Marcela Xavier has opened Inwood's only yoga studio at 207th and Broadway.

Inwood’s yoga studios have historically had a short shelf life. The opening of Bread and Yoga, at 207th Street and Broadway, provides a home for the neighborhood’s nomadic yoga community for the first time in more than two years.

Local resident and studio owner Marcela Xavier spent two years hunting for a space and three months renovating before she could finally open her doors.

Xavier began her quest after Inwood Peace Yoga lost its lease in a church in 2007. Eclectic Yoga, the next closest major studio, 30 blocks south, closed the same year. Eclectic Yoga’s displaced teachers nicknamed themselves the “nomads” and began teaching mostly in apartments, said Alyssa Snow of MindBodySoul Yoga in Washington Heights.

Trying to fill the void, Xavier canvassed Inwood, encountering “downtown prices but with less foot traffic,” she said. “This is still Manahttan.”

For small businesses, “the rent is what’s killing them,” said Daniel Ramos, senior business counselor at Washington Heights and Inwood Development Corporation. A small space here might run $5,000 a month, according to Xavier and Snow. “It’s impossible to run a business like that,” Ramos said.

“I don’t make money doing this,” said Snow who opened MindBodySoul Yoga in March 2008 at 170th Street and Fort Washington Avenue. Snow expects to turn a profit eventually, but currently must work a second job as controller at Tricycle Magazine.

“We are accustomed to getting less in this neighborhood,” said Xavier. To make ends meet, she plans to charge elevated prices for what she vows will be premium services. Walk-in classes will run $18 apiece, the same as in ritzier downtown neighborhoods, although buying class packages brings the average price down.

Two days before the studio’s opening, Bread and Yoga was still a construction site with a gaping hole in its ceiling. On opening day, a handful of stray wires remained, showing where lights would be installed; construction and cleaning supplies were stacked neatly inside the lobby.

The rough edges did not prevent classes from filling nearly to capacity. Word of mouth pushed traffic on Bread and Yoga’s website to more than 100 people per day in the weeks before opening, said Xavier.

“I told Marcela, ‘Thank you for having the courage to open this space,’” said instructor Shawna Emerick, who will lead Bread and Yoga classes with about seven other teachers. Opening the studio was a service to the community, she said.

Jeannie Kim, arriving for the 5pm class, found the studio through an online discussion group. “It will be so much easier to keep up a regular practice,” said Kim, who has not practiced regularly since Inwood Peace closed. Nada Khodlova learned about the studio from one of the “nomads” she studies with in an apartment.

“I believe in supporting small communities,” said Xavier. Bread and Yoga currently has a limited schedule but will eventually offer a broad range of classes including prenatal, family, kids, and mainstream yoga as well as pilates, tai chi, cooking classes and after school programs.