writing this review as part catharsis and part heads-up for practitioners looking to join SYZ's Teaching Course. I used to attend SYZ on and off for a few years between 2010-14 before leaving the city, way before Google reviews were a thing. Great technical skills, the teachers and staff are adept and widely read and practiced. If you are looking for a solid practice, to learn basics in a group setting, don't hesitate as the yoga studio itself is pretty great, clean, centrally located. Do talk to the teachers about personal needs and segue into the practice slowly, and they will be considerate. They are also of the very crucial and helpful view that in case of chronic mental illnesses, movement is much more valuable than meditation/sitting still as the former helps better.
Now, for the Teachers' Course, I'd recommend strongly laying boundaries before and during the course. I faced a lot of body shaming/body policing/food shaming by the teacher, and saw someone who had had a bad experience with food poisoning and returning to the course being told that they should be happy they at least lost weight. There were some bigoted, anti-minority statements made in our batch by the teacher, and I'd recommend if you from the persecuted faiths in India, discuss beforehand that you are not okay with being stereotyped (or will there be prejudice, what are the teachers' views, especially in today's world of rising polarisation and injustice), or look elsewhere. I also sensed internalized colonialism/racism as the teacher seemed to be kinder to customers with structural white privilege so she could signal social capital. There was also classism, and pseudoscience diet supremacy and general holier than thouness. Hopefully she has grown past her prejudice and has become more compassionate, but do as a paying customer check and look out for your own mental health. If you're of a larger build and are looking for movement to lead a better life and not as an obsessive weight loss gimmick, speak up (as I did not and i felt very bullied with the constant fatphobic statements), state boundaries that body shaming is not okay/or weight loss/self hate/dieting is not a goal for you. Ensure you make it clear that you would like to be asked before having your poses adjusted/or touched as well, as she wasn't very mindful, or seemed aware that even if you're a woman you can't really touch another woman without consent. I could have used a heads up when I joined SYZ, so I'm passing it on to anyone else who needs it. Have a safe yoga practice!