Sandy Blaine
Sandy Blaine is one of the original cofounders and a co-director, with Betsy Weiss, of the Alameda Yoga Station. She has been practicing yoga since 1987, and teaching full time since 1993. Sandy taught yoga at UC Berkeley for many years, and she is a faculty member of the Berkeley Yoga Room's Advanced Studies Program, from which she graduated herself in 1995. Sandy has a joyful devotion to her daily yoga practice, and seeks to bring these qualities to her classes, which combine her experience and training in the Iyengar, Ashtanga Vinyasa, and Kripalu methods. Her writing has been published in Yoga Journal, Yoga International, and Ascent magazines. Sandy is the author of the bestselling yoga book, Yoga For Healthy Knees, and the recently released Yoga For Computer Users.
Betsy Weiss
Betsy began practicing yoga in 1988 and has been teaching since 1994. She is one of the original founders and a co-director, with Sandy Blaine, of the Alameda Yoga Station, which opened in 1995. Betsy graduated from the Berkeley Yoga Room's Advanced Studies Program in 1996. She is also an elementary school teacher and on a women's rowing team. Betsy has found yoga provides equanimity to her full life. She finds great joy in assisting other people in their quest for self-awareness through her teaching. Betsy teaches restorative classes the last week of every month as an antidote to our busy lives. Contact Betsy via e-mail at betsy@alamedayogastation.com. [back to top]
Nancy Leigh-Smith
Nancy Leigh-Smith, M.A., has been teaching yoga classes since 1999. Her background includes degrees in music and education, and experience studying and teaching in Europe, Asia, Australia and India as well as the United States. Following an automobile accident in 1997, she began to focus on the practice of asana and is awed by the opportunity yoga affords for healing mind and body, and renewing the spirit. She has studied primarily Iyengar-style hatha yoga, and has been influenced and inspired by her classes with Donald Moyer, Mary Lou Weprin, Judith Lasater, Roger Cole and John Friend, as well as her ten-month apprenticeship with Gay White and classes with Sandy Blaine. She is a graduate of the three-year Advanced Studies Program at The Yoga Room in Berkeley, holds a California State Teaching Credential in Health and Safety/Physical Fitness, and is an Advanced Relax and Renew Trainer. Nancy's teaching is deeply connected to her own experience of practicing yoga in the middle years of life. Visit her site at www.yogainthemiddle.org. [back to top]
Amanda Sharpe
Amanda started practicing yoga in 1998 after working as a Physical Therapist for sixteen years. The study of Yoga has been a natural progression for her, building upon her knowledge of anatomy and human movement. She has recently graduated from the Advanced Studies program at The Yoga Room in Berkeley and is truly inspired by her teachers; Donald Moyer and Mary Lou Weprin.
Her approach to teaching is one of sharing her experience and the sense of contentment and well being that the practice of yoga brings into her own life, and helping students find ease, comfort and space in their asana practice.
Amanda teaches classes in Oakland, Castro Valley and Alameda, including classes for people with limited mobility at the Cerebral Palsy Centre in Oakland. She is also a Certified Yoga for the Special Child teacher. [back to top]
Jon Morgan
Jon accelerated his study of Iyengar yoga after it brought continued functionality while suffering through herniated discs in 1999. A graduate of The Yoga Room in Berkeley, Jon teaches from the perspective that yoga is for everyone, made accessible via appropriate propping. He blends his degrees in Biomechanics and Philosophy & Religion into alignment-based asana sequences informed by one's breath. [back to top]
Marcia Newlin
Marcia Newlin began practicing yoga in the late 1980's and is a graduate of the Advanced Studies Teacher-Training Program from the Yoga Room in Berkeley, California. She enjoys sharing the benefits of the practice with her students — whatever their level — with challenging yet approachable sequences to gain greater strength, flexibility, and balance, along with a sense of lightness in the body and calmness in the mind. She is a certified Relax & Renew trainer, and she draws inspiration from her own teachers; Donald Moyer, Mary Lou Weprin, and Sandy Blaine. Visit her website yogawithmarcia.com [back to top]
Lylia Guion
Lylia Guion graduated in 2003 from the Feldenkrais Berkeley training under Elisabeth Beringer, David Zemach-Bersin and Carol Kress supervision. Her background as a professional violinist brought her to this unique approach back in 1996. The Feldenkrais method is a very gentle and safe way to regain flexibility, release tension, become more aware of ourselves and eventually feel better. She is now delighted to offer this class. [back to top]
