Meet Daniel Overberger of Runyon Canyon Yoga in Hollywood

Today we’d like to introduce you to Daniel Overberger.

Daniel – get us started, tell us about your story and the Runyon Canyon Yoga story.
Runyon Canyon Yoga was started in 2000. It was an outgrowth of the donation system that used to be in yoga classes in India. This donation system that came from India (they don’t really do it like that anymore) was done by Brian Kest in Santa Monica, but indoors. We wanted to provide a service to the community and spread yoga to everyone without the boundaries of each person’s financial situation.

In the early days are class were small. Not a lot of people were that interested. All of the current teachers were students first. The classes could be sporadic because there were not a lot of people willing to teach, so if a teacher couldn’t make it we had no class. About 2004/5 the schedule became super solid and we stared to really grow. Class attendance started to double and then triple. Newspapers and TV stations started to show up and report on us. It was weird. I mean it seemed kind of isolated and then in a couple years it was this big LA thing. We actually got to the point where we were asking people not to film and photograph us. They did anyway, of course.

It was an amazing and thrilling time for us. Some of the teachers built other things from there notoriety. We had a lot of opportunity we didn’t have before. It was very organic and extremely grass roots. For a long time we didn’t even have any social media. When we put up our Facebook page in about 2008 it blew up even more. We have thousands of followers.

We changed the way people viewed yoga teaching. As the yoga teacher crazy blew up. (According to The Wall Street Journal since 2008 there has been a yearly increase of yoga teachers of 18% and a 6% increase in students.) More teachers wanted to get involved. But, we just couldn’t take them all in. It wasn’t possible We get at least 2 to 4 requests a month from teachers that want us to give them “a job”. As an outgrowth of that, today you can find yoga classes in most parks in Los Angeles, they even do it in NY in the summer. It’s everywhere today. But I remember when it was just a few of us.

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Well, with success comes many things. We are out in public daily. We have a tiny amount of fame. So any of the things that happen to the real famous people that we read about in the papers happens to us on a smaller level. But, we are not behind a fence or in a building with security. So yeah, we have had stalkers, people that want to take what we have created and make it theirs. People have actually set class up right next to us or and interrupted classes to tell our students about…themselves. We have had threats of violence. We’ve been involved in the politics of the park with people who wanted us to side with them and get involved in disputes. We don’t get involved. I personally had a naked man walk through my class, I’ve had crazy people walk up to us and students. While most of the time it is all good and great. I have had times that I was a little nervous in situations. But truly, it has been generally all good. 15 odd years is a long run, something is apt to come up from time to time.

Please tell us about Runyon Canyon Yoga.
What sets us apart from the other is that we were the first. We just wanted, and still want to provide yoga for the people. This is an ever growing very expensive town. It’s sad to think someone can’t do a yoga class because one week they are broke. I am super proud that we have been around so long. Over a decade. I never would have guessed that in the beginning. We have reached and inspired a lot of people. That doesn’t happen everyday. I feel like we are something akin to the first bands to play at CBGB’s. It was a small explosion that is still rippling outward.

Do you look back particularly fondly on any memories from childhood?
We always had dogs. That was great. Dogs are the perfect humans. Ha-ha!

Contact Info:

• Address: 2000 N Fuller Ave
  Los Angeles, California
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/runyoncanyonyoga/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Runyon-Canyon-YOGA-128176273877039/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/RunyonYoga