Samatone Yoga By DPYP

I beat my body up for years with gymnastics, roller derby and boxing. Who knew Samatone yoga was harder? Try it out and you’ll come back. I did the 30 day challenge and ended up joining because I love the studio, instructors and the practice. Samatone has changed my life for the better and with every class I improve.

Love this cool yoga studio with its positive energy, hippie vibe. I love the padded flooring and the music playing during. I have felt very supported by the instructors, everyone there seems to be very nice. I was used to sunstone, but I couldn’t take that much heat anymore. This studio is a little warm, but just enough to really relax my muscles and I feel like I make progress each time I go.

Any yogi knows you cant rate yoga on a 5 point scale… why? because yoga is a reflection of yourself on a given day but I understand, you’re reading my review to learn more about this studio.
Pro: Suzie the studio owner teaches several times per week. If you go, try her class first to get the best experience. She is an amazing teacher. Words can’t capture her but I see Funny, light hearted, caring to her students, incredibly giving of her physical energy and her adjustments will make your body feel like it never has before. I hear she is one of Dallas’ original power yoga teachers. Tons of experience yet so humble!
Con: My preference is a studio that teaches students to respect quiet. When I hit my mat, it’s mediation time. I’m able to eventually block out the people who talk but oh my, I’ve never experienced a louder bunch of people in a yoga studio.
Con: Beyond the loud students, sometimes class is loud depending on the teacher. They all teach to a recording of Suzie leading the class but it’s very annoying to me to hear the prompt twice. For example, the recording says inhale then the teacher says inhale… yeah…I heard it the first time. It’s constant talking. Sure, I’ve strengthened my practice by learning how to block out the voices. A couple of the teachers have soothing voices that make it a blissful practice but mostly I feel like I’m in boot camp being yelled at.
Recommendation: If you like blissful — try Jen S. Her voice lulled me into another world while I practiced. One of my top 5 practice experiences yet.
Con: At least one teacher is not mindful of her music choice and class flow. It seems that there is always some amped up song when we are holding postures which requires a steady mind and breath not music that agitates the senses. Who knows, maybe the studio not the teacher chooses music and I just think her classes have the rock concert music and maybe some people think they like the amped up music.
Pro: The temperature is always perfectly warm enough but not hot.
Pro: Lots of mirrors
Con: Lots of mirrors
Pro: The floor is very padded so my feet feel like they are getting stronger faster because it takes more effort to balance.
Pro: The practice is extremely physical so my body feels like it’s getting strong at a faster pace than other practices
Pro: A good size retail store inside with yoga stuff priced normally.
Con: No pranayama, meditation or chanting — Not enough yoga philosophy to feed my soul as I practice. *mostly pure asana.
Pro: A technique called toning is used during practice. I dig it.
Overall, I like the studio and make it work for me. They encourage me to explore my practice and push me in new ways. I am grateful I tried this studio and will continue to return here for practice. I recommend you try and decide for yourself.

I really like this class. The room is warm but not crazy hot. There is a variety of people there, so you are not surrounded by only pros. (I am NOT a pro.) You get a great sweat. Yeah there is definitely moaning and exhilations, but these people use yoga as a stress release. LET IT OUT. I like the whimsy of this group. I have done yoga at rec centers and this feels more spiritual. I would definitely recommend it to friends. Also, the pricing options are great. A lot of flexibility at a reasonable price.

This is an awesome studio for a very reasonable price. Where can you practice unlimited heated yoga for $ 59 per month??? Nowhere… My husband and I previously went to DPYP until I could no longer attend for health reasons. I have this endocrine condition that will not allow me to tolerate heat, especially intense heat. Yes, I live in «hot» Dallas and it’s rough on me! So there may be a move for us in the near future to somewhere cooler… But, in the meantime, my husband loves Dynamic Power Yoga Plus and he practices yoga 3 to 4 times a week. He’s a previous MI patient as well and was right back at his yoga in 2 weeks! Yes, it’s located in a strip mall kind of center, but an upscale one at that in a lovely area of Addision, just around the corner from Mary Kay. You can yoga, shower, spiff yourself up and be at a nice restaurant with cockails all in the same neighborhood, on the same road. Now, that’s convenience!!! Plus, you’re going to love Suze and her staff. They are so much fun and very talented yoga masters. One thing I like about DPYP is that everyone is close knit, know each other and tend to have fun outside of class. Check it out, you have nothing to lose. You might even have a bit of fun. See you at The Londoner next time! Namaste…

