Angela Arnold
Angela first received her certification in Vinyasa in Denver,
Colorado, under Lisa Richards and David Porter. Longing for precision in her own practice, she then went on to study Anusara Yoga with Zjenya LaRosa, Amy Ippoliti, and John Friend. To keep up her strength she continues to work with Schuyler Grant and David Reglin. And for therapeutics she’s under the guidance of Nevine Michaan at Katonah Yoga in upstate New York. When asked what she would describe her class to be, she says, “I’d like to think my Yoga class is a boundless expression of Grace, a holding-in to what matters, a spiraling through
the movement, and a settling into your own skin, earth, and life. And plenty of līlā- which in Sanskrit means Divine Play. Through the sheer fun of it, we find our true state of being – Joy.
For more about Angela please check out: www.bhaktijewellyoga.com
April Cantor
To breathe more consciously. To laugh more heartily. To live more deeply. To be more at home in my body and at peace with my mind. Yoga has taught me all this. I teach in hopes that the same can be passed on to others. My practice has the sensitivity of Integral Yoga,the joyful attention to alignment from Anusara, and the mindfulness of Vipassana meditation. You’ll get a lot of Mamma-energy in my class–need some nurturing, some light-ness, I’m the one for you.
Honor and gratitude to the teachers who have influenced me the most:
Swami Satchidananda, John Friend, Cyndi Lee, SN Goenka, Amma, my family, especially my husband and two sons, and Mother Nature.
Peace.
April received her yoga certification from Integral Yoga in 1999, with further trainings in Anusara Yoga and Phoenix Rising Yoga. And for kids yoga she received trainings from Karma Kids, MiniYogis, Marsha Wenig (YogaKids), Jodi Komitor (Next Generation Yoga) and Storytime Yoga with Sydney Solis.
Matthew Caton
After many times of reluctantly being dragged to yoga class, pigeon pose is what finally started me on a path of opening up the tight areas of my body, and my life. As I began to see the transformative powers of alignment and breath effect all elements of my being, yoga became a permanent presence in my life that I wanted to share with others while continuing to learn and expand. I recently completed my first teacher training with senior Anusara Yoga instructors Todd Norian and Ann Greene and admire their ability to open their students’ hearts while sharing their vast technical knowledge. My inspiration to expand and teach comes from my teachers Elena Brower and Annie Wong. I am also very thankful and excited to be part of the warm Bend and Bloom community as both a student and teacher.
My classes combine fun and dynamic movement, with the guidance of the elegant and precise system of the Anusara Universal Principals of Alignment.
Nityda Coleman
Nityda has been movin’ and groovin’ since the age of eight, when she started dance classes while living in Okinawa, Japan. Well-versed in movement and the mind-body connection, Nityda went on to dance professionally with several ballet companies including the Dance Theatre of Harlem and the Richmond Ballet. After dancing and teaching dance for 15 years, Nityda completed a Vinyasa Yoga teacher training followed by a full Pilates certification. Nityda teaches students from
all walks of life, and she also trains other teachers. In addition to teaching she works as a holistic weight-loss coach and writes free-lance about nutrition, Pilates and yoga. Visit her at www.TheHolisticWeightLossCoach.com
Aditi Dhruv
Aditi first came to yoga through her study of classical Indian dance forms, and has been practicing for over ten years. She is Yoga Alliance certified at the 200-hour level, and completed her yoga teacher training in 2006 with Alison West (Yoga Union) in New York City. Aditi has studied with respected teachers including Alison West, Deborah Wolk, Jonathan Fitz-Gordon and Estelle Eichenberger. Her classes are informed by her extensive ongoing dance training and practice in the Vinyasa, Iyengar and Ashtanga traditions; and focus on teaching students a series of poses while integrating the physical, subtle, and spiritual bodies, through precise alignment and breath-focused movement.
Beth Donnelly Caban
Beth is a certified yoga instructor (Integral Yoga Institute), a certified midwife assistant (The Farm), a labor support doula (DONA), an active birth teacher and a childbirth educator (CEA/MNY).
Heather Gobbée
I discovered my own practice through Anusara Yoga. For me, yoga is all about offering balance between the mind, body and spirit. As a NYS Certified Theatre Arts Educator, I work with children everyday. I initially sought out children’s yoga training to support my creative drama students…eventually creative drama began to support my yoga students! Children change and grow so quickly and are in constant need of balance. Yoga and Drama are so complimentary of each other, both support a child’s need to play while focusing on their physical, creative, social, emotional, and behavioral development; and both get richer with practice. In 2007 I received my Karma Kids Yoga teacher certificate and have continued my training with Little Flower Yoga, Shakta Kaur Khalsa, and most recently, Circus Yoga teacher training with Kevin O’Keefe & Erin Maile! Children love to play and they love yoga because it feels terrific! The most gorgeous thing about teaching children yoga, is that I know I am offering children strong tools to help them cope with the changes in their bodies as well as life’s ups & downs. Namasté.
