Online classes in Weligama
Practice from home, live with the studio.
Online classes are live classes streamed from a Berlin studio or facilitator to your screen. You join by video link at a set time, and the facilitator leads in real time. Some studios also keep recordings you can replay later.
No classes scheduled in the next two weeks.
What Online does for you
You practice with a facilitator you like, without the commute. It fits around a sick kid, a late meeting or a cold February evening. Practicing at home can feel more private, which helps if a full studio makes you shy. Many people find a regular live class keeps them more consistent than a recorded video they could start any time.
It suits you if
- you live far from the studios you like
- your schedule rarely matches studio hours
- you prefer to practice in private at first
- you travel a lot but want to keep a regular class
- you moved away from Berlin and miss your facilitator
Read the full guide to OnlineWhat a class is like, your first time, history and the words you will hear
What a class is like
Classes usually run 45 to 75 minutes. After booking you get a link, often for Zoom or a similar platform, and you join a few minutes early. The facilitator may lead from the studio with a class present, or from home. You can usually keep your camera on for feedback or off for privacy; with it on, the facilitator may give you a verbal cue by name. There are no hands-on adjustments, so instructions are more verbal and detailed.
Your first time
- Test your link, sound and camera angle five minutes before class, and set the screen where you can see it from your mat.
- Clear a space a bit bigger than your mat, and gather a cushion, a blanket and a belt or scarf as props.
- Put your mat on a non-slip surface, not on a loose rug over a wooden floor.
- Tell the facilitator you are new, or about any injury, before class starts.
Good to know
- The facilitator sees much less of you on a screen, so stay within poses you know and mention injuries in the chat or by email.
- Ask whether the class is recorded and who can see recordings before you switch your camera on.
Where it comes from
Guided practice on a screen is older than the internet. From the 1960s and 1970s, television programs such as Lilias Folan's long-running American show brought yoga into people's homes, and home videos followed. Streaming platforms in the 2000s and 2010s added on-demand classes that you could play any time.
The big shift came in March 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic closed studios across Germany. Almost overnight, Berlin studios moved their timetables to live video, and many kept streaming through the second closure that began in November 2020 and lasted well into 2021. Facilitators learned to cue for a camera, and practitioners learned to turn the floor between sofa and bookshelf into a practice space.
When studios reopened, most went back to in-person classes, but a share kept live-streamed or hybrid classes, especially for early mornings, meditation, breathwork and people who had moved away. Online has settled in as one more format alongside the studio rather than a replacement for it.
Words you will hear
- Livestream
- A class broadcast in real time, with the facilitator leading as it happens.
- Hybrid class
- A class led for people in the studio and online at the same time.
- On demand
- A recorded class you can play whenever you like.
- Savasana
- Sanskrit for corpse pose: the final rest on your back, easy to skip at home and worth staying for.