I love yoga, I really do. The practice, the environment, the encouragement to be present — it’s all great. However sometimes, you have to wonder when somebody is just trying to cash in. Maybe I was spoiled by previous experiences at Gaia Flow around the corner from this «studio» but I’ve been to other studios and Suze Curtis’ Dynamic Power Yoga Plus (woo…that’s one hell of a name!) still doesn’t feel right. First of all, I went at 5:30 in the morning with a friend who swipes cards there to do yoga for free. It’s in a strip of office style buildings next door to some real estate agents or something similar. We walk in and I sign a waiver. Next, we walk in, feel the heat, and kick off our shoes and step on to the spongey-​foam carpet type stuff. Wait… what? You’re telling me, I’m gonna sweat my ass off and you’ve got something that absorbs it on the floor?!? Are my feet touching old sweat? Unless you change this stuff out weekly, there are sweat spots all up in here. Next, we place our yoga mats down on the X’s they have marked off to keep people spaced off. The room is huge and they obviously cram WAY to many people in here for this to be enjoyable. Trying to stave off panic, I sat in lotus. The instructor comes in, puts on her headset, and presses «play» on a stereo. A voice begins to say instructions… what is the chick with the headset doing here then? So. Many. Problems. Mostly, it’ seems like this place is the cult of Suze Curtis… whoever she may be, I didn’t see her. I don’t know if anybody ever does. The live person that day kind of just walked around, adjusting every now and then, and saying cheesy inspirational things which are also painted onto to the ceiling. How artsy? I sweated, I did yoga. I guess if that’s all you’re in it for then Suze’s Sweating to the Enya Plus Go Yoga Yeah Dynamic glorified office space might be for you! There’s no way I’d actually pay to go here. I can do the same thing at home on my carpeted floor with no A/​C and my yoga DVDs for free and with way less crazy moaning people.

I would strongly advise any person who truly is interested in practicing yoga to NOT go to this studio.
I just moved to town and have been studying and practicing yoga for a couple of years now. I decided to try out this studio because it was close to my house and their website had some convincing testimonials, however upon arriving I quickly realized this place is a gimmick.
The «instructor» is actually just the person who pushes play on the pre-​recorded tape, but has a full on microphone headset so she can say things like «let your spirit grow» and «feel the joy of the position» to the class while she basically does laps around the room, not correcting poses or giving any true yoga instruction at all. She walked into the room and started with «Today we are doing number 4» in which the rest of the brainwashed class groaned. Apparently 4 isn’t a favorite. Everyone seemed to have this routine memorized even down to the ridiculously exaggerated groans and sighs, which completely mock the true purpose of cleansing breaths. The back row of the room is reserved for people who need to leave early and have permission to miss shavasana, again in any true yoga practice this would be discouraged not cushioned. The flow was dangerously constructed with no regard to safe counterposes to positions or crucial alignment. There was no mention or focus on pranayama, which is one of the key limbs of yoga, and should never be disregarded. I question if the «instructor» at this studio even knows the word pranayama.
Sure, this place will provide you a hot room to sweat out toxins and a decent workout, but don’t be fooled, this is not yoga. I don’t believe you can practice yoga through a pre-​recorded tape. Yoga is not letting out embarrassing sighs to try and one up your neighbor. Yoga is not being able to do down dog. Yoga is not some cheesy instructor with fancy equipment shouting «the energy is life.» This place is a gimmick and will only teach you an artificial version of yoga.

