Our Instructors

Instructors

Alicia

Alicia has been practicing yoga for the past 7 years and teaching for two. Deeply Influenced by the teachings of Iyengar, her classes are focused on alignment, breathing and cultivating awareness both on and off the mat. She has studied Hatha Yoga at Integral Yoga, Vinyasa and Asthanga yoga at various studios in NYC and Singapore, and completed Jeff Migdow and Priti Robyn Ross's Prana Yoga Teacher Training in 2006. Her classes bring together all these schools of Yoga, providing a class that will challenge you to move in such a way that you will both build strength and find softness. In her classes, expect to move, to breathe, to let go and to surprise yourself. In addition to yoga studies, Alicia has been studying herbal medicine for the past several years with herbalists in NYC. She strives to empower others by teaching means of attaining optimal health through holistic self care.

Amanda

Amanda is a devoted yoga teacher and practitioner who completed her teacher training at Yoga Vidya Gurukul, an ashram in Nasik, India. Having experienced the transformative benefits of this powerful practice, Amanda is grateful for the opportunity to share it with others. Also an actor, writer, and nationally certified massage therapist, Amanda is inspired by the way all these practices continue to be derived and informed by each other. She completed her BFA in Acting from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, where the intuitive physical work involved in bringing the actor to a state of presence intrigued her to study massage therapy. Studying the mind-body-spirit connection in massage school inspired her to take up a regular yoga practice. The inner reflection through yoga led her to reflective writing about personal experiences; she ultimately completed her MFA in Creative Nonfiction Writing at The New School. Amanda is passionate about living a dynamic, empowered life and hopes to inspire her students toward the same. Namaste.

Chevon

Raised in South Carolina and Virginia before eventually moving to NYC, Chevon Ayende started her dance career at age four, studying tap and gymnastics at SCSC (South Carolina State College). By the age of twelve, Chevon had become active in her community, participating in an AIDS awareness campaign for youth. She would go on to study African dance, ballet, jazz, salsa, flamenco, Afro-Cuban dancing, Congolese and Haitian dancing and Middle Eastern/Egyptian dance. She developed her own style fusing these influences. Chevon was professionally trained at Broadway Dance Center, Alvin Ailey and Peridance Dance School. She actively performs and choreographs for music videos, charity events, and staged and commercial media. She has danced for the Son group Quimbombo and she frequently performs Belly Dance, Afro Cuban Cabaret, House, Hip Hop, and Latin in various cabaret venues,charities, nightclubs and shows.

In addition to her dance experience, Chevon attended Borough of Manhattan and Pace University for Human Services and Psychology and and attended The New School University for Foreign Language, Creative Therapy and Music. Chevon loves to travel and speaks four languages. She is also trained in classical and Spanish guitar and has worked with owner/producer Walter Randall of BrownSugar Recording Studio who also taught her some engineering skills. Chevon has worked with various professional musicians.

Chevon loves sharing the gift of dance with young people and has taught in after-school programs, Yoga and fitness centers. A trained Thai massage therapist and Reiki master, she combines dance and fitness in her teaching to create a balance of health and performing arts education. Chevon is certified in Zumba and will be a certified Group instructor in March 2010.She loves healing both the mind and body through movement. Chevon plans to further pursue a career as a dancer, songwriter, and teaching artist, Chevon plans to attend Hunter College's dance B.A. program in spring 2010. for her inspiration to teach dance, Chevon likes to say, "Without my dance and music teachers growing up, I do not know where I would be right now."Chevon is graceful and teaches others the fundamentals of not only dance technique but proper body mechanics and energy to look good and grasp the spirit of dance.

Chilaires

Chilaires is from Turkey where she trained in belly and modern dance. She is an experienced instructor, choreographer, and performer in traditional, Egyptian, Turkish, various Arabic, Persian, tribal and fusion styles. She is also a choreographer for Dance of Venus, a dance troupe fusing modern dance and belly dance with various world dances such as Indian, Balinese and Latin dances.

