Venture Yoga & Wellness opening in Darien

After spending years in the finance world, Erin Huot decided to exercise her option of being a small business owner and is opening Venture Yoga & Wellness at 10 Center St.

After having to make a career change she thought, "`why not?'" The new facility, which opens on Sept. 4, will feature Hot Vinyasa, Vinyasa Flow Without the Heat, Mommy and Me, Prenatal and Intro to Yoga.

Huot has been practicing yoga for about eight years, and started doing Bikram yoga when she moved to Fairfield County just as an exercise routine.

"Bikram is a very different," she said. "It's a lot of poses in the same order. After a while, it got really boring, so I walked away from yoga for a while. Then, I was introduced to Vinyasa and every day is different, so I started practicing that six or seven days a week."

Huot is excited to bring a new kind of yoga to Darien, New Canaan and Rowayton.

"There's nothing of this type of yoga in Darien. I know that YMCA and Equinox both offer Vinyasa classes, which I've taken, but they're definitely not the type of yoga that I practice every day and love. When I was thinking about the demographics and wanting to bring it to a high-fitness area, Darien was my first choice," Huot said.

Venture Yoga & Wellness will offer 35 classes a week as well as private workshops. A single class is $20, but a 10-class card may be purchased for $175 and a 20-class one for $350. A membership that includes unlimited yoga is $159 a month with a year commitment, and the annual membership fee is $1,800. Both memberships include automatic renewal. Unlimited yoga may be purchased for one month with no contract for $225.

Huot is looking forward to the grand opening celebration at Venture Yoga on Sept. 8.

"I am feeling awesome about it," she said. "I am so excited just to get the doors open. It's been an awesome process start to finish. The Darien residents seem really excited about it."

The grand opening will take place from 5 to 9 p.m. The event will begin with Vinyasa Flow led by Kendra Hadden in a non-hot room and runs from 5 to 6 p.m. After the class, there will be a wine tasting, gourmet cheese and music and yoga clothing for purchase. Admission is $10.

For information, call Kellie Baldyga, account director, at 203-682-8325.