Two Adelaide entrepreneurs are kickstarting the burgeoning transformation of Halifax Street with a radically different use of the historic Slatters Shoes factory.

Halifax Street might be one of the prettiest strips in the city’s South, but it’s certainly not one of the most dynamic.

Home to institutions like The Greek and the Rob Roy, even newer players like Panacea have been on the street for more than five years. But change is coming quickly as a multitude of new apartment blocks appear on the near horizon.

By re-enlivening the upstairs section of the old, red brick Slatters Shoes building and opening it to the public, Tessa Leon and Triton Tunis-Mitchell are placing themselves firmly as frontrunners of the changing face of the area.

The couple are bringing a totally different business to the precinct and space, which was most recently filled with office cubicles but is being re-fitted as a combined yoga studio and physiotherapy practice.

Stripped back completely to reveal the original walls and an epic ceiling void, the building’s form is central to what Tessa and Triton want to achieve with their new business.

“It will be really cool for people to see because there aren’t any studios like this here in Adelaide,” says Tessa.

“The building has soul – it has a story. The fact the building is spacious and urban and cool is important. I think it’s just going to be really lovely doing yoga in there.”

The yoga studio is being opened under the Power Living Australia banner – bringing the very successful national brand to Adelaide for the first time.

The aesthetics and design of the space feed into the style of yoga Tessa and Triton will be practicing and teaching, which focusses very much on creating community as well as running classes.

“Yoga isn’t really perceived the same in Adelaide at the moment – it’s not playful and vibrant,” says Tessa. “These Power Living Studios, it’s pumping – they’re full of people, there’s event and live music and it’s really fun.”

“It’s the simple stuff like at the start of the class we’re actually having a conversation,” adds Triton.
“There’s a level of interaction and engagement and riding each other’s wave.”

“And there’s going to be a big comfy loungey space in there and you can just hang out between classes. There’s a lot of community events too,” says Tessa. “It’s very much about the way the community engages with it.”

Triton and Tessa

While Tessa has been teaching yoga for several years and is opening a studio for the first time, Triton is a serial entrepreneur. One of the co-founders of circus company Gravity and Other Myths, he also runs Active Bodies Physiotherapy and MyPhysio App.

As part of the couple’s takeover of the Slatter’s upper floor, Active Bodies will be relocating there too – moving in from just down the road on Carrington Street.

“The thing is the cross pollination of ideas,” says Triton of bringing the businesses together. “Power Living’s style of yoga is very anatomically intelligent, so it’s really cool to kind of go here is this traditional movement and philosophy style that has lots of links to what I teach in terms of anatomy and  biomechanics and neuroplasticity.

“So there’s a real synergy in the sciences between them.”

Slated to open September 17, Power Living Adelaide and Active Bodies will be running a seven-day schedule.