Dierdre

Devi grew up in Elizabeth NJ. There she began her dance studies performing and studying with New Jersey Ballet Company, Westminister Dance Theatre and Kean Dance Theatre among others. She began practicing yoga and quickly became hooked, finding it the perfect supplement for both dance and theater. She took her first teacher training at Integral Yoga Institute in NYC, and additional trainings through the Yoga Fit Systems, specializing in yoga for the core, the back and yoga for particular groups such as seniors, teens and those with limited mobility or chronic illness. She has taught at Lucille Roberts, Westbeth Community Center, D'Voshen yoga as well as though the Pallisade Surgical center among others. Devi is very happy to be a part of this new addition to her adopted home of Brooklyn!

Dolores

Dolores is an ACSM and Mary Mount College certified Exercise Physiologist. She has practice yoga since the mid 80's and is a certified Integral Hatha practitioner for Basic Hatha1, intermediate Hatha 11, Extra Gentle, Chair Yoga, Pre-Natal and Post-Partum Yoga. Dolores has traveled world wide sharing her yoga practices with world class musicians on tour, retreats, family and community. As a member of the New York Teacher's Yoga Alliance she has given workshops at the Department of Labor, The Board of Education, the Park Slope Food Co-op and numerous Senior Centers. Dolores' personal mission is the hope for everybody to find a system in which to integrate grace, strength, ease, a peaceful mind and a joyous heart! Fitness and excellence is not a luxury buy our essential birthright. We must take care of ourselves first and foremost so we will be available to care and serve others. Dolores studied at the White Cloud studio under Julio Norvath and is currently a certified gyrotonic (R) practitioner.

Elyce

Elyce began practicing yoga in 1992. She became a certified teacher through N.U. Yoga, Chicago, in 2001 and completed an Anusara Yoga teaching training at City Yoga, Berlin in 2003. Her teaching style is a culmination of her 17 years of yoga experience, integrating principles of Hatha, Vinyasa, Anusara & Iyengar yoga. Over the years, she has found that encouraging gentleness and inquisitiveness during asana and meditation practice helps to deepen one's connection to their breath and their body in the present moment. This connection allows a sense of wellness in spirit and body to develop and with regular practice the ability to stay calm, alert, friendly and playful amidst the currents of everyday life is cultivated.

Erika

Erika finally fell in love with her own body through yoga practice, back at the age of sixteen in rural New Hampshire. Her travels since then have taken her many places, but she always comes home to yoga. She completed her 200-hour Yoga Alliance-approved teacher training with Ganga White and Tracey Rich at the White Lotus Foundation in Santa Barbara, CA, in 2003. She has also spent time at the Kripalu Center in Massachusetts, and has studied under Peggy Cappy, of Yoga For The Rest Of Us. Since 2003 she has been teaching professionally in Brooklyn and Manhattan. Erika enjoys a fiercely non-dogmatic approach to yoga practice and teaching, creating an empowering experience for all of her students, regardless of their background (or lack thereof) with physical activity, their level of flexibility or strength, or their reservations about this (spiritual? not spiritual? sleeping? not sleeping?) exercise. Welcome to your practice!

Jessica

Jessica is a New York native, born and raised in Queens and now living in Flatbush, Brooklyn. She began taking yoga classes about 5 years ago but within the last three she have been practicing every day. Jessica became certified over the summer of 2009 in Vinyasa Power Flow at Yoga to the People, a donation based studio on St. Marks place in Manhattan. Jessica's objective in teaching Yoga is to simply be a guide, a source of direction and inspiration that allows students to find their own inner teacher, in their own practice, staying true to their own bodies, and drawing their attention inward to create an individual experience. Jessica encourages her students to use their imagination in creative ways to deepen their practice from the inside out.

