unique needs. For a group of toddlers, the class might involve running and jumping; for older students, she often wears a headset connected to a speaker.
“God bless her for doing that,” Parland said. “It’s helpful for a lot of people, and she uses it so seamlessly you hardly notice it’s there. I’m grateful she does that for me and for others.”
“God bless her that she does that,” Parland says. “I think it’s (the headset) helpful for a lot of people … I’m grateful that she does that for myself and for other people.”
While much of the fitness and self-care industry is overrun with advertisements and “miracle” solutions, Shelburne Falls Yoga sells nothing but its time. Pousont Scarborough believes her students feel the respect she has for them, which they return in kind. Instructors at the studio even have it written into their contracts that they cannot sell products to students.
“We don’t do announcements after class … we simply hold the space for [the] people who come in,” Pousont Scarborough said. “People could feel that [a] level of respect was there, and that it was a different kind of space — that you could come and nobody’s going to try and fix you.”
Fifteen years in, Pousont Scarborough doesn’t have a rigid vision for the next 15. She notes that her approach mirrors the philosophy of yoga itself, which often focuses more on the practice than on simply moving from Point A to Point B. Her primary goal is to continue holding space and creating a warm environment for herself and her students.
“Really, the approach that I’ve taken from the beginning is to be very clear about why I’m doing what I’m doing,” Pousont Scarborough said. “When I was thinking about what really underlies my teaching, a lot of it has to do with respect. Respect for the students, their journey, their unique goals and their aims, respect for the human body … and respect for the practice of yoga, which is deep and is a contemplative practice.”
