Today we’d like to introduce you to Jennifer Perry.
Hi Jennifer, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
We opened ROAM Silverlake in 2017. Chad had been teaching yoga for decades before we opened and I was a professional dancer. When the pandemic hit, we were at the “peak” of our business with lines down the sidewalk to get in to take a class. Overnight we became an online yoga studio and like many others, closed our physical space 9 months later. We then moved our studio into our meditation center only 10 min away and created a very special outdoor studio there that could accommodate around 20 students. One day while our kids were playing outside I said to Chad, “Go put a mat down on that tarp” and the rest was history. A private client of mine who is a painter designed the pods (wood platforms that mimic a hardwood floor) and a student in the community gave us his sound expertise and we were good to go! I’m hindsight the whole move was such a blessing.
Where in LA can you get an outdoor space that holds 20-30 people as well as a sanctuary indoor space holding equally as many in a residential neighborhood with endless parking!?! Of course after we settled into the Frogtown space and after two years of lock down we started to get the itch to travel. We had taken up surfing as a family and decided to visit this very remote part of the jungle in Costa Rica that our friends had been telling us about for years. We didn’t know it at the time, but that trip would change the course of our life forever. We landed in Costa Rica in Aug of 2021 for the e first time and closed on our property there in November (three months later). After leading two retreats that year in this special place, we started to build our own center in June of 2022. I am writing this article from the porch of our guest house here in the jungle while we finish up the construction of the big house that will serve as our yoga center. We are beyond excited to see what adventures these next few years have in store and hope you will continue to follow us on our journey!
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
I like to think of obstacles as gifts. In real-time, this is no easy task but always in hindsight, I am able to understand why certain “struggles” where in place. For example, we would not have found our meditation center in Frogtown if we hadn’t found out that our landlord wasn’t paying the rent to the owner of the building and we might be evicted. The place that served as a last-minute effort to keep our studio opens actually saved our studio in the end with its outdoor capacity! Secondly, the pandemic changed everything. Neither Chad nor I are technical people and teaching online was honestly our worst nightmare at first. Now we are able to travel and still connect to our community via online teachings which will make this Costa Rica adventure possible.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
Before I was a yoga teacher/studio owner, I was a professional dancer. I made a living from dancing for two decades and danced for Celine Dion, Bono and the Edge, and many more artists and productions. I am also a clothing designer with a leisure sweatpant line called “MAX ROUX” which I launched two months before the pandemic hit and the world was home-wearing sweats. Chad has toured and worked with Adam Levine from Maroon five for over 15 years. When we met, he was touring with them around 200 days per year. He has also taught Harry Styles, Selma Hayak, Phoebe Bridgers, Charlie Puth and many more.
What’s next?
Our plans for the future include splitting our time between LA and the remote jungles of Costa Rica. Our center is completely off-grid as there is no electricity or water here. We are running entirely on solar and using well water. There are no shops or restaurants here (just one bar) and the closest grocery store is 45 minutes away on our quad. We plan to teach our kids about sustainability by attempting to live this way while creating a sanctuary for our community to visit when needing a break from the city.
Contact Info:
- Website: Roamla.com
- Instagram: Roamlosangeles
