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Aspen Shakti/Courtesy photo
In one of the toughest retail markets in the nation, where rent for a 1,000-square-foot space can cost north of $20,000 a month, how does a one-studio yoga operation thrive in Aspen?
By getting creative, really creative, and with a little secret sauce.
Aspen Shakti is Jayne Gottlieb’s brainchild and has evolved with the times.
Her studio opened in 2014 in a building next to the Red Onion, then grew with the number of classes and students. But after two years, the building was purchased by Mark Hunt, and Gottlieb couldn’t reconcile a reasonable rent with the new landlord, she said.
She went without a studio for a year.
“We were making yoga happen anywhere, with anyone who would have us,” she said, including at the St. Regis, The Wheeler, The W Aspen, outdoors. “We also did an amazing, month-long pop-up in the old Boogie’s Diner space.”
Then Aspen Shakti found a permanent yoga pose at 535 E. Hyman in 2017, which Gottlieb called the heart cave of Aspen: “It’s unassuming and a wonderland of warmth and hospitality.” The space contains one large studio with a boutique and a bathroom with changing facilities.
“My team and I always had this dream of an alchemy space in addition to the yoga studio. If you want to survive as a single business in Aspen, you must hustle. We opened the studio to more offerings,” she said.
Marisa Hallsted, Aspen Shakti’s general manager, oversaw the development of spa-like mental health and physical offerings and cultivated practitioners and relationships that would differentiate the studio.
“The concept of the alchemy spa has been around for quite a long time,” she said. “It’s an opportunity to come to a place that combines physical well-being with holistic well-being to help people become their best selves. We wanted to create a place for people to have a transformation beyond their mats with the support of expert practitioners.”
One of these experts, former Olympian Gretchen Bleiler, is a meditation coach at the studio and offers group classes on Sunday at 10:30 a.m.
“It’s allowing 30 minutes to dedicate to cultivating a relationship with yourself, on purpose,” she said. “I’ve done some warrior stuff in my day, but this is the ultimate warrior practice. All levels are welcome and encouraged; you can go for that big hike or champagne brunch afterwards.”
The studio’s expanded services include astrology, tarot reading, human design, sound healing, meditation, relationship coaching, women’s leadership coaching, theta healing with crystal sounds bowls, reiki, shamanic healing as well as shamanic astrology.
“These are private sessions, and you book the services as you would book a spa,” Hallsted said.
Thinking of dipping your toes into New Age healing?
“For first-timers, we are always enlightened to how open people are to energy work,” she said. “They are interested in energy work, reiki, meditation, and coaching. Breathwork has been such a buzzword and trend recently, and we have noticed a rise in the request for service.”
Today, the studio has expanded from only Gottlieb to more than eight practitioners, depending on the season.
Even before she arrived on the scene, the Aspen community had become enthusiastic about mountaintop yoga on Aspen Mountain.
In 2011, she started offering mountaintop yoga during winter. Today, her studio runs the show in summer and offers yoga classes Monday through Friday, through Sept. 1 from 10:30-11:30 a.m. There is a $20 suggested donation, with proceeds going toward the Caring for Community Fund.
With mountaintop yoga, the studio, and the alchemy spa, Aspen Shakti is up to 40 classes a week. However, Gottlieb knows the cycle and this number can change, which is why she has diversified her offerings.
“COVID was a nightmare,” she said. “We would open and then have to close; it was extremely confusing and complicated. The essence of everything we do is about breathing; inherently, it was an oxymoron.”
“It really took until last summer for the community to feel back in the grove,” she said. “We are still recovering from it, people out of habits and rhythms.”
Aspen Shakti’s customers skew 75% women and 25% men, with locals and visitor attending classes and one-on-one sessions. Everyone from teenagers to seniors are welcome.
Gottlieb also offers a private retreat with three- or four-night solo missions under her tutelage at her home. Shakti is hosting two shamanic retreats in Tulum, Mexico, for 12 to 20 participants — one was in May and the next one will be in October.
There’s also a boutique attached to Aspen Shakti that sells local jewelry, books, tarot cards, and clothing.
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