I went in for some information. A few people were starting to wAlk in for a class. I was waiting to ask what kind if yoga was offered, and the lady just told me to grab some flyers. Just no warmth or interest in talking to someone who could possibly give then more business. I didn’t feel welcome at all. Plus they charge $ 3 for people to use their old, cheap yoga mats!
Other yoga studios i have visited are more welcoming and don’t charge people to use their yoga mats!

This is not a studio for everyone.
Their teaching encourages people to moan, groan, let it all out and trust me — people do not hold back. If you are used to a zen like environment like me, it sure gets awfully uncomfortable here…
The pros: it is a great, challenging work out. Just go on with eyes wide open.

First, a little background… my affair with yoga started years ago. I’ve been to different practices all over from bikram and vinyasa to Iyengar. Throughout all those years I never really felt like I ‘got’ anything out of yoga except for some new phrases to use in my vocabulary.
Tiny disclaimer: I’m an athletic/​competitive type of girl. If I don’t have pools of sweat dripping, heart-​rate thumping and breathless, then I just don’t consider it a ‘good’ work-​out. So, even though I’ve been doing yoga for close to a decade, it just never stuck because I wasn’t feeling or seeing an immediate relief. Yoga, in my false perception, was for sissies and hula-​hooping hippies.
So, it wasn’t until last fall when training for marathons and triathlons that I decided to revisit yoga (yet again) to try and stretch out all my tense muscles. Plus, the flexibility that you gain from yoga helps with your running form and the strength helps when you’re biking or swimming — so I was told.
After a few friends told me about Suze Curtis and how the class will «literally kick your ace» I was intrigued. I like a good butt-​kick — obviously. AND boy did I get it handed to me.
What I love about Suze Curtis’ yoga classes is that they’re intense. It’s power yoga mixed with vinyasa flow and everything moves pretty quickly in a room that’s heated at around 88 degrees F. The floor is also matted making it challenging to balance. Everyone is also very nice and welcoming. Suze herself is very tough love but in a «it’s for the best» kind of way. Another plus is that the studio offers day-​care and a cute yoga store.
The cons are that most of the classes are played with a pre-​recorded routine by Suze. There is an instructor there to correct poses but mainly it’s Suze coming through the speakers. Though, there are a lot of different routines. That’s a good thing since your body doesn’t get used to doing only practice. One other BIG note is that they really embrace «letting out your expressive side» so every so often you’ll hear people let out a HUGE sigh. So loud that I just want to tell them to «get a room.» But, I don’t because I’m holding a really painful pose so instead I chuckle to myself.
After all these years of a love-​hate relationship with yoga, Suze Curtis’ Dynamic Power Yoga is the only studio that I’ve really fallen in love with.

I couldn’t agree more with Elizabeth. Although I am not a teacher, i thought the transitions were odd and slightly painful.
I hated the taped lessons. So impersonal and not geared towards the level of the people in the room. If I wanted to have an experience like that I would stay at home and do a dvd workout instead. Additionally, the moaning and groaning was awful! There are so many better places out there, I will never go back.

I’ve been going to DPYP for about a year and a half and cannot begin to fully express my gratitude at how this powerful practice has transformed my life. I’m «older», overweight and working at getting into shape. But, I come away from my practices with so much more than having had a great workout and super sweaty clothes! I leave with a deep sense of appreciation for the new openings that I’ve created, more self-​acceptance and a more focused mind.
I can see where the vocalizations (or, «sound and vibration therapy», as Suze calls them) might be annoying for newcomers. Seems that on my first practice, I thought them a bit strange but decided not to be too judgemental about them. It wasn’t long before I joined in and find it to be really beneficial to just let all of those pent up emotions out. And I’ve found that focusing vibrations on a blocked area really helps it to release.
Suze has developed her own unique form of yoga and has studied various disciplines; I’m not sweating her pedigree! She is a treasure, part drill sergeant, part den mother and sage yogini. New styles of yoga are being introduced all of the time. I think that there is something in various forms of yoga for everyone. If one does not find the right fit at DPYP, then my hope is that they may find a yoga home that is more suitable for them.
I’ve found all of the instructors at DPYP to be inspirational, supportive and helpful. I don’t think that I’ve ever been in a class where they did not help me with alignment or assistance in bettering a pose. I love that each of them shares their own unique personalities and styles with us and I truly appreciate their gifts.
I do periodically take special classes and meditation workshops at another studio, because I enjoy broadening my experiences. But, my yoga home will always be with Suze’s studio.

