YOGA

I've never been to Balanced Yoga, so I can't really give a comparison, however, before moving to VV I used to travel from the east side of town to go to YoH. I think the instructors there are really knowledgeable, and most are pretty hands on in helping you throughout the workout. As a member you get an overall sense they aren't just trying to take your money or get you through the class, but build a community.

I've only been to Yoga on High, and I loved it so much I had a monthly pass for a couple of years (I only quit because I had an injury that precluded yoga.) I started with their Intro to Ashtanga class and stayed on doing the primary series, modified primary, and mysore classes. Loved the teachers, the classes, the people in them and the studio!

That being said, I can see a few teachers actually teach at both studios, so it would probably be worth it to try both places out and see which you prefer, or which has class times that are better for you (part of the reason I chose YoH initially was because they have so many classes.)

I found going to an actual yoga studio to be much better than the classes I'd taken at a gym - you get a LOT more hands-on corrections from the teacher, and they stop and break things down a lot more. I thought I had decent form (I've had classes here and there over the years) but I got a lot of fine tuning of basic poses. I learned more in the first month at YoH than I did in a year of classes at a gym.

You should do Balanced Yoga because then you could visit friends in the area after your work out and drip sweat all over them and I bet they'd like it a lot, plus it might help their hairdoll of you to be more you-scented.