The Carrboro Yoga Company—CYCo. for short—serves the communities of Carrboro, Chapel Hill, and all of central North Carolina. We offer a range of classes in many styles, and we are confident we have the right class for you. Our top-notch instructors come from a range of styles and backgrounds but are uniformly committed to making you feel at home, safe, and relaxed. You will be very comfortable in our two beautiful, light-filled studios, which are well stocked with everything you need.

We use the word company not only because we are a business, but also because our teachers work together like a dance company. We combine our various strengths and specialties into a unified whole (remember, yoga means union) for the benefit of our community.

Our Mission Statement

We hold a space, both in the studio and online, to help people be healthy physically, mentally, and emotionally through the practice of yoga. We help students explore the connection of the body to the mind and the spirit, the individual to the community and the world, and mindfulness to action, thought, and feeling.

A Profile of the Studio

This nice video by our student Mary Lide profiles CYCo. and our approach.

The Carrboro Yoga Company from Mary Lide on Vimeo.

About the Owners

The Carrboro Yoga Company was founded by Donia and Rick Robinson, who left us in spring 2010 to return to the Napa Valley, where they met. (If you're looking for Donia, find her online; if you're looking for Rick, visit any Gott's Roadside in Northern California!) Our owners are Sage Rountree and Lies Sapp.

Sage Rountree (yes, her real name) has been teaching at CYCo. since literally the first day we opened. An internationally recognized expert in yoga for athletes and Runner's World advisory board member, she travels nationally to give workshops, including annual retreats at the Kripalu Center in Massachusetts and at ZAP Fitness in the North Carolina mountains, but continues to teach the same Monday night class she's enjoyed for six years. Sage's work has been profiled twice in Yoga Journal, and she regularly writes articles on teaching yoga for the magazine. Her books include The Athlete's Guide to Yoga and The Athlete's Pocket Guide to Yoga, both available at the studio, and she coaches athletes in triathlon, running, and ultrarunning. Her family includes a husband, Wes, and two daughters, whom you'll sometimes see enjoying the studio props.

Lies (it's pronounced like "lease" and short for Elisabeth) Sapp has studied yoga in such far-flung places as India, Mexico, and Durham, and has lived in diverse locations from Colorado to Munich, Germany, Los Angeles to Burgundy, France. She comes to yoga fairly recently after many decades of classical ballet. Initially an Ashtangi, Lies has expanded her practice to encompass many forms of yoga, finding nourishment in all.

Since escaping the constraints of an L.A. legal practice, she has served on numerous boards of various non-profits and is a current member of the Habitat of Durham's Bike Rides Task Force. In her plentiful spare time, between raising three children and co-running a yoga studio, she participates in triathlons, attempts to play violin and plans trips to exotic lands. When not so occupied, she is usually found napping.