Opposite: Emily and Phil Vendemmia and their son Ari warm up for yoga. Below: Emily Vendemmia performs yoga moves that include Locust and Standing Bow.
Bikram is not for the faint of heart. So in a sense, it is perfect for Emily Vendemmia, whose petite physique masks a psyche made of gunmetal. In a 90-minute session of Bikram yoga, 26 postures are practiced two times each in an approximately 104-degree room. Discipline is cultivated and silence is mandated. This ensures that the environment is free of the verbal clutter accompanying many yoga practices. The sequence of postures never changes, nor does the teaching dialogue. In fact, nothing much changes in Bikram but you, for within the stasis of the routine, the dialogue becomes a kind of mantra and you discover a freedom, both physical and mental, as your muscles respond. Emily knew right away that Bikram would become her way of life, at least for a while. Just five months after she took her first class, Emily attended Bikram yoga teacher training in Los Angeles. She opened her own Bikram yoga studio in Severna Park in 2007 and married Phillip Vendemmia, a musician turned yogi, in 2008. The couple now owns studios in Annapolis, Severna Park, and Crofton. Emily competes regularly, as do many of her teachers. In the prestigious International Yoga Sports Federation Competition of 2011, Emily placed ninth. “That was the year I just went for it,” says Emily. “Then I was like, ok, let’s try to get pregnant now.”
Their son, Ari, was born in December of 2012. Staying at home with a newborn, Emily had to find another way to work out that didn’t require isolating herself in a 100+-degree room. She discovered Buti yoga on YouTube and practiced at home while Ari napped in his baby swing. When he was a year old, she went to her first Buti training session in New York City and began teaching Buti in Severna Park last year. Buti and Bikram are polar opposites. In Bikram, there is silence. With Buti, the rhythmic music is hypnotic and non-stop. Buti incorporates African dance moves and plyometrics. You are wiggling parts of your body and your booty that may be difficult to wiggle, but you try. Everyone around you is also gyrating, belly dancing, and twerking, and a bond is formed. “It’s fun. It’s very feminine,” states Emily. “I find that it’s hard to find that in traditional workouts. That positive feminine empowerment is lacking.” Some people feel that Bikram yoga is too rigorous, that there is a lot more to yoga than the 26 postures, she explains. However, Emily embraces both Bikram and Buti. “I feel that if you have an injury, Bikram is the best thing you can do,” she says. “I don’t feel that one yoga is necessarily better than another. I think that they’re all good. December/January 2014–15 31