Denise Hopkins
Denise has been a student of yoga for 9 years. She first found yoga as a saving grace from her career in the competitive fashion industry.
Denise found her calling in the style of Forrest Yoga. She received her training in Forrest Yoga in 2005 with founder Ana Forrest. Denise continues to assist Ana nationally at intensive workshops and teacher trainings.
Her passion for this transformative practice shines in all of her classes. Denise’s intent in teaching is to help others strip away the numbness that keeps us from feeling our center. She encourages her students to breathe deeply and to feel every single emotion. It is only by truly allowing ourselves to feel that we can learn to shed the layers of physical and emotional pain that keeps us bound.
Denise’s classes are challenging and focused, yet playful.
Lara Kohn Thompson
Movement. Movement is the key, the inspiration, the ultimate joy.
Moving, watching others move, helping others move.
Understanding the how, why, with what.
Since as far as I can remember.
Movement as a spiritual practice. As a way to be both grounded and connected.
To accompany and serve.
Through daily practice, find creativity and renewal.
To feel oneself alive.
To accompany, bear witness and be of support.
Lara Kohn Thompson was born in India and grew up in France. She is certified in Hatha, Prenatal/Postpartum and Therapeutic Yoga through the Integral Yoga Institute, and is a certified APOR practitioner (Approche Posturo-Respiratoire). She offers individualized physical care and training for women – postpartum and beyond, including Integrated Pelvic Floor Health and core training. Her practice integrates a profound understanding of anatomy through movement learned during 20 years as a performer and teacher with leading dance companies in France, as well as in her studies of Kinesthetic Anatomy with both Irene Dowd and Blandine Calais Germain. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband and two sons.
http://www.larakohnthompson.com/
Amy Quinn Suplina
On the mat, my yoga is a flowing, pulsing, moving meditation. Off the mat, my yoga is giggling with my babe, finding compassion in the darkest crevices of our world, and knowing that transformation is always possible. I teach a sweaty, breath-based, contemplative Vinyasa that challenges us to find space in our bodies so that we can find space in our lives to breath and indulge. Deepest gratitude to all my teachers and to my fam and friends who supported my bend & bloom vision from infancy. Special thanks to Kimberly Wilson of Tranquil Space where I completed my first certification in 2002 and to Cyndi Lee, Shiva Rea, Judith Laseter, Simon Park and the many others who have helped me grow as a teacher since.
Kate Reil
The way yoga found its way into my life is not nearly as interesting as the impact it has made, wiggling its way into a practice that encompasses every aspect of my journey. As my practice is ever evolving, so is my teaching and I bring in new elements as they are shared with me along the Path. I teach an engaging, rhythmic class that gets the blood pumping while keeping the heart open to deeper connections within the Self. As my teachers have taught me, I pass on the creativity of the Vinyasa lineage, striving to teach a playful class where my students can curiously explore their edge while also getting wrapped up in the grace of the pranic flow that moves them with intention, linking breath and asana seamlessly. I ultimately seek to create a space in each of my students’ lives to bring their practice off the mat and into the world. By encouraging students to be at whatever stage they are along the path of their practice, students find the space to focus on their mat and realize their potential to be their own best teachers.
Kate received her kids training at Little Flower Yoga (Levels 1&2) and Karma Kids Yoga. For adult yoga, she received her 200-hour certification at Sonic Yoga in Manhattan.
Allison Richard
Yoga weaved its way in and out of my life throughout high school and college, where I graduated with a degree in Developmental Psychology and English. I have worked with children since I was a child myself and upon graduation I was excited to continue my work and utilize my psychology degree. I quickly found myself dissatisfied when I realized I was trying to help create healthy, happy kids while working with only a few pieces of the whole puzzle. It was at this time that I returned to my yoga practice and realized that yoga’s all-encompassing philosophy of living- from ahimsa to asana and meditation- contained the missing pieces of my puzzle and more.
In 2007, I completed my 500-hour teacher training through YogaWorks in Los Angeles. I have been blessed to study with teachers from various schools of yoga including Lisa Walford, Annie Carpenter, Rod Stryker, Hari Kaur and Jasmine Lieb and owe the utmost gratitude to all of my teachers in life, both on and off the mat. I enjoy teaching both children and adults because I love seeing yoga through their eyes and gaining insights from the different perspectives they bring to the practice.
