A unique after school program is headed to West Seattle this spring: Spark! for Girls.

Created by Puget Sound native Jill Rose, a mother of three (including a middle school-aged daughter who served as inspiration) and certified Yoga teacher, Spark! “is a program dedicated to celebrating, empowering and igniting girls through yoga and creative arts.”

After running a successful program on Mercer Island last year, Rose is bringing the program to West Seattle from March 23 to May 18. She said the two-hour sessions are guided by a weekly theme and will be on Fridays from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m at Spira Power Yoga (across from the Admiral Theater at 2332 California Ave S.W.). The cost for the 8-week course is $210 which includes tuition and supplies.

The Herald spoke with Rose to get the scoop on how this program came about.

“Spark has been swimming in my head for years,” Rose said.

Yoga and art have been a part of her personal life for many years (she is 41 now), and she said, “Yoga took on a different meaning in my life and it really became a passion of mine” after moving back to Seattle from Bend, OR a few years ago.

Part of the requirements for her yoga instructor training was to come up with an original curriculum, and as a result Spark! was born – inspired by her own recollection of that tough age and her daughter’s experience as a middle school teen.

The fusion of yoga and art
“I think they are both really powerful avenues for self-expression and on a personal level they are both very big components of me,” Rose said. “I am definitely more right-brained and think creatively and then as I got more into yoga that definitely brings out a certain level of expression as well, so for me it was a natural fit. When you tie them with an age group, with a population that is striving to find a voice, to find self expression and is still trying to fit in and look like everybody else it is just a natural pairing.”

Rose said each session has a theme that the girls explore through yoga, art and conversation. She provided the example of “Balance,” where the girls will discuss “what balance means in their life, what it feels like to be balanced.”

Rose said she guides the sessions, “but (she) really leaves the conversation to the girls because, ultimately, what they come up with is far more intelligent than what I can come up with. They really are amazing young woman.”

She said the positive feedback from participants and parents in the Mercer Island sessions inspired her to expand the program.

“It was empowering to know that I was doing what I was supposed to be doing and (realizing) it was making a difference in others lives too,” she said.

“It’s a very unique program; there is nothing else out there like it in the Seattle area,” Rose said. “It speaks to this tender age and it is not only a solution, it is an opportunity and it is also a lot of fun.”

“We tackle difficult things and we open the space for girls to be heard and celebrated and yet there is so much laughter that goes on and so much joy that is surrounding it that it really helps (the girls).”

For more information, visit Spark! for Girls online here.