the yoga loft

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	Jane Dobson (Co-Director) Jane is the director and co-founder of The Yoga Loft with 10 years experience as a student of yoga. Devoted to the life-affirming process of yoga, Jane blends a traditional understanding of the practice with soft, creative sequencing to inspire aliveness in the body and quietness in the mind. Jane's primary teachers include Barbara Benagh, Angela Farmer, Victor Van Kooten and Tony Briggs. Jane is a graduate of Tony Briggs' Art of Teaching program at The Yoga Loft and holds an M.A. in Counseling Psychology.

	Meg Whitbread (Co-Director) Meg Whitbread, director and co-founder of The Yoga Loft, grew up with a variety of Eastern practices, including yoga, but only began formally studying in the last ten years. She sees an embodied approach to yoga as an effective tool for personal development and believes that bodywork can often help to heal the separation between body and mind. Her interest in bodywork and Ayurvedic medicine grew out of a desire to help students have more ease not only in their practices but more importantly, their lives. Meg has studied with Pratichi Mathur, an Ayurvedic practitioner who hails from a 900-year lineage and also studies and apprentices with Dr. Ron Harwin, both of whom consider the body as a vessel waiting for transformation.

	Kathy Alef Kathy has been a student of yoga since 1976. She is touched by the profound, sensitive teachings of the Iyengars in Pune where she makes regular visits. This inspirational teaching enriches and nourishes her own practice and teachings. The joys and new discoveries from her practice are then happily shared with others. She is a staff member of the two year teacher training program sponsored by the Iyengar Yoga Institute of San Francisco. She also teaches weekly public classes for all levels of students including a specialized weekly class for those with back challenges. Kathy's expertise in teaching clearly and precisely, coupled with her compassion, safely guides each student on their yogic journey.

	Chase Bossart Chase is a long time, private student of Mr. TKV Desikachar and a certified Krishnamacharya Healing and Yoga Foundation Yoga Teacher Trainer ( www.khyf.net). He has an M.A. in Religious Studies from UC Santa Barbara and wrote his thesis on Patanjali's Yogasutra. A Senior Teacher at the not-for-profit Healing Yoga Foundation in San Francisco (www.HealingYoga.org), Chase is also a faculty member of Loyola Marymount University's Yoga Therapy Certificate Program. Since 1991 Chase has made frequent trips to Chennai, India to study at the Krishnamacharya Yoga Mandiram (www.kym.org) with Mr. Desikachar and his son Kausthub, and altogether has spent three and a half years living in Chennai studying yoga. He teaches frequent workshops in the US and abroad on a wide range of yoga subjects, both practical and theoretical.
	Tony Briggs Tony Briggs (www.turtleislandyoga.com) teaches age-old Hatha yoga in a modern, humorous and hard-hitting way, without compromise or new-age veneer. He encourages his students to tread the path of self-discovery with a cool head, a wide heart, and a warm belly. Tony has been practicing and teaching yoga for 25 years, including studies in India and the U.S. He is founder and director of Turtle Island Yoga in Marin County, where he offers ongoing public classes, workshops and retreats, as well as teaching internationally. He has also written for Yoga Journal. He is the director and chief instructor of the Yoga Teaching Apprenticeship Program at The Yoga Loft.

	Lauren Brown Lauren teaches yoga in a playful and accessible way. She spent the last few years teaching in Chiang Mai, Thailand to the international community and infuses Buddhist elements of mindfulness into her classes. Her poetic style draws from the alignment based traditions of Iyengar yoga, the modern day flow of vinyasa, and the grace of the breath. Lauren continues to be inspired by her teachers and learn from her students, deepening each day, her passion for yoga. She is also a practitioner of Thai Yoga Massage, which aids in her awareness of anatomy. Lauren strongly encourages students to take the blissful elements of the yoga practice into their daily lives for the betterment of all beings. "Let the beauty you love be what you do." -Rumi

	Jason Crandell Jason Crandell (www.jasonyoga.com), teaches hatha yoga in a compassionate, knowledgeable and accessible manner. He is a faculty instructor at Yoga Journal Magazine, a regular presenter at Yoga Journal Conferences, and is featured in Yoga Journal's Home Practice Video series Step-by-Step. He will also be the For Beginner's columnist for Yoga Journal in 2005. Jason loves the practice of yoga and has apprenticed extensively with Rodney Yee.

