Meet the Innovators: Maty Ezraty & Chuck Miller

Proprietors of the highly successful Yoga Works studios in Los Angeles.

By Holly Hammond

Maty Ezraty and Chuck Miller are beacons of excellence in yoga and in business. They are proprietors of Yoga Works in Los Angeles, one of the largest and most successful studios in the country. Maty created the first Yoga Works in 1987, with a vision of a space so beautiful that people would want to spend time there. Naysayers doubted she could make a go of it in the pricey Santa Monica neighborhood, but the studio prospered. Now, in partnership with Chuck, Yoga Works has two locations, where space is booked morning till night. They offer 150 classes a week in Ashtanga, Iyengar, and Viniyoga and host frequent workshops with renowned instructors. Their long and exacting training program has produced hundreds of teachers. Ezraty and Miller are exemplars of Ashtanga Yoga as taught by Pattabhi Jois. Through their videos his vinyasa series have been made available to a wide audience.

Miller says, "Yoga today is resting in the balance between awesome potential and the brink of annihilation. We are experimenting with bits and pieces of this powerful technology without fully understanding the simple, essential intent of these practices. My hope is that, like a child touching a hot stove, we will learn what causes pain, to ourselves and to others, and move in the direction of compassion and wisdom universally."