Community Yoga at The Courtauld

Join Leyla weekly at the Courtauld Research Forum for a community class designed for those working in the arts and culture sector. The class is open to all levels and you just need to bring yourself, comfy clothes and a mat.

What to expect:

Each of Leyla’s classes tells a story through her sequences; weaving folklore and philosophy, the natural world and visual culture, dance-like movement and playful creativity. Tethered to Leyla’s unique social context, her classes have a strong focus on cultivating a connection between breath, movement and how we experience the world, expect to leave Leyla’s class with the tools to slow look (ekagrata) and confidently rethink, reinterpret and read artworks. Sprinkling creative magic, these joyful, feminine, soft but strong, vinyasa classes will leave you feeling empowered to paint the life that you want.

Leyla, from a ballet and visual arts background, specialises in working fluidly with collections, historic and heritage spaces. All of these are connected to yoga through their essence, their existence as creations to encourage an awareness and understanding of the world we inhabit, as well a deeper appreciation of our own identity within it. Leyla’s classes allow the space to pause, to see the beauty and carve out a space to be kinder to others and ourselves.

About Leyla:

Leyla, a mixed race Scottish-Indian working in the London art-world, combines her family traditions with her vision of fully opening up access to the cultural sector through her yoga practice. Leyla first identified the intersections between art forms, yoga, mindfulness and her own lineage in 2020 when she started to practice yoga regularly. Leyla’s practice soon began to embody everything she is passionate about, specifically tying together anti-racist, decolonial and authentically intersectional frameworks in the creative industries, fashion and heritage (both yoga’s heritage and British heritage). Leyla believes that every person is creatively literate, but that sadly barriers to access have been put up to disempower many from reaping the benefit of most art forms. In Leyla’s mind it trickles even further than the art on the walls, the performance on stage or the clothes on our backs, every brick of our cultural institutions can ultimately be traced back to people of colour, to colonisation and those who practiced yoga in the past, present and future. Since 2020, Leyla has advocated for yoga to be platformed in amongst art to aid in healing, mental health and to unfurl dormant creativity and confidence. In 2025 Leyla decided to deepen her practice and cement her place platforming yoga in art spaces formally. Leyla is grateful to have trained with Kindred Yoga. Her teachers have allowed her to carry on advocating for her family and others who do not yet feel welcome in the spaces she works. Leyla is also training Mandala Vinyasa. Follow Leyla @benditlikebumbra!

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Host or Publisher Leyla Bumbra @benditlikebumbra