	Karl Erb Karl Erb's (www.yoganexus.com) passion for yoga has gone through many stages in the 23 years since he began the study of yoga. While Karl has explored many forms, his primary training has been in the Iyengar method of Hatha and Ashtanga yoga. Students say Karl inspires a depth of feeling and focus that is increasingly rare in the current Yoga market, aiding students in revealing awareness they never thought possible or even knew existed. Practice with Karl is a celebration of the gift of breath, the gift of yoga, a time to touch your truest nature, while deeply immersing yourself in ever deepening knowledge of the asanas, the body, mind, and senses. To learn more about Karl, visit yogaNexus.com.

	Floyd I spend a lot of time at The Yoga Loft. I'm really good at downward dog and my upward dog is coming along. My best friends are a kitty and a bird and I mostly love bread and long walks on the beach. One time I pooped in Studio B, and for that I'd like to apologize. Anyway, I really like it here. Thanks for letting a four-legged hang around. If you're interested in checking out my Friendster Page, click here.

	Britt Fohrman & Rachel Yellin Britt and Rachel have been friends and colleagues for several years, brought together through their mutual passion for yoga, conscious birth and deep relaxation. They both aim to create a healing, loving, and supportive environment in all the classes they teach. Their Iyengar based classes draw on a variety of practices including mindfulness meditation, fluid movement, HypnoBirthing, breath awareness and Restorative Yoga. Besides teaching yoga, HypnoBirthing, prenatal partner yoga, and attending births, Britt is also a bodyworker and photographer. For more information, see www.brittfohrman.com and www.one-moon.com.

	Lexi Frank Originally trained in the Ashtanga style yoga in 2002, Lexi Frank's practice has opened and matured into a loving Vinyasa Flow. She is continually growing through her practice, inspired by her teachers and learning from her students. Lexi aims to provide a warm and intelligent space for people to move deeper into the wisdom of their own bodies. She is currently studying Integral counseling Psychology at the California Institute of Integral Studies and looks forward to becoming a bigger part of the kula at The Yoga Loft through her Lunar Flow classes and community works

	Mellara Gold Mellara's life has been deeply rooted in Yoga and healing for many years. She received her formal training and certification from the Center for Yoga in Los Angeles, CA and has been teaching Hatha Yoga since 1996. Mellara continues to expand her knowledge and practice of different Yoga styles. She has been blessed to study and assist with many renowned teachers such as, Erich Schiffmann, Saul David Raye and Steven Freedman. Mellara incorporates various styles of Hatha Yoga including Ashtanga, Iyengar, and Bahkti. Mellara has taught Yoga in her native Australia, Los Angeles and now San Francisco where she currently resides.

	Felicity Gresele Felicity Gresele completed her Iyengar based teacher training at The Sydney Yoga School (Australia) in 1998. She taught yoga in a variety of settings in Australia before moving to San Francisco in 2000, where she has continued to study and teach. Felicity's love of and interest in the Iyengar method is visible in her teaching style. She practices and teaches with focus and purity but is very lighthearted and approachable. Felicity encourages students to challenge themselves and to progress in their practice but also requires that they stay mindful and safe in performing asanas. Her classes are slow-paced and intense and provide students with a vigorous and dynamic practice. Felicity has been a student in the Advanced Studies program at the Iyengar Yoga Institute since 2001, and is continually inspired by her teacher, Manouso Manos.

	Garrell Herndon Garrell is a graduate of the Iyengar Yoga Institute of San Francisco and is also trained in the Rolf Method of Structural Integration. He considers himself fortunate to have studied with many sophisticated Bay Area teachers, but is primarily influenced by Mr. Ramanand Patel- with whom he apprenticed for five years. In his classes, Garrell uses verbal cues, props, and physical adjustments to help students find their greatest potential in the poses.

	Susanne Kemmerer Susanne Kemmerer has worked as a licensed physical therapist in full practice since 1981. As a child in Germany she would often accompany her physician parents in their rounds; this early exposure to working intimately with the body has gifted her with healing hands. Ramanand Patel recalls hearing a 75-year-old Indian lady say to Susanne, "You have made me 30 years young again!"

	Billy Konrad Dedicated to the Iyengar Yoga Tradition, Billy (www.billykonrad.com) brings 15 years of study and practice to the studio.� Principally trained by Joe Naudzunas in San Francisco, he is a Certified Iyengar Yoga teacher, a graduate of the 2 year Advanced Studies/Teacher Training Program at the Iyengar Yoga Institute of San Francisco, and he has spent a summer in Pune, India studying with the Iyengar family directly.� Billy practices and teaches Yoga full time in Marin and San Francisco.

