As Peachtree Yoga Center in Sandy Springs celebrates its 25th anniversary, both its founder and its successor are marveling at the series of seemingly random events that allowed for its creation, its transfer of ownership, and its continued popularity.
Graham Fowler founded the center in 1998 because some neighbors complained about him running his practice out of his home.
“The self-appointed compliance committee,” Fowler joked, forced him to find a new home for his students, which was and remains situated in a corner niche in the Centre Court Shopping Center on Sandy Springs Circle.
As organic as the decision was to move into a commercial space, so was the manner in which it was designed and built, he said.
“My students and others volunteered to help with every part of the project, from the layout to the colors of the rooms,” Fowler said. “There was so much support from the community.”
The practice continued successfully for decades, undergoing the beginning of the succession of ownership when “an energizer bunny” named Ilona Moore caught Fowler’s eye.
“Ilona was an instructor at the studio. She was so kind, and she was such a sponge for learning,” he said. “I was anticipating that I wanted to slow down, and I had several other good offers, but they didn’t seem like a good fit.”
Moore’s temperament, her willingness to learn, and her spirit, he said, made her the perfect person to continue the Peachtree Yoga tradition, Fowler said. She bought the studio in June 2018.
Like Fowler, Moore said that she never dreamed that her life would take this path, but a series of events made the decision for her. Prior to practicing yoga, she was a businesswoman and a teacher. She took her first class in 2015.
The beauty of the practice stole her heart, and she took the 200-hour teacher training at Peachtree, and later the advanced training.
“As soon as I got done with the training, classes started falling into my lap, and I was running all over town,” Moore said. “I didn’t really want to be a teacher, but when I saw how it was making me feel, and experienced the feedback from the students, it convinced me that I was in the right place.”
Moore said that Fowler started mentoring her and encouraging her to teach at various conferences and workshops – all of which led to the path of her taking the reins to the business.
“Graham helped me realize that this is the pinnacle of my life path and that everything I had done before prepared me for this,” she said.
Moore said she knew that Fowler didn’t want to retire from teaching and ongoing teacher training, so they formed a working relationship. Fowler still teaches two classes a week and co-leads the immersive teacher training, and Moore runs the business while still teaching several classes a week and co-leading the training alongside him and others.
The transition, according to Moore, was seamless and continues to be so because of Fowler’s support and guidance.
“He is my teacher,” she said. “I’m forever grateful to him.”
The journey to the center’s silver anniversary wasn’t seamless, however. COVID-19 forced the studio to close for three months in March 2020, and Moore had to scramble to find ways to sustain the studio, which also included figuring out how to finish the in-progress teacher training course.
“We moved pretty quickly to online classes, and that was a pretty big victory because we really didn’t lose anyone,” she said. “We have continued with online options, and there are still people who take classes that way today.”
Longtime yoga devotee Bill Allen said the community that Graham and Fowler have built is why he practices there three to five times a week.
“I’ve done every sport imaginable, but this is the only discipline that you go into a class and come out of it with more energy than when you arrived,” Allen said. “The teachers, Ilona, Graham and the community are the reasons I keep coming back.”
The studio, located at 6100 Sandy Springs Circle, offers 25 classes a week, which include basic and intermediate classes, gentle, restorative, and yin and prenatal yoga, vinyasa flow, and Qi Gong/Tai Chi.
The studio also conducts twice-a-year 200-and 300-hour teacher training, weekend workshops, Raiki training and other special events.