Johanna Svedberg
Johanna Svedberg is a certified yoga instructor and has taught yoga and meditation in the East Bay for several years. Her classes are known for being insightful and challenging with a vinyasa flow, longer held breath-centered poses and guided self-reflection. Different themes of mindfulness and yoga are explored in her classes, with an emphasis on integrating these practices into our daily lives. She co-teaches mother/daughter, child/parent and teen classes with her children and offers private yoga and yoga therapy sessions. Contact Johanna at 510.520.5183, via e-mail at JohannaYogini@comcast.net or visit her website at www.johannasyoga.com for more information. [back to top]
Dawn Adams
Dawn Adams has been practicing yoga since the mid-1990s. She took her first class at the Alameda Yoga Station in 1996 (on a whim) and has since studied under experienced teachers such as Sandy Blaine, JoAnn Lyons, and Donald Moyer. Dawn graduated from the Advanced Studies Program at the Yoga Room in Berkeley in 2009 and she continues to deepen her personal practice. Yoga has become an integral part of her life, especially because of its nurturing and centering aspects. Through practicing yoga, she has found that undoing is just as important as doing. In her teaching, she hopes to instill a sense of adventure and exploration of yoga, with a focus on finding balance and joy through practice. Dawn can be contacted at yogadawn@earthlink.net. [back to top]
Susan Mochizuki
Susan Mochizuki has practiced yoga with Sandy Blaine since 2004 and holds a Teaching Certificate in children's yoga from Its Yoga Kids in San Francisco. She is inspired to share yoga with children to help them develop body awareness, mindfulness and self-confidence. Her classes incorporate fun and engaging yoga poses with music, cooperative games and relaxation exercises to encourage children to open their hearts and minds and build strength, flexibility and focus. As a mother of a 5 year old and 9 month old, teaching yoga to children brings together her 2 passions and she is thrilled to be part of the AYS teaching staff and to share the joys of yoga with young children. Contact Susan via email at kids.yoga@yahoo.com. [back to top]
Barbara Steiber
Barbara Steiber has been a student of yoga for twenty years, and has been teaching since graduating from the Berkeley Yoga Room in 1996. Her teaching style is influenced by studies over the years with Rodney Yee, Angela Farmer, Mary Paffard, Pattabhi Jois in India(1992), and Anusara yoga. Most recently she has been in a 2-year training, Embodied Anatomy and Yoga, with Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen.
In her classes Barbara focuses on a sequence of asanas to maximize the body's natural ease and aliveness in each one of the forms. She works with students to bring about a sense of enjoyment and balance, as well as a deepening of the connection between the body and mind. Barbara views yoga practice as system of body movements that will help the sustain and support the well being of a person health and fitness, over the many years of one's life. [back to top]
Barbara Lande
Barbara Lande is a graduate of the Advanced Studies Program at the Yoga Room in Berkeley. She studies with Donald Moyer, Sandy Blaine and Nancy Leigh-Smith, among others, and has 20 years of Pilates training, 11 years as a student of Jean-Claude West. Barbara became interested in movement as a teen gymnast and later taught gymnastics, flexibility and conditioning classes. She studied theatre dance in college with Broadway dancer Shamus Murphy. Her teaching style is patient and respectful. She breaks down the poses into attainable movements that add up to a stimulating and fun experience. She loves sharing her knowledge with her students. Contact Barbara via e-mail at downdogstudio@mac.com. [back to top]
Cheryl Fenner Brown
Cheryl Fenner Brown is a 2004 Piedmont Yoga Studio Advanced Studies graduate and is current studying to become a Professional Yoga Therapist through Integrative Yoga Therapy. She teaches in the Hatha tradition with humor and compassion. After finding yoga as a way to ease the pain of scoliosis she has become enchanted by the subtle connections between the breath, body, mind, and emotions. She encourages her students to honor where they are in their bodies and helps injured students use their practice as a way to heal. She is the director of the Living with Cancer program and also designs websites for small businesses. [back to top]
