A Clarendon yoga studio is closing its doors as its owner seeks a new location with an additional focus on fitness.
The Suhka Center, which Yelp lists as the number one Black-owned yoga studio in the D.C. area, will be leaving 1016 N. Garfield Street on Friday. Co-founder Damion Moss said high rent and a dissolved partnership with a former business partner are driving him to look elsewhere.
“We had an opportunity to do something really amazing here, two brothers coming together to build a yoga studio,” Moss said. “We have since gone our separate ways ,and since that happened, the pivot started.”
Moss plans to open a new wellness space — dubbed “Good Space” — somewhere outside of Clarendon. He wants to keep the Sukha Center’s focus on yoga, lifestyle and meditation, but also incorporate a more physically rigorous approach.
“I look at yoga as a practice that’s very empowering,” said Moss. “Not just the movement but the community and philosophies, how you look at the environment and how you treat others.”
Before his time at Suhka, Moss had experience in various areas of wellness and fitness. He learned Budokon, a practice that combines martial arts, yoga and fitness, and established his personal training business, which was recognized as the best in Arlington in 2023.
Moss believes his background helped distinguish Suhka from other yoga studios.
“So often you hear people say, ‘I want to go to this class to tune out the world and escape’,” said Moss. “I say ‘Take this class so that you can deal with the world, not escape it — so that you are more comfortable to do something uncomfortable.'”
No matter where he goes next, Moss plans to continue using his training and personal philosophy to help people improve their wellness.
“We are committed to uplifting our community to being better, healthier, smarter about the environment, smarter about how they live their lives, and we’re still going to be doing that,” he said.