A Cambridge Couple Turned Their Garage into a Yoga Studio

A class at Yogarage/photos by Jamie Ducharme

On a quiet street in Cambridge, behind the rolling door of a garage, lies one of the city’s most unassuming—and nontraditional—yoga studios.

The blink-and-you’ll-miss-it space was once the unused one-car garage of husband and wife duo Katharina Giegling and Nicco Krezdorn. Now, it’s a fully functional and permitted studio, aptly named Yogarage, that offers vinyasa, prenatal yoga, meditation, and slow flow. Classes are taught by Giegling, instructor Annie Feldman, and occasionally Krezdorn.

“We had this space, and we don’t have a car, and we love doing yoga,” Giegling says. “It’s really a holistic space.”

A spa-like studio Yogarage is not—the telltale door and pillars remind you where you are—but the couple has worked hard to scrub away as many traces of a garage as possible. The concrete floor is now padded. The walls are lined with flickering candles. Soothing music plays in the background, punctuated occasionally by the sounds of passing cars. Mats and blocks are available for students, free of charge.

Still, the studio is as casual as you’d expect it to be. Classes are small, usually between one and five people, and mainly consist of friends and acquaintances. Giegling says the couple’s baby daughter has also been known to make an appearance.

“People who are interested in having contact with the teachers and the owners, people who really look for some private contact, I think they are really happy here,” she says.

Indeed, community seems to trump profit for both Giegling, a violinist, and Krezdorn, a research fellow at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Krezdorn says the pair isn’t in a rush to expand, and Giegling adds that she enjoys teaching small classes. Students are encouraged to sign up in advance, but all classes are drop-in. And though the couple bought a credit card reader, most payments—prices range from $10 to $12—are simply completed through Venmo.

“For the moment, we are totally happy with the space,” Giegling says. “We don’t want to enlarge now. We enjoy it.”

Yogarage, 34 Bristol St., Cambridge, yogarage.net.