My husband and I tried this place at 9:30 today. When we arrived the lady at the front desk signed us in and then said, «ok you’re done!». We stood there as if to say… now what? I asked her what liniage of yoga this was, since the website never seemed to mention this. Classes have names like «Love and LIght» or «Gratitude» with no class description. The woman said, «Suze has pretaped 10 – 12 different classes. We play one while the teacher helps with adjustments. If Suze herself teaches the class then we do whatever original flow she has in store»
Wow. This didn’t answer my question at all and instead added more questions. I decided to just follow the others hoping we were all going to the yoga room. My husband and I have a lot of experience with yoga so I didn’t mind the confusion up front, but I felt bad for anyone new to yoga. There was NO guidance, welcome or just basic info about where to go.
The room was big and there was more than enough room for everyone, however I found out Suze would not be teaching the calss and am guessing that if she had been, the room would’ve been more crowded. They say it’s heated to 85 degrees, but it just felt like there was no air conditioning on to me. I practice yoga at Sunstone, where the heat is 98 degrees. My way of thinking is that 85 isn’t hot enough to accomplish much muscular benefit from heating, so why bother heating it at all? Why not just leave it cold?
DeAnn taught the class. I found out why the front desk lady couldn’t tell me what liniage this was. Basically this kind of yoga isn’t any liniage. We went through familar postures like warrior 1, 2, 3 and down dog, but there was NO explaination of alignment given. As a yoga teacher I was alarmed with some dangerous transitions (going directly from Iyengar triangle into plank, could injure the low back… lifting up on our toes then being instructed to keep our feet apart and squeeze our knees together and lower down slowly until the thighs are parallel can injure the knees). Not only was the flow dangerous, it was uncreative and redundant. Even this wouldn’t have bothered me if the teacher was giving verbal instruction on how to align the pose safely. Instead she would say things like «feel your heart shining and let yourself release» «do what you can and if you can’t do it, just go into childs pose» these phrases sound great but do nothing to teach a student how to enter and exit a posture safely.
My husband has sciatica, and needed to stop halfway through from a flare up caused by this dangerous flow. I was wondering why everyone else wasn’t having injury so I stopped and looked around, and this is when I noticed that no one in the room was in any kind of strength or alignment. Again, as a teacher I was mortified. However I do understand. In a sense, the only way to prevent injury would be to back off on the depth, strength and alignment in the postures. In this way, students could come for years to this place and never learn a thing. My husband and I both left in a rotten mood with low back pain.
This studio believes that vocalization and sound release during yoga is theraputic for the body. There is a great deal of random moaning and other noises coming from the students. Loud moaning through the whole class. Having practiced at Tsada for a year, I am used to vocalization and see it’s benefits, but this seemed over the top, silly, and at times annoying.
The floor is not hard, but instead that same texture as a gynasium mat. This makes balancing much harder and strenous. Totally unecessary.
There is only reason this studio got 2 stars instead of 1, and that is the fact that I never took Suze’s class. Perhaps DeAnn had never taught before. Still, I wouldn’t reccomend this place. Studios like this are watering down yoga and ruining it for the rest of us.

Yoga should be relaxing and enjoyable. This ‘power yoga’ type class was in a heated and crowded room. Not a good blend for me.
Be careful if you try yoga here. In ‘hot’ yoga your muscles are able to stretch more so you can go deeper into the moves. That is great unless you are going too deep and making an injury worse. You would not know until it’s to late.
I have enjoyed meditation workshops offered at this location though.