About
A small teaching practice in Burlington
Nine classes a week on a video call, a cap of fourteen, and a published timetable that we keep to. That is the whole operation.
What this is
Cedar & Breath is a one-teacher practice running live group yoga classes by video call from Burlington, Vermont, plus a set of free pose guides and some writing. Classes are bought in packs of five or ten. There is no membership, no app, no on-demand library and no subscription of any kind.
The classes are live and they are small on purpose. Fourteen is the number at which one teacher can still look at fourteen gallery tiles and notice that somebody's front knee has collapsed inward. Past that it becomes a broadcast, and a broadcast is a video — which there are plenty of already, free, and which this is not trying to compete with.
Why standing work, specifically
Because it is the part of a practice that transfers. The shapes we spend an hour on — a wide stance, weight on one foot, reaching without leaning, coming back up from a fold — are the shapes of getting out of a car, carrying a bag upstairs and reaching the back of a cupboard. Nothing on a mat is a simulation of life, but standing work is closer to it than most.
And because it is badly served. A great deal of what is taught online assumes a floor, a practice of getting up and down from it, and a tolerance for kneeling that plenty of perfectly capable people simply do not have and are not going to acquire. Taking the floor out of eight classes a week is not a concession. It is a choice about what the hour is for.
The flip side, stated plainly: if you want inversions, arm balances, a fast flow or anything approaching a workout, this is not it, and you will be bored. There are good teachers doing that and we are not them.
How we talk about the body
This matters enough to put on the about page rather than bury in a disclaimer.
We do not make health claims. Not about balance work and falls, not about standing practice and bone density, not about breathing and blood pressure, not about any of it. You will find all of those claims elsewhere, stated with great confidence and very little evidence. What you get here is a description of the movement and of how it commonly feels, and that is the whole of what a yoga teacher is qualified to give you.
Nothing here is about weight, shape or appearance. Ever, in any direction. No before-and-afters, no body talk, no "earning" anything.
We will not diagnose or treat anything, because we are not qualified to and it would be dangerous to pretend otherwise. If something hurts, the person to ask is a doctor or a physical therapist. Teachers are good at saying what a shape is and what it tends to feel like. They are not good at knowing what is wrong with your shoulder.
Everything is optional, always. Sitting one out and watching is a complete and respectable way to spend part of a class, and nobody will say anything about it.
The teaching
Classes are taught by the person who runs the business. There is one of us. We are not going to publish a biography of qualifications here, partly because an invented credential is the fastest way to lose the right to be believed about anything else, and partly because it is not the useful information.
The useful information is what a class is actually like, and that is on the how a class runs page in detail: what the first five minutes are, how instruction is given, what is said out loud about props, what happens if your connection drops, and what we do and do not do with cameras.
If you want to know whether the teaching suits you, the honest answer is that reading about it will not tell you. Buy a five-class pack, use one, and if it is not for you, ask for a refund within 14 days and we will give you one without asking why.
How this is paid for
Two ways, and both are visible. Class packs are the main one.
Advertising is the other: it appears on the home page, the pose guides,
the writing and the FAQ, and it appears on no page where you might be
about to spend money or send us a message. Every slot is labelled
Advertisement
.
There are no affiliate links anywhere on this site. When a specific prop is worth naming — and for standing work, a wall and an ordinary dining chair are the only two that matter — it is named plainly, with nothing earned from it.
There are no testimonials, no reviews and no star ratings, on any page. Not because nobody has said anything kind, but because we have not collected them in a way that would make publishing them honest, and a made-up review is a made-up review however nicely it is phrased. The advertising disclosure says the same thing at greater length.
Reaching us
Email classes@cedarandbreath.info, or telephone (802) 555‑0156 Monday to Saturday between 8am and 6pm Eastern Time. The contact page has the mailing address and a form. We answer within one business day, and we answer questions about whether a class suits you whether or not you have bought anything.