WOMEN RISE TO THE CHALLENGE OF SHAKTI
Somewhere between a spiritual Zumba and sexy Kundalini yoga, a women-only, yoga-meets-bellydancing-and-strength class called ShaktiRize has become the talk of Maui’s healthy set. This homegrown movement attracts local yoginis, Crossfitters and wellness warrior women looking for a place to sweat, flow, squat and gyrate to a soundtrack of what founder Jasmine Judson calls “bumping beats” of trance and rap.
ShaktiRize participants “experience and build our sensuality for ourselves, without an end goal,” Judson says. “By shaking off everything through dance and movement, we create a blank canvas on which to build a more empowered sense of self.”
In practice, it feels like a sweaty-spiritual take on cardio. The heated classes start with seated breath work, some hip swiveling and upper-body work. Judson then leads a sequence of warm-up Afro-Cuban-inspired dance steps, a lower-body series with plenty of squats and belly dance moves, a playful take on a pushup series and a core workout.
Intermittent “downward dog” poses and a final resting pose reflect Judson’s yoga background. A Maui native, Judson says she took Iyengar yoga classes as a teenager and earned hatha yoga certification in Park City, Utah, before exploring various movement modalities across the globe. She started a version of ShaktiRize as a personal, “dancing in the mirror” practice in her living room in 2015, and put it on the inaugural schedule of her Afterglow Yoga studio, which opened in Wailuku later that year.
“The studio was meant as an inclusive, noncompetitive haven to explore yoga and body movement free of judgment and inhibition,” Judson explains. “It felt necessary then to share this very personal practice.”
The popularity of ShaktiRize has since grown to include nine weekly classes among three studios across Maui each week: a new location in Wailuku, which now offers a cacao-themed lounge for post-class refreshments; a year-old studio in Lahaina, and another in Kihei, which debuted in July. ShaktiRize Tribe, a digital portal started in September, offers new classes weekly, taught by Judson and other Afterglow instructors.
Lexi Murphy, food and beverage coordinator at Grand Wailea, takes Judson’s class every Monday in Kihei and plans to add ShaktiRize to the resort’s 2018 Spa Grande Social series, a bimonthly fitness class with cocktails.
“It’s fricking magical what she does,” Murphy says of Judson. “It’s incredibly empowering, and you are in such a safe space with all these other women with no judgment, you can let loose and move your body in a way that could be judged in the outside world.”
All women are welcome to try ShaktiRize, Judson says. “No matter where you are at, your weight, your size, your age, your background, it’s a safe space to sweat with other women who are already your sisters.”