	Dmitri Kotenkov Dmitri began practicing martial arts in 1976 in Moscow, Soviet Union. He studied Shotokan and Kiokushinkai Karate with variety of teachers available at that time.� The search for a more internal and health-oriented discipline brought him to T'ai Chi Ch'uan.� After receiving a Certificate of Instructor of Oriental Physical Fitness Arts in 1989, Dmitri taught T'ai Chi as a full time instructor within the Center of Oriental Fighting Arts in Moscow.� In 1990 the Inner Research Institute in San Francisco extended an invitation to Dmitri and his wife Elena to join the IRI School of T'ai Chi Ch'uan as an Intern Assistant. Since that time he has served in this position, learning advanced aspects of the art. Combining over 25 of years of uninterrupted training, Dmitri has obtained numerous certificates in Chinese martial and healing arts. Dmitri understands the practice of T'ai Chi to include the healing aspects of Yoga, the challenging and exciting aspects of rigorous martial training, and the wisdom of the Taoist philosophy.

	Sabine Kuehner Sabine Kuehner (www.namaste-yoga.com) came to San Francisco from Germany in the early 1980s to study with Ana Halprin, and at the San Francisco Dancer's workshop. A friend introduced her to Iyengar Yoga shortly after her arrival. Having been plagued for much of her life with tremendous stiffness in her spine and structural imbalances due to a shorter leg, she recognized at once, that Iyengar Yoga would give her the means to improve her condition. After graduating from the Advanced Study Program at the Iyengar Yoga Institute in SF, she became certified by the National Iyengar Yoga Association in 1995. Since 1991 she has made yearly pilgrimages to Pune, India to study with BKS Iyengar and his daughter Geetaji Iyengar, whom she considers her primary teacher. For the last few years during her stays in Pune, she has furthered her studies in Ayurveda and has assisted in the medical classes offered at the Iyengar Yoga Institute for people suffering from a wide range of complaints and diseases; she graduated from the California College of Ayurveda in 2003. Sabine is co-founder of the Namaste Yoga Studio, which flourished here in San Francisco from 1993-2002. Sabine is deeply committed to both teaching and practicing yoga, because she has observed the profound transformation that yoga has brought to her own life and body, as well as her students. Sabine is known for her highly personalized style of yoga instruction, assisting each and every one of her students on their individual yoga journey. Her highly developed ability to see and adjust students in their asanas is also derived from her 20 year practice as a therapeutic bodyworker. In addition, her strong sense of humor and her light heartedness mixed with her sometimes very funny use of the English language make her classes a lot of fun as well as therapeutic.

	Bria Larson Bria Larson has been practicing yoga for 7 years and completed a 200-hour teacher training with Tony Briggs in 2005. Over the years her practice has been influenced by the grace and movement of vinyasa flow, the precision of Iyengar yoga, and a practical spirituality in the tradition of TVK Desikachar. In her classes Bria strikes a balance between effort and ease and she is ultimately interested in how a yoga practice gradually, but deeply, shapes the way in which we interact with the world.

	Villard Martin Villard has been practicing the Iyengar yoga for over 20 years and teaching for the past 8 years. He is a Certified Iyengar Yoga teacher, a graduate of the Teacher Training Program at the Iyengar Yoga Institute of San Francisco. He keeps his practice current through frequent and extended visits to India to study with the Iyengars. In addition, Villard has studied with most of the senior Iyengar teachers over the years including Ramanand Patel, Kathy Alef and Manuso Manos. Villard's precise and patient approach, combined with his extensive knowledge of the Iyengar tradition make his teaching appropriate for beginning and advancing students.

	Janet Macleod Janet Macleod (www.jmacleodyoga.com) has been a Certified Iyengar Yoga Instructor for 20 years. She teaches classes to the general public in San Francisco; teaches in the Teacher Training Program at the Iyengar Institute of San Francisco (IYISF) and conducts retreats and workshops worldwide. She continues to study in the U.S. and in India with the Iyengar family. Janet has been an active community member holding positions on both the local and national boards. She was Convention Chair of the BKS Iyengar Association of the U.S. during the Iyengar Yoga Odyssey in 2001. She has relinquished these duties and is now happy to dedicate her life to the practice, study and teaching of yoga.

