Teacher Bios
Anna
| Anna's Yoga practice began during a teenage obsession with 60s counterculture, then accompanied her on her travels throughout Europe and the Middle East. She finally became a Yoga teacher when she realized she was already trying to teach and practice Yoga through everything she did. Anna believes that practicing asana and pranayama allows us to "become" our bodies on musculoskeletal, cellular and spiritual levels -- and that this process liberates the Self within. Anna endeavors to help her students cultivate this inner freedom through awareness of their own mind-body-self connection. In her own practice and in her classes, Anna plays with movement beyond classical asana to help her students experience their bodies in new, transformational, and sometimes comical ways. Anna's classes blend Iyengar and Vinyasa traditions, reflecting her training at YogaWorks. She studies with Chrissy Carter, Susan Orem, Paula Lynch, and Tzahi Moskovitz. In her life beyond the studio, Anna teaches Arabic and French at Friends Seminary and leads student trips to the Middle East.Deidra
| Deidra stumbeled upon Yoga while studying Theatre at DePaul University 8 years ago, and she hasn't left her mat since. She completed her 200-hr Teacher Training at Greenhouse Holistic in Brooklyn, NY. As an artist, Deidra has explored movement and breath as natural ways of expression, where creativity and play open our mind, our heart, and our body. Her continuing study of Hatha Yoga and her work in the arts help to shape the creative flow in her classes, which incorporate pranayama, philosophy, and dance. Deidra is grateful for her many mentors -- such as Leigh Evans, Summer Quashie, Jyll Hubbard-Salk, Steve Prestianni, and Corey Henderson -- who have inspired her journey as a student and a teacher. "For me Yoga is a purely healing and spiritually awakening practice" -Deidra ReneEmily B.
| Emily has been teaching yoga to adults, kids, and teens since 2008. She is certified at the 500-hour level by Atmananda Yoga and also holds a degree in Dance from Oberlin College. In addition to Brooklyn Yoga Collective and her continuing work with private clients all over NYC (including the employees of Etsy.com), Emily also teaches at NYU, the High School of Economics and Finance, Kula Yoga, Shambhala Yoga & Dance Center. Emily is grateful to all her yoga teachers for showing her that the love, light, honesty, bravery, and empathy within us is limitless and can be harvested through a dedicated and patient yoga practice. Emily thanks her students for allowing her the honor to teach. She is committed to helping yoga-lovers realize their own greatest potential, thereby unlocking within them the freedom, grace, confidence, and strength to forge their own exciting path to success.Emily D.
| Emily has been practicing yoga for the past 8 years. Her interest in Hatha yoga grew out of her study of the Ayurvedic healing system. She drew inspiration from the deep connection between the physical and the emotional. Emily received her teacher training certificate from the International Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Center after years of study at their London center. She specializes in Prenatal and Mommy-and-Me Yoga, leading teacher training programs and workshops. In addition to her work at Brooklyn Yoga Collective, Emily teaches yoga to children in NYC public schools, and helps run yoga-based events for disadvantaged families. She advocates for proper nutrition, exercise, and meditation for both children and adults. She is inspired every day by the profound effect that yoga has had in the communities where she works. In addition to teaching yoga, Emily is a trained actor and has worked internationally in film and theater. She lives in Crown Heights with her partner Matthew and son Noah.HanaKyle
| After years of practicing Vinyasa yoga, HanaKyle turned to Buddhist meditation techniques to slow down and look inside. Trained by Jill Satterfield and the School for Compassionate Action, she loves offering the benefits of yoga and meditation to people who have never considered it before. She has taught in a number of non-traditional settings, working with specialized populations including people with chronic pain and illness, in addiction recovery, and stress & anxiety management. Her classes vary in tempo, examining every moment as an invitation to learn from the body and breath through experimentation, humor, and compassion. HanaKyle also draws from several years of experience as a NYS Licensed Massage Therapist, and Non-Violent Communication practitioner. Off the mat, she can be found riding her bicycle around the streets of NYC and dancing with the Rude Mechanical Orchestra.Kayla
| Kayla grew up in Wisconsin and trained as a classical ballet dancer at the Milwaukee Ballet School. She attended Butler University and graduated with a BA in Dance Pedagogy. She discovered Yoga in college as an excellent way to manage stress. After graduation she moved to New York City to pursue a dance performance career and continued to practice Yoga in the city. Kayla received her 200 hour Vinyasa Certification at Yoga People in Brooklyn Heights. After learning to teach dance, her passion and creative outlet, it was only natural that she would enjoy learning to teach Yoga, her other passion and spiritual outlet. Kayla is extremely grateful for her amazing teachers Donnalynn Civello, Julia Haramis, and Katelin Sisson.Lisa
