The Vineyard is a place of healing. It’s a community of healers, with acupuncturists, chiropractors and other alternative medicine practitioners, where yoga practice is a mainstay in many people’s lives. In yoga they say wherever you are is perfect, whether you’re halfway up in downward dog or halfway down in eagle pose, but sometimes half the battle can be getting to that pose among the overwhelming number of yoga options available here.

The riff of the Rolling Stones’ Emotional Rescue had segued into more mystical rhythms by the time the students in Sherry Sidoti’s — and Martha’s Vineyard’s — first yoga teacher training course were wrapping themselves into lotus position on the wooden floor of a Chilmark barn last Friday. Without pretense or pressure, Mrs. Sidoti gently showed several variations on the cross-legged pose, most not requiring the flexibility of an unbaked pretzel.