	Ravi Nathwani Ravi was raised in a conservative Vaishnav Hindu family where Hindu rituals where integrated into daily life from a very young age. Ravi was steeped in Hindu and Yoga tradition by his father's deeply spiritual man with a daily yoga and meditation practice, as well as through his maternal grandmother who meditated daily for extended periods, and paternal grandmother whose spiritual practice involved memorizing the scriptures of the Bhagavat and The Ramayana. As a child, Ravi regularly engaged in morning walks with his father that ended with the traditional satsang, occasionally led by luminaries like Swami Sivananda, Swami Ramdas and others. By the age of seven, he was being trained in the Hatha Yoga tradition and has had a daily practice since 1981. Before moving to the United States Ravi studied the writings of Swami Vivekananda, Swami Sivananda, and other spiritual exponents of Hindu philosophy and regularly attended discourses on the Bhagavad Gita by Swami Chinmayananda and lectures by J. Krishnamurti. Ravi continues to follow in his family's spiritual traditions and has become a modern day messenger of a variety of Vedic studies through his lectures and workshops. Most recently, Ravi has been a faculty member of both Tufts University and Tufts University Experimental College in Boston where he taught such courses as "Hindu Yoga & Buddhist Meditation".

	Athena Pappas Athena is a certified Iyengar teacher. Her instruction is clear and concise, emphasizing alignment and awareness; encouraging focus and balance for mind and body. She teaches with skill, confidence and a sense of humor. Athena shares with her students the benefits of yoga for physical and emotional well-being. She strongly believes that yoga is more than a physical discipline; it is a many faceted gem offering us the tools necessary to achieve true and lasting transformation. Athena appears in The Body Shop's yoga book and in The Woman's Book of Yoga and Health. She teaches full-time in San Francisco and can be contacted through her website, www.athenayoga.com.

	Ramanand Patel Ramanand (www.yogirama.com) is regarded as a leading yoga instructor for students and teachers around the world. When he was twelve his father initiated him into yoga practice and philosophy. After meeting a few other teachers, he started more serious study under Guruji (Yogacharya Sri B.K.S. Iyengar) in 1968. Since 1984 he has studied Vedanta philosophy under H.H. Swami Dayananda Saraswati. He has also learned from sharing his knowledge with a vast number of students and teachers since 1964. He has a special interest in the effects of sound on yoga practice and offers a number of workshops in this subject with his friend and a world class musician in the North Indian classical style, Pandit Mukesh Desai. Ramanand is respected as an innovator in the use of props and working with students who have special needs.

	Jennifer Rodrigue Jennifer Rodrigue uses practical experience to inform the language and direction of her instruction while honoring the authority and teachings of classical yoga. Classes are physically vigorous, although often at a much slower pace than typical vinyasa or flow classes, offering students the opportunity to observe the alignment and synthesis of mind, breath, and movement. Detailed attention to the dynamic characteristics and qualities of this synthesis is offered, along with varying levels of technique and challenge in order to encourage individual development. Jennifer currently teaches in studios and privately throughout the Bay Area.

	Geoffrey Roniger Geoffrey Roniger (www.geoffreyroniger.org) believes that the practice of yoga is essentially about coming back home to the body. Far from being about attaining, acquiring, or achieving things that we do not yet have, yoga is, in the simplest and most profound sense, about remembering. With the physical practice of the Hatha yoga poses, we are reminded experientially that we are inseparable from both the ground of the earth and the larger ground of being. A dedicated practitioner of 10 years, Geoffrey is a graduate of Piedmont YogaStudio's 18-month Advanced Studies Program and has apprenticed extensively with his primary teacher, Rodney Yee.

	Anne Saliou Anne Saliou, a certified Iyengar instructor, has been practicing Yoga for more than two decades and teaches all levels of students. Anne keeps her teaching and her own practice fresh through frequent trips to India to study directly with the Iyengars. Anne's own back injury has made her sensitive to the needs and limitations of each individual. Her classes are thematic and invigorating with instruction that is thorough and precise. Anne enjoys sharing her enthusiasm and knowledge of Yoga to help her students achieve greater health, peace and harmony through a balanced Yoga practice.

	Marni Sclaroff Marni has taught yoga since 2001 as an extension of her own practice and self-reflection. An artist and dancer, she loves to share in the joy of movement and creative expression. She is deeply inspired by art, nature and Buddhist philosophy. In her yoga classes, she blends metaphysical and physical elements, with teachings from yogic scripture and a personalized focus on fundamental alignment principles. A perpetual student, she has devoted myriad hours to studying with gifted yoga teachers, including the 300 hour Jivamukti Yoga teacher training. In 2000, she received a Master's Degree in Art Education, and later, designed and co-taught the Dhyana Yoga teacher-training program in Philadelphia. She has been blessed with the finest teachers—Sharon Gannon, David Life, Kofi Busia, and Geshe Michael Roach—who are always reminding her of the importance of compassion, laughter, and paying attention.

