Vinyasa Flow Yoga
Breath-led sequences that build heat and upper-body strength before settling into hips and a long savasana. Beginner options in every round.
Explore Vinyasa Flow
Nine years on Exhibition Street
A studio built by one teacher who got tired of big rooms
Saminaro began in 2016 in a rented room above a Collins Street cafe, with three classes a week and no plan beyond teaching properly. We now run two rooms on Exhibition Street, cap every class at twelve mats and still refuse to grow past the point where a teacher can see everyone.
740
Students through the door since opening
6
Teachers on the current roster
The short version
Small rooms, honest teaching, no performance
Priya Ramachandran-Nguyen opened Saminaro after ten years of teaching in studios where classes ran at forty people and adjustments were a rumour. She wanted a room where you could hear the teacher breathe, where props were part of the class rather than a decorative shelf, and where beginners were not quietly expected to figure things out alone.
That is still the whole idea. Nothing has been added since that contradicts it, which is why the timetable has grown slowly and the cap has never moved.
Cap
Twelve mats, always
No waitlist-only mega classes, even when they would sell out.
Props
Taught, not decorative
Blocks and straps are used in the sequence, not left in a corner.
Our story
How it actually happened
No overnight success, no viral moment. Just a decade of teaching, a few expensive mistakes and a slow accumulation of people who kept coming back.
2014
Priya returns from Mysore
After four months of study in India she starts teaching casually around Melbourne, subbing classes and running small beginner groups in community halls.
2016
The Collins Street room opens
Three flow classes a week above a cafe, twelve mats, one borrowed bolster collection and a kettle for tea. Half the sign-ups come from a handwritten notice in the stairwell.
2018
Tom joins and the timetable doubles
Tom Iversen arrives from a physiotherapy background and starts taking apart the way we teach chaturanga. The number of weekly classes goes from seven to fifteen within a year.
2020
Lockdown and live streaming
Melbourne shuts down and the studio moves online for most of two years. Roughly two hundred members keep practising through it, and the experience reshapes how we sequence and cue classes.
2023
Move to Exhibition Street
Two proper practice rooms, showers, change rooms and space for the quiet room that had been running out of a back corridor. Yin and meditation get their own timetable.
2025
Monthly silent retreats begin
A half-day retreat near Daylesford runs on the last Sunday of the month. Capped at twenty, silent for most of it, and the waiting list is already longer than the room.
1680
Classes taught since 2016
96%
Of members renew their pass
4.9
Average review score across platforms
8
Teachers trained through our mentoring
Philosophy
Three principles we have not moved on
These were written on a whiteboard in the Collins Street room in 2016 and nobody has ever argued for changing them.
01
You are not performing for anyone
There are no mirrors in either room, on purpose. Yoga in a mirrored room turns into self-assessment, and self-assessment is the opposite of what most people come here for.
02
Props are teaching tools
A block is not a sign you cannot do the pose. It is how you get the pose into the right place for your body today. Our teachers hand them out constantly and never apologise for it.
03
Small is the whole point
We have turned away expansion three times because it would have meant bigger classes. Twelve mats is not a marketing number, it is the point at which a teacher stops being an entertainer and starts teaching.
What we teach
Two directions on the timetable
Most of our members end up practising both. The fast practice makes the slow practice possible, and the other way around.
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Yin, Restorative & Meditation
Long floor holds, candles and quiet. Bolsters do most of the work, and every class closes with a guided meditation. Booked out most winter evenings.
Explore the slow practice
The team
Six people who will actually remember you
Every teacher on the roster has taught at Saminaro for at least a year, and four of them have been here more than three. That kind of tenure is rare in this industry and we work at keeping it.
Priya Ramachandran-Nguyen
Owner & Lead Teacher
Trained in Mysore and Pune. Opened Saminaro in 2016 and still teaches the 6:15am Friday flow. Sceptical of any class that needs music to feel like something happened.
Tom Iversen
Senior Vinyasa Teacher
Ex-physiotherapist with eleven years of clinical work before teaching full time. The reason our chaturanga cueing does not destroy anyone's shoulders.
Marianne Costello
Yin & Meditation Teacher
Twenty years of sitting practice across the Insight and Zen traditions. Runs the monthly silent retreat and has never once used the word "journey" in a class.
Clara Bennett
Restorative & Prenatal Teacher
Midwife before teacher, and the one to ask about practising through pregnancy. Leads the Thursday restorative class and our prenatal workshop series.
Jonah Whitfield
Meditation & Breathwork Teacher
Former paramedic, now teaching trauma-aware breathwork and long sits. Runs the Tuesday evening guided meditation that closes the day for half the studio.
Projects & programmes
What we have built outside the timetable
Community work, teacher mentoring and workshops. Some of it pays for itself, some of it does not, and we keep running all of it.
Free classes for first responders
Running since 2021. Paramedics, nurses and emergency staff from three city hospitals practise for free on Thursday evenings. So far 62 people have used it.
Teacher mentoring programme
Eight new teachers have trained through our mentoring since 2022, working alongside Priya and Tom for six months before taking their own classes.
Silent retreat days
Half-day retreats near Daylesford on the last Sunday of the month. Three sits, one slow yin class, a silent lunch and a long walk through the bush.
Prenatal workshop series
Four-week blocks for each trimester, run by Clara with input from a local midwifery practice. Adapted postures, breath for labour and practical partner work.
Student concession scheme
Subsidised passes for full-time students and healthcare card holders, plus two fully sponsored spots in every slow class. Ask at reception, no paperwork drama.
In-house reading group
A small group that meets one Sunday morning a month to argue about yoga philosophy texts. Nobody needs a credential to join, only a genuine curiosity.
What people say
Reviews from regular members
We do not chase reviews and we do not delete the critical ones. These are pulled from Google and our booking platform and left alone.
4.9
Average across 214 reviews
I came in after a disc injury and Clara built me a version of every pose I could actually do. Six months later I am back in the flow classes. That progression was not an accident, it was a plan.
Michael Trethowan
Member since 2020
The free classes for nurses are the only reason I have kept any self-care habit through the last few years of hospital work. Nobody ever made me feel like a charity case for using them.
Rosa Villalobos
Member since 2021
Honestly the studio is not cheap, and 6:15am fills fast enough that I sometimes miss out. But the teaching is on another level compared to the chain studios I have tried, so I keep paying for it.
Aiko Nakamura
Member since 2023
The physical space
Two rooms and a tea corner
Exhibition Street, ground floor, between a coffee cart and a bike rack. Buzzer at the door for the late yin sessions.
Come and see
Visit us on Exhibition Street
The quickest way to know whether Saminaro suits you is to walk in and take a class. Your first one is free, and we will not ask you to sign anything on the way out.
Phone
+61 3 9428 6175
Email
Studio
242 Exhibition Street, Melbourne VIC 3000, Australia