| Lisa came to yoga through dance. Receiving a BFA is dance in southern California, it is a shock that she did not stumble upon a yoga class until after college. In that first class, however, the physicality of yoga transcended and a deeper connection from within became apparent. With an overwhelming sense of joy and compassion, she continued the search for that internal connection and received her 200-hr. certification from Mark Stephens in Santa Cruz overlooking the righteous ocean waves. As a trained dancer, her classes focus on correct alignment and body placement, and often include fun, creative flows with rockin’ tunes. There have been many amazing teachers through the journey thus far, but the voice within continues to be the most challenging and rewarding teacher of them all.Martine
| Seeking inspiration and a higher level of consciousness, Martine cast aside her acting career to share her passion for yoga. She discovered yoga in college and since then has sampled various styles such as Ashtanga, Vinyasa, and ISHTA. It wasn't until she stepped into Sri Dharma Mittra's class that she felt a connection and then chose to complete her certification there. Martine's classes consist of breathing exercises, endurance building asanas, guided relaxation, and meditation; as she is also a Transcendental Meditation (TM) practitioner As a teacher (and always a student), Martine's intention in her classes is to create a safe and supported space where everyone can experience patience, a deeper level of awareness, and ultimate freedom within.Myk
| Myk's passion for yoga grew out of a need for relief from near constant pain which plagued him for most of his life. When Myk was 16 years old he was diagnosed with fibromyalgia. This condition caused him mild to severe muscle and joint pain every day and was a major impediment to his well being and happiness. Seeking lasting freedom from this state, the only successful results he has ever achieved have been through changes in diet, exercise, meditation, and sleep schedule. He ultimately found that it was only through the holistic science of yoga that he was able to transcend his diagnosis and live life to its fullest.His struggles with physical pain and troubled health have created in him a desire to help others seeking to improve their own lives through yogic living practices. Whether that shift is a need demanded by the body or a desire to develop self-sustaining, life-affirming habits, Myk believes that everyone, regardless of their physical state has an entry point into a yoga practice. He finds joy in making yoga accessible to all.
To deepen his practice as well as develop as a teacher, he has spent the last ten years studying Iyengar, Ashtanga and most recently the system of Dharma Mittra with Lily Cushman, a Brooklyn Yoga School founder.
Nami
| Nami studies yoga and healing arts to deepen her inner-standing of her/our unlimited potential, and also to deepen her connection with the divine Self. She completed her 200 hour training in 2008 at Laughing Lotus, and holds additional certifications in Prenatal and Yin Yoga. She is also a certified Reiki practitioner, Thermie Massage practitioner, Flower Essence practitioner, a painter, and she is working toward becoming a certified birth doula. In her classes, she hopes to offer time and space where people can bring their awareness inward and to reconnect with their true divine nature. Nami has a website: nami8.netNatalie
| Natalie enjoys a mix of attention to detail and light-hearted playfulness. Certified in Vinyasa (500 hr RYT), prenatal, and baby and me yoga, she also enjoys working her Thai Yoga Massage training into the mix. When not devoting time on a sticky mat, she can usually be found in a state of perpetual wanderlust, planning her next adventure to somewhere new. Currently on the journey of pregnancy, Natalie is inspired everyday by how precious our bodies are and the miracles they can perform.Pashupa
| Pashupa means "protector of the animals" in Sanskrit, the ancient language of yoga. Seeing his own life and many lives around him transformed by the practices of yoga, he feels compelled to share these benefits. His classes are playful and accessible to all, filled with uplifting music, chanting, vinyasa sequencing, meditation, and insightful dharma talks. He is a certified teacher of Jivamukti Yoga, a lineage that offers a path to self-realization through compassion towards all beings. He hopes to ignite the passion in every student that will create an engagement with the world, so that we may all help one another awaken to the possibility of a conscious evolution of the human potential.Sarah
| Sarah is a yoga teacher, dancer, choreographer, and Pilates instructor. She found yoga early along her path as a dancer and fell in love with the practice as a tool for deepening understanding of the body, a stepping stone to meditation, and as a method for chipping away at our ability to focus clearly. As an artist, yoga is a wonderful gift for cultivating depth in experience, sensitivity, restraint, and presentness.Sarah teaches vinyasa yoga and meditation influenced by a foundation of an eclectic movement background. She is trained in a traditional and athletic style of yoga, while her dance training draws her to love creative and innovative approaches to the age-old vocabulary. Her yoga asana practice provides an opportunity to clear the mind, create space to rediscover simplicity and breath, be in community, and to luxuriate in the sweaty happiness of exertion and discipline. The goal is to push physical limits, challenge balance, experience the mind, and find meditation in movement -- using the physical practice of asana to find metaphors to the way we live.
Sarah has a BFA in Dance and a BS in Environmental Science from the University of Michigan. She was certified through Yoga Effects in 2008. She is also certified in Pilates through both Power Pilates and the Kane School, and offers Pilates for injury rehabilitation. Sarah recently relocated to Brooklyn from Philadelphia.
