When yoga sage Ali Staloch and pilates instructor Heather
Liguore searched for a location to open their studio, it didn’t
take long for them to feel at home.
When yoga sage Ali Staloch and pilates instructor Heather Liguore searched for a location to open their studio, it didn’t take long for them to feel at home.
The first place they looked – a 900-square-foot suite on Eigleberry Street near Fifth Street in Gilroy – fit perfectly.
“This one just felt right,” Liguore said, her voice echoing off the studio’s hand-laid hardwood floors and earthy colored walls that the two painted themselves. “It’s always been a dream of mine to open my own studio.”
Now the two say they want to use their reverie, named Invoke Yoga and Pilates, to make reality a little less harsh for those in need.
The studio will host yoga and pilates introductory sessions Sunday with a suggested class fee of $15 each and with all proceeds going directly to the American Red Cross to help the victims of the 9.0 magnitude earthquake and tsunami that ravaged Japan March 11.
“We wanted to help however we could,” Liguore said. “That was one of the first thing we talked about when we opened. We wanted to have donation-based classes. The situation is very sad, but it is a perfect opportunity for us to raise money for this cause.”
Staloch and Liguore, who both live in Campbell, said business has been healthy since the studio opened in October, though Invoke isn’t yet able to have set, daily hours. The small studio relies heavily on client appointments and drop-ins, but one day of diverted revenue wouldn’t be the end of the world, they said.
“Why not do this?” Staloch said. “You just want to use whatever resources you have to help someone else. The thing that I really get excited about is that I get to teach and really use that for something that’s a greater good.”
Practicing yoga also would allow those who visit Invoke to garner a clearer sense of themselves and their surroundings, said Staloch, who didn’t forget to point out a Buddha statue resting on the studio’s back wall.
“Every yoga studio needs to have one,” she said.
The co-owners of Invoke met as strangers in one of Liguore’s pilates classes at Snap Fitness in Gilroy almost two years ago. They both shared a love for pilates, yoga and other health and wellness practices, and said they had a feeling they’d end up working together.
“We function very well together. We have a lot of the same ideas on just things in general,” Staloch said. “We knew we’d work well together.”
“One day,” Staloch said, as Liguore finished her sentence, “It just clicked.”
Liguore said planning for Sunday’s event reminded her not just about the efforts that went into opening the studio but also made her realize how fortunate she was.
“We’re so blessed to be here and be healthy and happy and doing OK,” she said. “Watching the news and all the footage, it’s just so sad and so devastating. And here we are and all it’s costing us is our time, and that’s nothing compared to what people over there are going through.”
She also said the upcoming fundraiser wouldn’t be a one-time affair. The studio is planning future benefits, and the two said they wanted donation-based classes to become recurring events at the studio.
“There’s more to come,” Liguore said.
For Sunday’s benefit, the studio will hold pilates classes at 9 a.m. and 1 p.m., with yoga classes slated for 10:30 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. The studio is located at 7520 Eigleberry Street, Suite 100. More information about the studio can be found at www.invokepiyo.com, or by calling 761-6250 or 209-564-1222.