Marisa Sako
My classes are slow-flowing but intense, creative but safe, challenging but never competitive. As a kid, my attitude toward competition got me picked last in gym class and landed me in outfield in little league. And that was fine by me since the wide-open space was perfect for doing handstands, splits, and backbends. I’d pick dandelions and examine them closely as I sat in sukhasana. What coaches and gym teachers saw as goofing off and day-dreaming was actually the beginning of an early asana and meditation practice. It was only natural that, after years of dance training and eventually leaving it behind, I fell in love with the flow of vinyasa yoga. In 2006, I completed my 200-hour training with Dana Flynn and Jasmine Tarkeshi at Laughing Lotus. During that time, I found my love for anatomy and alignment. Afterwards, I went on to study with Neuromuscular Therapist Susan Hefner and Yoga Anatomy teacher Leslie Kaminoff. I’ve held onto the creative flow that Laughing Lotus has taught me, but I’ve slowed down the pace resulting in a finely-detailed flow with lengthened breath-cycles. I relish that moment in a five-breath warrior III when the first bead of sweat drips off the tip of the nose and splashes onto the mat. I try to pass on to my students what yoga has given me: the use of the breath as a bridge between the body and mind, as well as imbuing action with mindfulness and heart, and the ability to quiet the mind through moving meditation. Each day my students amaze, inspire, and humble me. I’m extremely grateful to my teachers at Kula Yoga Project, but most grateful of all towards my mom who taught me how to stand on my hands shortly after having taught me to stand on my feet.
Sarah Schumann
Long before my toes ever touched my first yoga mat, I enjoyed constant movement—pirouette-ing, tap dancing and cross-country running my way through my early years. When I finally made my way into my first downward dog, I found a new way to move…and a new way to be still. Each inhale on my mat inspires me to dive deeper, connecting more fully with the truth, light and radiant possibilities that are in and all around us. Wishing to share this same sense of freedom and discovery with others, I completed teacher training with Laughing Lotus in 2007. I teach the kind of class I like to take—a flowing dance of body and breath, a mix of spicy spirit and soulful stillness, a musical celebration, anchored by yogic philosophy, a sense of playful curiosity, and a healthy dose of humor. Endless thank you’s to all my teachers and to my students who enrich my own practice so immensely. I’m so grateful for the opportunity to bend and bloom along with you.
Summer Shirey
I’ve been a movement fanatic my entire life. For years I have indulged in various profound ways to deeply inhabit my body in search of freeing my mind. The first time I stepped onto the mat for a full-fledged Vinyasa class over a decade ago I found a path that unified movement with breath and connected me – body to soul.
I teach a breath centered class guided by the heart and grounded in the present moment. My style is uplifting, sweaty, challenging and empowering. Influenced by the many lives I’ve lived, my blessed experiences in India and my gracious teachers who have guided me along the way, I enter each class hoping to impart even an inkling of what has been gifted to me.
My deepest gratitude to all of my amazing students, the entire Kula crew, my YogaSole family, my Prana Yoga friends in San Diego who kept me sane in graduate school, the ever growing Bend and Bloom community, Jerry Gardner, who first introduced me to a more enlightened way of living, and my family in Pittsburgh who has seen me through it all.
Summeryoganyc.com
Annie Wong
Annie Wong first discovered yoga as a teenager growing up in lower Manhattan. Yoga came to the forefront of her life after being diagnosed with stomach cancer in 2005. As she healed herself through holistic lifestyle changes and found more joy in her life, Annie became determined to share health and happiness with others.
Around the same time, Annie found her heart’s true resonance in the teachings of Kelly Morris, Geshe Michael Roach and Lama Christie McNally. In 2008, she completed her first teacher training in the Conquering Lion Yoga style. She also holds a certification in Prenatal Yoga and is currently completing her training in Tibetan Heart Yoga through the Yoga Studies Institute. In addition to her yoga studies, Annie is also a certified Health Counselor and works with clients on food and lifestyle choices.
Annie has dedicated her life to serving and helping others. Her goal is to inspire students to joyfully pursue the ultimate purpose of yoga to transform the body, heart and mind. For more information visit www.annieyoga.com.
Ellen Chuse
Ellen Chuse has worked with pregnant women and their families since 1984. As a Certified Childbirth Educator she teaches childbirth preparation classes to a wide variety of clients and has provided postpartum and parent support for individuals, couples and groups. In 1993 she received her certification in Holistic Pregnancy and Birth Counseling with Dr. Gayle Peterson, PhD. Ellen maintains a private practice as a Childbirth Educator and Birth Counselor in both Brooklyn and Manhattan. She leads groups for new mothers and parents of toddlers at Realbirth in Manhattan.
Matt Gurry
No bio yet
Jung-Hee Oh
Jo has been studio manager at Bend & Bloom since its opening in 2008.
Kate Sharp
Kate Sharp is a longtime LLL leader and board-certified lactation consultant with 20 years experience and an active private practice.