	Dannielle Smith Dannielle has been practicing Iyengar yoga for over 16 years. As a beginner, she studied with Pam Field in Santa Rosa; she currently studies with Tony Briggs at Turtle Island Yoga and at The Yoga Loft. In 2002, Dannielle completed Tony's teaching apprenticeship and has been teaching yoga since. Working as a high school teacher serving "at risk" students for 15 years, Dannielle has developed and taught yoga classes for teens of all backgrounds. She also teaches recovering addicts in Marin County, as yoga has been an integral component of her own 17 years in recovery. Dannielle offers a serious commitment to the practice and teaching of yoga, yet maintains a light heart and sense of humor.

	Kate Roades Sosnowski As a teacher of adults, children and families, Kate's classes are a combination of flowing movements, playful postures and strength based sequencing. She has practiced yoga since 1998 and completed Ashtanga Yoga Teacher Training at It's Yoga, San Francisco in 2003. She earned her Elementary Education Teaching Credential in 2004 from San Francisco State University and began to combine her two passions - youth and yoga - 4 years ago. In her work with both adults and children she creates the space and safety for people to connect to themselves and their own inner wisdom. Kate currently teaches classes to adults, children and families in schools and studios, and leads Teacher Trainings for Parents and Educators all over the Bay Area and beyond.

	Patricia Sullivan Patricia Sullivan (www.patriciasullivanyoga.com) began her yoga practice in 1970, and has taught yoga since 1976. She studied in India with B.K.S. and Geeta Iyengar in the 1980s, and taught teachers-in-training at the San Francisco Iyengar Yoga Institute through the late 1990s. With roots also in Zen Buddhism, Patricia�s instruction offers a depth and scope developed through nearly 30 years of teaching. An accomplished sculptor, Patricia's classes are imaginative, exploratory and continuously evolving. She emphasizes process rather than end result, curiosity rather than "knowingness", and always brings to her classes a feeling that yoga is not only a vehicle for self-transformation, it's joyful and playful.

	Brick Thornton Brick began his spiritual path in 1994 by spending over a year at a Tibetan Buddhist healing center. In the years that followed, he studied yoga and internal martial arts, culminating with a 4-month trip to India that led to a 4-year journey. In India, he immersed himself in traditional forms of yoga and meditation with an emphasis on viniyoga, studying at the source at Krishnamacharya Yoga Mandiram led by TKV Desikachar. Brick�s classes are a unique approach to vinyasa yoga � the breath feeds directly into fluid, aligned movements that foster core strength and suppleness, weaving together a playful sequence that focuses the mind and enlivens the spirit. See www.yogayana.com for more info.


	Evan Topal After years wandering the mountains of the west to quiet his restless mind, Evan began exploring yoga as meditation in movement to help him adjust to a more city bound lifestyle in the mid 1990s. He completed the Om Yoga teacher training in NY in 2004 and now studies with an eclectic variety of teachers from whom he continues to learn a lot. His teaching emphasizes a safe and intelligent approach to the physical practice of yoga, encouraging steadiness of body and ease of breath. As a student of Buddhist meditation, Evan is curious about the nature of the human mind and how the practice of asana can help wake us to the experience of our daily lives.

	Valerie Velardi Valerie Velardi has been practicing Iyengar Yoga intensively for the past six years. She has been studying the teaching of the Iyengar method at the Iyengar Institute in San Francisco and became a Certified Instructor in 2002. Valeries renews her teaching and her own practice through visits to India to study directly with the Iyengars. Her teaching style is quiet, patient and uplifting while still maintaining precision and attention to detail. Prior to her Iyengar studies, Valerie practiced Hatha Yoga and studied dance. After earning a Masters Degree in Dance Art, Valerie also taught modern dance for many years.

	Matthew Blazon Yee Matthew has been teaching Qigong for over ten years. He is the co-founder of the New York Hung Ga school for martial arts and Qigong. Qigong was an integral component of training for martial art champions of the school. Matthew helped restore health and vitality to a wide range of students with the practice of Qigong. In addition to Qigong instruction Matthew is a certified personal trainer, martial art coach and licensed Acupuncturist.