After 22 years at Amagansett Square, Mandala Yoga Center for Healing Arts will soon move to Scoville Hall on Meeting House Lane, not far from its existing location.
As of Dec. 15, “We’ll continue to have our full schedule and even more opportunities for big community gatherings and events,” read a Sept. 29 email from the yoga center.
Scoville Hall has served as a satellite space for Mandala’s yoga classes since 2021, shortly after the reconfigured yoga center — it had been partitioned to accommodate a new retail space — reopened upon the lifting of most Covid-19 regulations amid the pandemic’s slow decline. In summer, the center also held classes outdoors on the Square from that time.
In 2015, it had moved from its original location, in an adjacent building on the Square, to the former site of a Bass shoe outlet.
Jolie Parcher, the center’s founder, described Scoville Hall last week as “such a big, huge, beautiful space” and the center’s upcoming relocation as “a great collaboration.” Last year, she said, the Clamshell Foundation “allowed me to be a nonprofit under their name.” Seeing rising prices and lengthening lines at the Springs Food Pantry, where she volunteers, “I thought, rather than being scared of prices going up, let me start giving yoga away.”
In partnership with the foundation, Ms. Parcher formed Mandala Gives, a nonprofit arm of her business. It offers free yoga classes for local emergency medical service personnel, domestic violence survivors at the Retreat, those suffering from Parkinson’s disease, senior citizens, children, and other groups.
“People can make a donation to Mandala Gives,” she said, “it goes to Clamshell, and then they give it to me. And they gave me some support to start as well.”
That said, “Scoville is a community hall, and I think they’re equally excited,” Ms. Parcher said. “I’ll be able to do more community-focused classes. We’re good cohabitors — we are respectful, we are loving the space, we don’t make a big mess, we don’t bring lots of furniture, we don’t bring in food.”
Amagansett Square’s principals “were extremely supportive during Covid,” she said. “It’s just that costs have gone up. I’m in a smaller space [now], and Scoville really makes sense for sustainability, for the longevity of Mandala. I love that we’ll be closer to Amber Waves,” where yoga practitioners often repair for post-class coffee.
The schedule of classes at Mandala’s next location will be “even more focused on our community-based classes and the Mandala Gives classes that serve different aspects of the community,” Mr. Parcher said.
“The main thing for me is, I think a lot of us older and newer locals feel some fear, we feel things are changing out here, things are expensive, and I see people moving away,” she said. “At the same time, it’s our job to keep digging in and gathering with people and doing what we can. I’m in such good fortune to be welcomed by the Scoville Hall community to come in, and I am grateful for my time in the Square.”
