Atop a grassy hill at Woodlawn Lake, yoga teacher Stacie Orsagh taught her pupils to meld their bodies, minds and spirits. She offered uplifting words to more than 60 people on multi-colored mats.
“We are pledging allegiance to our self-care,” Orsagh, 49, said as she walked the rows. “Let’s listen to our bodies, not our egos.”
Joggers, dog-walkers, and a kite-flyer blended into the scenery beyond the group linking breaths with their movements. Orsagh encouraged them to feel the late-day sun and slight breeze as they pressed interlocked fingers to the sky.
She held a framed, poster-sized photograph laced with red roses. The smiling, silver-haired woman in the photo was the late Esther Vexler, the inspiration of Orsagh’s teachings. Below Vexler’s steepled hands was a quote: “We have a chance to do one little thing each day that makes us a better person.”
Each Wednesday evening, Orsagh starts her class with the self-care philosophy of Vexler, known as San Antonio’s “Mother of Yoga.” She’s part of a collective continuing the legacy of the yogi’s teachings that offer guidance, strength and self-awareness. Orsagh is executive director of the Esther Vexler Yoga School, founded by Emilie Rogers in 2007. The nonprofit was created for those who want to become yoga teachers.
Yoga instructor Stacie Orsagh leads her class on Wednesday, May 11, 2022, in exercises at Woodlawn Lake in front of a photo of the late Esther Vexler, who is known as San Antonio’s Mother of Yoga. Orsagh is continuing the legacy of the yogi she seeks spiritual strength and guidance from each day.
Billy Calzada, Staff / Staff photographer
About the author
A 22-year veteran of the Air Force, Vincent T. Davis embarked on a second career as a journalist and found his calling. Observing and listening across San Antonio, he finds intriguing tales to tell about everyday people. He shares his stories with Express-News subscribers every Monday morning.
Rogers, a certified lyengar yoga teacher, took her first class with Vexler 42 years ago. Rogers said there wasn’t anything in the way of yoga education in the region except for the Austin Yoga Institute run by Peggy Kelley in Austin. When Rogers asked Vexler if she could establish a yoga school in her honor, Vexler had two criteria: It had to be a nonprofit and ethically run.
“She was a wise and generous woman,” Rogers, 71, said. “She always wanted the best for her students. She pointed the way.”
Each morning, Orsagh recites a reading, meditates for 15 minutes and practices yoga. She reflects in front of photos of people she calls her angels: her parents, Molly and Frank Orsagh, and Vexler, who died in 2016 at the age of 98.
“I never met Esther, but I talk to her every day,” Orsagh said. “I don’t want her to be forgotten.”
Thirteen years ago, yoga gave Orsagh’s life balance. A former San Antonio Express-News reporter, she started Studio2410 Sports Photography with her husband, Claudio Aguillón, in 2006. She was caring for her father when her mother, a wellspring of support, died. Orsagh suppressed her grief. A year later, her loss brought anxiety attacks. Not wanting prescriptions, she sought a more natural approach to heal her pain.
Yoga instructor Stacie Orsagh speaks to her class about the late Esther Vexler, known as San Antonio’s Mother of Yoga on Wednesday, May 11, 2022. Orsagh is continuing the legacy of the yogi she seeks spiritual strength and guidance from each day.
Billy Calzada, Staff / Staff photographer
“I fell in love with yoga,” Orsagh said. “This is my medication. This is something I can do the rest of my life.”
Orsagh took one community class with Vexler. She learned more about her in a 2016 San Antonio Report story by Hanna Oberhofer, who had met Vexler on Yoga Day a year before. News of Vexler’s passing on All Saints Day hit her hard.
“I broke down in tears, went home and cried over a person I met one time,” Oberhofer said. “She’s kind of like a Ruth Bader Ginsberg. She was ahead of her time.”
Orsagh’s son Abraham, 18, filmed her and the group. Midway through the Wednesday class, she shared one of her affirmations: “I create the life I want and enjoy it.” While researching Vexler’s life, she learned her philosophy aligned with the yogi, sentiments she shares with students.
Jill Vexler, 72, said her mother was involved in dance through college; yoga was a logical shift in using the body and being self-aware in breathing and stretching.
In the late 1960s, Jill Vexler would come home and see her mother leading yoga classes in their San Antonio home. Her mother’s mentor was the wife of a soldier stationed at Fort Sam Houston. Vexler increased her understanding of Hatha yoga at seminars and meeting yogis.
Her service to others expanded to social and equal justice initiatives. Vexler led different organizations that included the National Council of Jewish Women, the Texas Mental Health Association and the Texas League of Women Voters. Her first class was at the Healy-Murphy Learning Center, where she reassured young mothers they were somebody, words that inspired successful careers.
“Everything mom did was about being in touch with who you are with strength and love,” Jill Vexler said. “That’s the spirit the school embodies and always has.”
Yoga instructor Stacie Orsagh leads her class in exercises at Woodlawn Lake on Wednesday, May 11, 2022.
Billy Calzada, Staff / Staff photographer
Nydia Tijerina Darby, 55, met Vexler in the 1990s when they taught classes at the Jewish Community Center. Darby said at the end of her abdominal strength class, a woman walked in, “tiny in stature, but huge in energy.” That meeting sparked a connection with Vexler, who became a friend, mentor, peer and guiding light. In 2007, Darby opened Nydia’s Yoga Therapy; Vexler taught yoga there on a guest basis.
“She knew wonderful things, and I wanted to help spread her message,” Darby said. “My goal was to have as many people experience her practices.
At sunset, the students’ long shadows stretched in the glow firefly lights Orsagh had strung through strands of sunflowers. Her class is a shared experience, a result of research, podcasts, practice and studying with Rogers and Darby, her teachers and mentors. Orsagh’s husband and student, Claudio, 49, said, “if it’s only 15 people or five people, she’s going to make them feel special.”
“She helps you focus on you,” student Janie Hernandez said. “She has a special relationship with almost everyone here.”
The class ended as streetlights lit the park. Orsagh talked with students after they rolled up their mats. They left with her message that “no matter how much you let go, the earth will hold you up.”