Budapest is a city of contrasts – grand and intimate at once, with its river, bridges, and old streets that breathe history.
Among galleries, cafés, and creative ateliers along Bartók Béla Street, one of the city’s most characterful arteries, lies a place where life gently slows down.
In an old building whose corridors carry the memory of past decades, a narrow staircase leads you up to Amrita Yoga Center – a boutique studio devoted to the practice and teaching of Iyengar Yoga. The space holds that rare quality you only find in places where time has learned to rest: walls that have witnessed many stories, and an energy that has settled into wisdom.
Founded in 2008 by Erika Répassy and Kevin Gardiner, both senior certified Iyengar Yoga teachers, Amrita offers a professional yet deeply personal environment where yoga becomes a tool for awareness, growth, and inner balance.
Classes are precise, safe, and intelligently structured, with an emphasis on individual attention, pranayama, and the living philosophy that underlies each asana.
Amrita Yoga Center is more than a yoga studio – it is a community where practice meets tradition, and discipline meets kindness.
Kevin Gardiner – Precision, Wisdom, and a Touch of Playfulness
Originally from New York, Kevin Gardiner began his yoga journey in 1970 and has been teaching Iyengar Yoga since the early eighties. Over the decades, he has become a respected and well-known teacher within the international Iyengar community.
He has studied in India numerous times with the Iyengar family — with B.K.S. Iyengar, his daughter Geeta, and his son Prashant — drawing from them the wisdom, precision, and depth that continue to inform his teaching today.
A co-founder of the Iyengar Institute of Greater New York, Kevin served for many years in leadership and executive roles. In the U.S., he was deeply influenced by Mary Dunn, his primary teacher and guiding light for decades. Other teachers who have shaped his understanding include Manouso Manos, Faeq Biria, Ramamand Patel, and Jawahar Bangera.
Trained at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, Kevin spent 15 years as a professional actor, director, and movement teacher. This background still shines through in his classes — alive with rhythm, clarity, humor, and human warmth.
His approach to yoga is analytical, philosophically rich, and deeply embodied. Students value his ability to articulate subtle aspects of practice in a way that is both accessible and profoundly inspiring.
Kevin now lives in Budapest, where he and his wife Erika Répassy co-direct the Amrita Yoga Center — a place where Western precision meets Eastern stillness.
Erika Répassy – The Elegance of Precision and the Strength of Stillness
Erika Répassy began her yoga journey in 2002 in London, after years of working in tourism, diplomacy, dance, and music. Encounters with international teachers soon opened the door to the Iyengar tradition, which she quickly recognized as her true inner home.
After studying at the Iyengar Yoga Institute in London, she continued her education in Dublin, where she completed her teacher training in 2006, and later deepened her studies in New York.
Her practice is infused with patience and presence, yet remains inquisitive — always in dialogue between body, breath, and awareness.
Erika has studied multiple times in India, at the Ramamani Iyengar Memorial Yoga Institute (RIMYI) in Pune, where she had the opportunity to practice directly with the Iyengar family. Today she holds the Intermediate Senior II teaching level, is an active member of several European Iyengar Yoga associations, and serves regularly as an assessor of teachers across Europe.
As a teacher, Erika creates a space where discipline meets gentleness, and where precision becomes an expression of care.
“Yoga never becomes monotonous,” she says. “It is an endless exploration — of space within the body, the mind, and the heart.”
The Space and Props That Create Support
The practice space at Amrita Yoga Center is bright, spacious, and filled with a quiet sense of calm. Wooden floors and high windows bring warmth and lightness to the room, while every detail is designed to support a deep, safe, and conscious yoga practice.
The studio is fully equipped with a complete range of Iyengar Yoga props, allowing each asana to be adapted to different bodies, conditions, and levels of experience.
Here you’ll find:
- Ropes on the wall (rope wall) – for support in inversions, spinal traction, and exploring standing poses from a different perspective.
- Wooden and foam blocks of various sizes – to help with alignment and stability.
- Chairs, indispensable for seated postures, twists, and therapeutic variations.
- Blankets, bolsters, and belts – to provide comfort, softness, and safety.
- Plus, a selection of specialized props used by the teachers to create a truly individualized experience for every practitioner.
Together, these elements form an environment where everyone — regardless of age, experience, or physical condition — can feel supported, steady, and free to explore the depth of their own practice.
A Community That Grows Through Practice
Amrita Yoga Center brings together teachers and students from across Europe. Many have been coming for more than a decade — a true reflection of the trust and quality that define the teaching here.
Every month, the studio hosts philosophy evenings, thematic workshops, and community gatherings that nurture a sense of belonging, friendship, and shared exploration.
Classes are taught primarily in Hungarian and English, with occasional sessions in German and Spanish.
You are warmly invited to visit Amrita Yoga Center – a space where yoga becomes a personal experience: quiet, focused, and profound.
Location: Bartók Béla út 34. 1/3, Budapest
Website: www.amritajoga.hu
Facebook: @amritajoga
Style of yoga: Iyengar Yoga