Lasha

Belly Dance and Classical Indian - Grew up in South Asian where she began her training in the Classical Indian dance form, Odissi, with renowned professors of the Bijou school of New Delhi India, and the Kathmandu Model Dance School. She found herself deeply inspired by the passionate drama and intricate story lines of classical Indian dance and integrates these features into all of her performances, particularly in style of Belly Dance. Lasha began her belly dance career while studying at Brown University where she taught classes and performed for several years, specializing in props including swords, canes and veils. Since then she has taught and performed in cities across the globe including Barcelona, New Delhi, Kathmandu, Boston, Providence, and New York. Currently she performs at various venues in the New York City area with a Brooklyn based company called Bastet. Her dance repertoire consists of Odissi, Belly Dance, Bollywood, Rajasthani folk, Salsa, Swing, and Flamenco.

Michelle

Michelle Leach has practiced Pilates for the past ten years and became a Certified Pilates Instructor after developing a sincere passion for the practice. She studied under a notable and highly respected instructor in the field, Linda Farrell who trained at the Pilates Studio in NYC under Master teacher Romana Kryanowska.

Michelle’s Pilates Certification allows her to teach mat-based and standing Pilates. Which she customizes to fit each student. Her persistent attention to detail and her pursuit for perfection brings her clients their desired results with the highest level of satisfaction.

Her art is her passion as her patience and knowledge exudes through her teaching as she positively motivates her clients to reap the benefits of Pilates mentally, physically and spiritually.

"It's not about feeling pain, it's about feeling phenomenal"

Nicole

Nicole began her yoga practice in college as a way to connect to patience and strength. She has gained much more than those two characteristics through her continues practice. Nicole has learned how to encourage, compassion, mindfulness, and openness as well as patience and strength in herself that she carries through her own yoga practice on and off the mat. These skills helped her during her time as a NYC public school teacher where she learned how to use her yoga practice to help her understand her students. After Nicole realized how much of an impact yoga had made on her own mind she decided she wanted to share what she had learned with everyone (including children). Nicole went on to obtain her 200 hour yoga certification from Sonic Yoga in Manhattan. She teaches an energetic and creative Vinyasa Flow class that merges the mind, breath, and body to create a refreshing class.

Olga

An avid disciple of world dance, Olga El is inspired by the myriad of cultural traditions to which she has been exposed and a love of storytelling. From a young age, she was particularly enamored of the dances of the Middle East, North and East Africa—better known as belly dance—and chose these dance forms as the foundation of her personal fusion style.

She studied belly dance with notable instructors such as her main teacher and mentor, Oya; Somalian Fulbright Scholar, Arianna Al Tiye; world-renowned Oriental Dance scholar, Morocco; Belly Dance Super Star, Jillina and many others.

In 2008 she spearheaded the experimental belly dance troupe Bastet as well as its charitable sub-division, Belly Dance for Change. She is a member of the Afro-Latin Folkloric Dance Company,Estampas Negras and the Indian Dance Fusion Company, Naach Sensation. She also collaborates with other artists such as the theatre-based, experimental dance company Desert Sin, urban-inspired cabaret act, Billi Shakes, and the vintage East African musical group,The Sounds of Taraab. Olga has performed at Le Poisson Rouge, The Lafayette Grill, the Golden Festival, Arabian Nights, The CMJ Music Festival, The Shrine, Deity, the Katra Lounge, D'jam at Je'Bon, Dances of Vice, The House of Yes, Barbes, The Leopard Lounge, Alwan for the Arts, NYC cruise boats and many other NYC-based events and venues.

Shayna

Born and raised in Brooklyn, Shayna Lewis has been practicing vinyasa yoga for about 6 years. She has had many great teachers during that time who have helped (and continue to help) her experience the incredible transformative power of yoga. It is in gratitude to them that she now seeks to share this experience with other people by teaching the same methods that she was taught. In her classes, she seeks to help students develop a practice that lets them hone their own powers of self-discovery and exploration, both on the mat and off. She firmly believes that students of all levels and physical capabilities can receive the mental, physical and spiritual benefits associated with properly expressed poses and breathing. She feels very lucky to be able to help students unlock the joy and peace that yoga can bring into one’s life.