Small and familiar classes in Wiesbaden

Where it comes from

Fifteen is a familiar number in group practice. German health insurers' certified prevention courses have long worked with groups of roughly ten to fifteen people, a size seen as large enough to feel like a group and small enough for each person to be seen. Many neighborhood classes settle around the same size simply because that is what an Altbau studio floor holds comfortably.

Teaching yoga to groups rather than individuals is a mostly 20th-century development. T. Krishnamacharya taught groups of young students at the Mysore palace yogashala from 1933, and as yoga spread to Western cities, the group class became the default way to learn. Familiarity matters as much as size: a weekly class turns into a small community of regulars who know each other's names, something Buddhist and yoga traditions call sangha.

In Berlin, this is the size of the Kiez studio: one bright space, a dozen or so mats, a facilitator who knows the regulars and what their knees are like. It is how many people in the city practice week to week.