Tina G.
| After performing professionally as a modern dancer for over 20 years, and exploring many movement styles and modalities, Tina became curious about yoga and came to this practice with a physical focus. What unfurled for her over the past 13 years has proved to be so much more, enriching her life way beyond the physical and having a profound effect on her mental health, her relationships, and her over-all well being. Tina began her training with Cyndi Lee at OM Yoga and has studied with Dana Flynn and Jasmine Tarkeshi at Laughing Lotus, as well as with many others. She received her certification to teach yoga from Lily Cushman Frindel and Jeremy Frindel at Brooklyn Yoga School and her certification to teach prenatal yoga from Beth Coban and Lara Thompson Kohn at Integral Yoga. Tina's motivation for teaching is to enrich others' lives with the power, mystery, and beauty of yoga; offering tools for health, self-awareness, and spirituality to whomever may be searching.Tina P.
| Tina's definition of yoga is simply being present in the moment. This meditation in movement allows one to tune into the body's intuition and helps harmonize at deep and subtle levels of consciousness. She was first intrigued with movement and body mechanics with bharatanatyam dance as a child, and then different types of yoga including Hatha and Raja. Tina received her teacher training in May 2007 in the Atmananda sequence in NYC and completed her 500-hr certification with OM Yoga in 2011. She gains inspiration daily from students, texts, classes, workshops, and all of life itself. Off the mat, Tina helps in growing awareness for the yoga magazine, Tathaastu. She hopes to share a fun vinyasa flow focused on breath, alignment, and being present with you. Check out Tina's blog: http://digyoga.blogspot.com/Michael
| Michael is a big believer in the power and benefits of yoga; he appreciates the opportunity to quiet his mind and find a true state of presence through the practice. Dedicating much of his attention to trying to understand the human connection, he believes yoga is a very valuable tool in helping people connect with themselves and with each other. Michael is not an instructor, he is a driving force behind the scenes at BYC.
Class Descriptions
Please click on any class displayed in the calendar above to see a class description
Upcoming Workshops
Please contact us with any suggestions or requests for programming you would like to see offered at BYC: info [at] brooklynyogacollective.com
Classes are offered at a sliding scale of $7-15.
The price varies according to the ability of the individual to pay. Students determine for themselves what price within the $7-15 they are able to pay each time they attend class based on their income level and financial situation. The expectation is that those who are more comfortable financially will choose to pay at the higher end while students with less financial flexibility would pay a more affordable price toward the lower end of the scale.
The money goes to pay the teachers as well as cover the costs of maintaining and running the studio. 100% of the studio's income comes from its students.
Many students cannot afford to regularly attend classes at the standard rates. Since it is our mission to make yoga classes accessible to the community, we are offering classes that will be affordable to a wider spectrum of people. We think that being fair doesn't necessarily mean everyone pays the same, but it does mean that everyone has the opportunity to study here.
At the same time, in order for the studio to remain open, we must take in enough money to sustain our staff of teachers while covering the costs of running a studio. Sliding scale allows students to pay what they are able to afford within the sliding scale range on any given day, while taking into account the realities that a studio cannot offer classes for free.
What is a sliding scale?
The price varies according to the ability of the individual to pay. Students determine for themselves what price within the $7-15 they are able to pay each time they attend class based on their income level and financial situation. The expectation is that those who are more comfortable financially will choose to pay at the higher end while students with less financial flexibility would pay a more affordable price toward the lower end of the scale.
Where Does the Money Go?
The money goes to pay the teachers as well as cover the costs of maintaining and running the studio. 100% of the studio's income comes from its students.
Why Sliding Scale?
Many students cannot afford to regularly attend classes at the standard rates. Since it is our mission to make yoga classes accessible to the community, we are offering classes that will be affordable to a wider spectrum of people. We think that being fair doesn't necessarily mean everyone pays the same, but it does mean that everyone has the opportunity to study here.
At the same time, in order for the studio to remain open, we must take in enough money to sustain our staff of teachers while covering the costs of running a studio. Sliding scale allows students to pay what they are able to afford within the sliding scale range on any given day, while taking into account the realities that a studio cannot offer classes for free.
About BYC
The Brooklyn Yoga Collective is a diverse group of yoga practitioners and educators with unique backgrounds and stylistic approaches to yoga. Our collective focus includes classical Hatha, Iyengar, Jivamukti, & Vinyasa flow traditions. While the classes and teaching styles may vary considerably, BYC is tied together by our dedication to sharing the teachings and benefits of yoga in a way that is accessible to everyone. We encourage students to explore all of our classes to find which ones work best for them. All levels & bodies are welcome. Sliding scale pricing, $7-$15 per class.BYC values community, both on and off the mat. BYC is part of LaunchPad, a Brooklyn based non-profit organization focused on community building and the arts, and BYC has an active hand in helping shape our local neighborhood. Our support of community is also focused inward -- to help foster a cohesive relationship between our studio instructors and our studio business, BYC employs a collective payment model. BYC allocates a large percentage of our studio revenue toward our instructors' pay, and each instructor is paid an equal amount per class, based on the shared revenue system. In most other yoga studio, instructors are compensated based on class size/popularity. In some yoga studios, instructors are paid a flat rate per class. In comparison, we believe the BYC model serves to:
- eliminate competition amongst instructors who might otherwise vie for student attention and/or the most desirable class times
- encourages instructors to teach classes based on the value to the students, even if those classes are not "popular" or do not have high monetary earning potential (i.e. specialized classes)
- maintains a fair relationship between the success of the studio as a business and the reward to the instructors as workers; as the studio business grows, so too does instructor compensation
