9. Naomi Annand
“the one thing I’ve concretely learned is that I’m still a beginner. Yoga is enormous. It’s endless. Depthless. It’s impossible to get to the end of it….. you could say it’s everything”
For the last few weeks, there has been a display of Worshipful wares in the window of Yoga On the Lane, a serene yoga space on Shacklewell Lane in Dalston, founded by Naomi Annand. Pre-pandemic, there would be several classes a day held there and the place would be brimming with calm energy. I have known Naomi since 2015 or thereabouts and have wanted to interview her for The Worshipful Ones since it launched last October. Finally, here we are!
Teacher of yoga and author Naomi originally trained as a professional ballet dancer and, aged just 12, left home to join White Lodge (The Royal Ballet School’s boarding school in Richmond Park). At 17 she joined the Royal Ballet where she danced professionally for four years. However, when her career unexpectedly stalled, she “left the company injured and dispirited and yoga was something that scooped me up. It was a companion for me as I travelled the world and tried to figure out what came next. I didn’t realise at the time that it would be yoga”.
Naomi has now been practicing yoga for over twenty years and, she says “the one thing I’ve concretely learned is that I’m still a beginner. Yoga is enormous. It’s endless. Depthless. It’s impossible to get to the end of it….. you could say it’s everything”.
Growing up in Leicestershire, her mother was a nurse and her father a detective and together, they showed Naomi what hard work looked like, which subsequently shaped her and her work ethic. But leaving home at 12 meant that she did most of her growing up away from her family, in London:
“I love London and, in particular, the pocket of Hackney I live in. In the last twelve months, Homerton has felt like a village. But I love big London too and how inspiring it is to be surrounded by people who are energised by what they do”.
After a decade of working with yoga studios all over London, Naomi opened her own studio, Yoga on the Lane, in Dalston in 2012. She realised she spent more time commuting than teaching and longed to create a hub for other teachers “I missed the camaraderie of ballet and the studio was a step towards creating a yoga family. Nine years on and I couldn’t be prouder of the YOTL team”.
I asked Naomi what it means to her when people use Yoga on the Lane: “One of my students said recently like she felt the building were like a person. And I know what she means. Lots of deep bonds have been formed in that space”. I can attest to this – when my two dear friends and I were fumbling our way through early motherhood in 2014 with tiny babies, the weekly post-natal classes at YOTL brought us closer together as friends and gave us a way to re-centre and gain a sense of calm. We, and our daughters, now have an unshakeable bond.
Zoom classes have also been successful for Naomi, however, as this way she has been able to re-connect with past students who had moved away. In October 2019 Naomi’s book: Yoga: A Manual for Life was published and, she says, the various translations of the book since then have meant that she’s been able to connect with students on a global scale, too. [Note: the book is beautiful and, if you’re at all into yoga, an indispensable guide. I have found it incredibly useful and inspiring, particularly in the last year].
The book came to fruition after Naomi wrote a manual for the Yoga on the Lane teacher training programme. After a chance conversation with a literary agent at a wedding, that teacher training manual slowly became Naomi’s first published book - “I felt like there was room for a book like mine, and I’m so delighted it’s been received so well.
Most of the women I’ve interviewed for The Worshipful so far have said they find it difficult to switch off, that work and home life often overlap. Naomi is no different: “I love what I do so I find it hard to sometimes pause. The boundaries are definitely blurred. I’m working on that”
Finally, I asked Naomi which other local independent businesswomen inspire her:
Lou & Georgie at Hub in Dalston, Zoe at Melo on Shacklewell Lane and Renee & Anshu at Dabba Drop.
Find YOTL on Instagram. Find Naomi’s beautiful and invaluable yoga books, here or better still, pop into local bookstore Pages of Hackney and buy them there.
Photo credits for middle grid: Laura Edwards & Scott MacSween