The Unity Woods Story

John Schumacher founded Unity Woods Yoga Center in 1979. He had been practicing yoga for nine years and teaching for six when he realized that he wanted yoga to be his life’s work. At that time, he knew of no one outside an ashram that sustained themselves teaching yoga and understood that to have a chance of realizing his intention, he would have to commit himself fulltime to the practice, the study, the teaching, and the business of yoga.

Having made the commitment, he decided that he needed to have a name for his yoga business. Yoga means to yoke or unite, and John lived in the woods; hence Unity Woods Yoga Center.  Unity Woods at that time consisted of John’s teaching for county rec departments; in private homes, dance studios, and health centers; and at spaces he rented in church basements and empty offices. The classes grew, until in 1985, John was able to move into a permanent physical home at Triangle Towers in Bethesda, Maryland. Unity Woods thus became the Washington area’s first full-time yoga studio.

As his students deepened their practice and understanding of yoga, some became interested in teaching. John began an apprentice program, mentoring his apprentices and helping them to develop their skills. Most went on to become Certified Iyengar Yoga Teachers (CIYT) and teach at Unity Woods.

Iyengar Yoga came to the District of Columbia when in 1991, Unity Woods opened its Woodley Park studio. Five years later, we opened the Ballston, Virginia studio in Arlington, giving Unity Woods a presence in each of the three jurisdictions in the Washington metropolitan area (DMV).

By 2002, Unity Woods was the largest studio in the DMV, and with over 2700 students weekly, one of the largest yoga centers in the country. As interest in yoga exploded and more people saw that yoga could be a viable profession, the number of studios in the DMV grew exponentially. Once three studios opened within a three block area of our Woodley Park center, in 2015, we decided to consolidate and closed the DC studio.

We continued to operate the Arlington and Bethesda studios on a fulltime basis, and in the District, we rented space a couple of days a week to provide Iyengar Yoga classes for our longtime DC students.  Then the Covid-19 pandemic hit.

Iyengar Yoga teaches us that when something in our practice isn’t working, we need to adjust. Realizing that it was not financially viable to operate empty brick-and-mortar studios for an undetermined future, in March of 2020, we transitioned to online classes. In one month, we changed the entire 40-year-old Unity Woods business model. We reduced the schedule, altered the session-based format, and learned to use Zoom and Punchpass, a more efficient and user-friendly registration system.

Two years later, we have made another, even more profound change. During these two pandemic years, some of the teachers have stopped teaching, some have moved, and others have set up their own online platforms. As class offerings have diminished, so have administrative needs. There is a personal element as well. In his mid-70’s. John has reached a stage of life where the idea of simplicity and a less demanding work schedule is very attractive. Given this confluence of forces at play, John has decided to pare down Unity Woods’ operations. There will still be workshops with top teachers from around the world, but the weekly class schedule now consists of only John’s classes, which will permit a significant reduction of administrative work, saving time and money. Essentially, Unity Woods Yoga Center has come full circle and returned to its 1979 beginnings.

Some things have not changed, though. Unity Woods continues its commitment to excellence in teaching and to sharing the love of yoga as the means to fulfilling its mission: To offer uncompromising, quality yoga to as extensive an audience as possible. That is still the reason we exist and is why we continue to do our utmost to serve you, our friends and students, and our community.