Portland Yoga KulaThe practice of yoga is a practice of relationships. It is an exploration, through conscious movement, of the ways we relate to our bodies and minds that can inform the way we relate to ourselves. We become more flexible, more spacious, more grounded in the truth of who we are. What if we took this information out into the world, into our relationships with one another? A Kula is a community, a weaving together of individuals on a like path, and is one of the distinguishing features of Anusara Yoga. Below you'll find an an ever-expanding listing of Portland Yoga Kula - Anusara and Ausara-inspired™ class offerings that I can recommend. I have also included a few friends of the Anusara method, who I feel are worth mentioning for one reason or another.
Lisa Keayes (Anusara®) SouthwestLisa Keayes, a certified Anusara® teacher who probably holds the record for earliest exposure to the method - she met John Friend when she was 14, and took his workshop when he was still a certified Iyengar instructor. Needless to say, her knowledge is well integrated into her being, and her radiant strength is sweetened by her simple and modest manner. John Friend emailed me (imagine!) when I moved to Portland and suggested I look her up. Thanks, John. She is a lovely person and a new friend.Lisa is currently on Maternity leave.
Still Moving Yoga (Anusara-inspired™) SouthwestThe teachers here are also the owners, Jim and Lynea GillenI Met Jim Gillen at my first Portland yoga event, when I was assisting at a workshop taught by Darren Rhodes in the Spring of 2007. He is a lovely, lovely man, and has been very helpful and supportive to me in all my endeavors here. He and his wife, Lynea, teach out of a perfect little yoga room nestled in their Garden in residential Southwest Portland. Most of the students live in the neighborhood. Jim is an Anusara- inspired™ teacher who has busied himself lately with co-writing a book, also with Lynea, about the yoga method they have developed for teaching children, called Yoga Calm. I have the book, and am very impressed with its thoroughness and depth. It has all the games and pretty pictures that the other kid's yoga books have, but it also has clear and valuable content about working with children, from behavior issues to developmental issues to emotional ones. Yoga Calm is now becoming a movement of its own, with teacher trainings being offered in many states, and even one in Italy.
The People's Yoga - North an NEThis is where I teach most of my Portland classes. I am so honored and grateful to have connected with this astonishing studio.As a long time yoga teacher and veteran of the "business" of yoga, I was very skeptical when Michelle Sarrciapone opened the doors of the original People's Yoga with a rock bottom drop-in rate. Yoga teachers tend to be the kind of people that sell ourselves short, at least until we learn what's sustainable - because giving and serving is what we are about. I thought it was sweet, but that it would never last. But Michelle's special brand of idealism is supported by her deep personal convictions about economic fairness together with a high standard of ethics, a cutting pragmatism, and a fearless vision. And she works her butt off. She has managed to make her studio into a thriving business where everybody wins - high quality teachers (like, really good teachers), real accessablity making for a diverse (in Portland no less) and warm community, and a beautiful space to enjoy it all in. Really good art and music events happen here. There was a recent clothing swap. Also teaching here in the Anusara form are Kate Busby, who just received her Anusara-inspired™ status (Go Kate!), and Rachel Stern, a very strong hatha teacher who is currently completing the Anusara® Immersion with myself and Darcy Lyon of San Francisco, and filling her classes with the sparkling wisdom of this method we so love. NE location on 30th and Killingsworth, new Location in ST Johns.
Melonie at Vancouver Yoga Center (Anusara-inspired™)Coming SoonVancouver Yoga Center's Website Nicole and Margarita at the People's CO OP (aspiring to Anusara-inspired™)- SENicole Di Picciotto and Margarita Castro, both Anusara trained but not quite yet licenced teachers of tremendous insight and articulation, alternate a free class offering on Monday mornings at 7am at People's CoOp in Southeast Portland.They rock. Dear friends, lovely people, strong yoga. I believe you have to be a member to participate. Todd and Annie at Yoga Union (Anusara-inspired™) SoutheastHistorically a center focusing on hot Yoga and Power Vinyasa, Yoga Union has built a thriving community based on sound, student centric principles and all around good will. The owners, Annie and Todd, have recently become dedicated to their own Anusara studies, choosing as their primary teacher the ever graceful and true Sianna Sherman, currently living in San Francisco.Annie and Todd have recently earned their Anusara-inspired™ teaching status! See their
website
for times.
Amrita Yoga Sanctuary (friend of Ansuara)Sarahjoy Marsh, the owner and director of Amrita Sanctuary, was one of the early group of students of my teacher, John Friend. Grounded and focused, with unmistakable inner strength, she has a strong community of devoted students around her. She is warm and gently funny, and technically astute.Her style is her own - Sarahjoy no longer teaches Anusara Yoga. There are some points of the bio-mechanical principles with which she disagrees, and the flavor of the practice she leads is more contemplative than celebratory. However, I have the deepest respect for her personally, and I honor her dedication to using her personal experience to inform her teaching and practice. Sarahjoy is also the founder of Living Yoga, a beautiful organization that brings yoga to under served populations such as homeless youth and prisoners. Amrita holds many events and workshops in their beautiful Southwest space.
The Yoga Space (friend of Anusara) SoutheastTeachers here are from a variety of disciplines, with a focus on vinyasa flow.It was good luck that led me to Michelle Loew, the owner and director of the Yoga Space. She is blessing to Portland yoga seekers - a strong teacher with a true yogi's heart. She is not an Anusari, but has shown a deep appreciation for what I do, even attending classes when she can. While her main teacher is ahtanga master Richard Freeman, Michelle has also studied with Doug Keller, a renowned teacher of therapeutic yoga, who, while no longer a certified Anusara Yoga® teacher, has his foundation in the alignment principles of the Anusara® method.
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