By Rachel Schwartz

After running from quiz to test to essay on campus, once every week students at the Middle School can step into a room devoted to serenity, where students are greeted by Dance Teacher Carrie Green ’99, hands pressed together and bowing, with a whispered “Namaste.”

Green, a certified yoga teacher, who started the yoga club at school two years ago, says she is “addicted” to the meditative practice.

Latin teacher Moss Pike is also a faculty member who has made yoga a part of his life, and a part of school. During last year’s Earth Day celebrations, Pike lead a yoga seminar which was open to the entire school on the field in honor of the earth.

The club meets on Wednesday mornings at break, in AC 137, the dance studio on the bottom floor of the Academic Building. The lights are dimmed and yoga mats are unrolled as the meeting begins.

In the 20 minutes that the club meets, Green and Pike lead a combination of yoga poses and movements such as Sun Salutation, Tree Pose, and the Cobra, which can sometimes challenge students’ balance, flexibility and agility.

The club is open to seventh through ninth graders, and beginners through advanced yogis. When students are curious about more difficult postures and motions such as headstands, another Activities period during the week is often dedicated to these more challenging parts of yoga.

Mikaila Mitchell ’13 described taking yoga from Green as “a good break from the hard work of the week.”

The club started based on an interest in yoga that students expressed to Green.

The practice originated in India and is related to meditation practiced in Hinduism and Buddhism.

“I’m so happy to be sharing what I love so much in my own life with the students here at Harvard-Westlake,” Green said.