Dina Hondrogen
Dina Hondrogen has been teaching yoga since 1997 in the San Francisco Bay Area. She holds a certificate from the Iyengar Yoga Institute in San Francisco. She was drawn to yoga after the pain from a chronic neck problem and then injury became unbearable and she had to stop working and dancing. The use of props and in depth instruction of Iyengar Yoga, brought her relief and gave her the tools to heal herself. She became an enthusiastic practitioner, then attended the Iyengar Yoga Institute for 2 years. Soon after this, she studied other types of Yoga, Ayurveda, Pilates, and various forms of movement and meditation which she integrated into her teaching. Dina continues to be open to new tools and techniques, melding the best into her practice. She places emphasis not only on the body but also works with the mind and emotions which she feels is a central aspect of yoga. She is the mother of two and wife of one. [back to top]
Sharon Olson
Completing the PYS Advanced Training in 2007 and a 2009 Yoga Therapy program formalized Sharon’s 30 years of yoga sampling and study. A naturally flexible body learned its strengths and weakness; the mind learned acceptance and celebration of both while the spirit learned discipline and ease. The path led to deeply rewarding relationships with mentor teachers, Baxter Bell, JoAnn Lyons and Cheryl Fenner Brown reaching students of limited mobility and chronic illness. The mystery of the breath, body and mind inspire her to share her training and intuition to connect others to their own strength, power and joy. Bringing gentle loving kindness to our bodies and minds through restorative asana, meditation, practice and laughter can change the world. [back to top]
Katrina LaShea
Katrina attended her 1st yoga class in 1985 after experiencing a back injury and a need to increase her flexibility. Over the years, she has developed a passion for the art and science of yoga for self-healing. Her teaching is greatly influenced by the faculty at The Yoga Room in Berkeley, especially with her primary teachers Sandy Blaine and Mary Lou Weprin. In 2008 she graduated from the Yoga Room’s Advanced Studies program. She is currently the in-house yoga instructor for Kaiser Permanente Educational Theatre Programs. She teaches an Iyengar-based class using props to discover the ease and peace that comes with ones' body when it is safely aligned and supported. [back to top]
Ande Ball
Ande Ball is a long time student of yoga, primarily in the Iyengar tradition. It was during her first class in 1999 that she felt inklings of the peace and inner healing that could and would come about through asana and the broader study of yoga. By her third class Ande knew she would one day become a yoga instructor. Ande regards all of her yoga-based guides with high esteem, including Linda Bostrom & Jito Yumibe, Judith Lasater, Sarah Powers, Phid Simons, Rod Stryker and Mary Lou Weprin. She hopes to inspire all her students to find, know and embrace the love deep within.
If you'd like to contact Ande, she may be reached at andejan@ymail.com.
Nancy Clarke
Nancy Clarke has been teaching Hatha Yoga with skill and care, along with healthy doses of playfulness and zeal, since 2006, and holds a 400-hour teacher training certificate from her studies with Susannah Bruder of Yoga Sita. She is inspired by Shadow Yoga, a modern school of Hatha Yoga (created by Zhander Remete, Nancy's teacher's teacher), which distills wisdom of ancient Yoga texts and practices, martial arts, and classical Indian dance. In her classes there is a broad experience of Yoga's eight limbs; it's Nancy's belief that Yoga provides practical training for real freedom. More about Nancy at www.nancyoga.com.
Jeff Hippler
Jeff recently moved to the Bay area from West Virgina where he had been teaching regular classes and workshops for the past seven years. Jeff likes to use the Ashtanga Yoga sequences of poses as the basic foundation and then build subtleties into the practice as our minds, bodies, and breath become more open to experiencing these finer levels of pranic energy. By repetitious practice of a subset of the myriad of possible yoga asanas, the practice gradually becomes less about the postures and more about understanding what is behind these poses.
Jeff has been studying yoga for over 20 years, his experience extends beyond Ashtanga Yoga to include hatha yoga, Power Yoga, vinyasa krama, and kryiayoga. He has attended numerous extended workshops with David Swenson, Doug Swenson, David Williams, Tim Miller, Rodney Yee, Bryan Kest, and Pam Johnson. He is also a student of Swami Vidyadhishananda. Jeff also holds a doctorate in chemical engineering. [back to top]