“You can take the girl out of the club but you can’t take the club out of the girl. I’m a total raver,” says Lebanese-born and Parisian-raised Rima Rabbath. With an average of 70 (very cool) students per class at the Jivamukti Yoga Center, Rima is hands-down the hottest, hippest and holiest yoga teacher in New York City.
COOLS was lucky to have a chat with her in her chic East Village apartment were she flooded us with insight on music, raves, and how to remain a student of life in this hectic but also magical place that we New Yorkers call our home. Imagine yourself walking into a yoga class with 70 people in the room five days a week. That’s what Rima Rabbath and all her students experience on a regular basis and believe it or not, it’s quite a transformational, high intensity (who ever said yoga wasn’t cardio?!), mind-blowing and I would even dare to say, rave-like experience. The Jivamukti Yoga Center on Broadway and 13th street was founded by Sharon Gannon and David Life—two yoga masters, artists, and authors with a commitment to yoga as a path for spiritual activism. It’s a yoga center that draws in creatives, artists, and people from all walks of life who have a deep curiosity and are seeking a solid yoga practice. As the musician Sting says, “David and Sharon have inspired and encouraged us to think of yoga not just as a system of exercises but as a door to the infinite.”