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, on a women's rowing team, and a mother of a young child. 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. [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]
Ellen Kamoe
A former Polynesian dancer, Ellen’s interest in yoga developed from a need to open the body and center the mind. Her classes approach the asanas gradually through gentle opening stretches, strengthening poses, and attention to alignment. Ellen's goal is to create a nurturing environment where students feel safe to challenge their current edge and also to respect their bodies and rest when they need. This June, Ellen will graduate from The Yoga Room's Advanced Studies Program, a 500-hour teaching certification in the Iyengar tradition. Ellen's teaching is inspired by the wisdom of her primary teachers, Ada Shedlock and Mary Lou Weprin, as well as by her own practice. [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]
Nasi Raissian
Nasi has been practicing yoga since 1996. Inspired by teachers such as Elise Browning Miller and Donald Moyer, she has become a dedicate yoga practitioner. She believes that yoga can transformed any body in becoming flexible and strong, but more importantly, yoga can make you aware of your body and your abilities both on and off the matt. It is this awareness that she shares with her students showing them what they can do with their asana practice and how they can take that experience into their life to remain sane and centered. Nasi is in the third year of her studies at the Yoga Room’s Advanced Studies Program and is continuing her own studies with Donald Moyer and Sandy Blaine. Contact Nasi with questions about pre-natal yoga at nraissian [at] mac.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. [back to top]
Dawn Adams
Dawn Adams has been practicing yoga for over ten years. 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 is currently finishing her second year of the Advanced Studies Program at the Yoga Room in Berkeley, where 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 [at ] 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. [back to top]
Rebecca Dixon
Rebecca Dixon has had a daily meditation practice since 1992, and has taught in a variety of settings since 1998. A graduate of Spirit Rock's Community Dharma Leader program, she leads a sitting group on Monday nights in Oakland and co-teaches a bi-monthly dharma study group. Her practice has included Zen and Vipassana, and many long retreats. Rebecca helped found the East Bay Meditation Center and has shared the benefits of meditation with hospice patients, incarcerated women, and the chemically dependant. She is a member of the Redwood City Insight Meditation Center's Chaplaincy Council, and hopes to help make it possible for all people to meditate in a welcoming and supportive group. [back to top]
JoAnn Lyons
JoAnn Lyons began her study of yoga over 35 years ago in Indianapolis, Indiana and began teaching yoga in 1991 in Vero Beach, Florida. In 1996 she moved to Oakland, California to participate in the first Advanced Studies Program at the Piedmont Yoga Studio with Rodney Yee. JoAnn holds an Advanced Relax & Renew Trainer Certificate, from Judith Lasater, and is one of a select group of Senior Teachers assisting Judith. She credits her current teachers, Donald Moyer and Judith Lasater with helping her put herself back together again from a very old injury that left her dealing with chronic pain for several years.
Since 1996, she has been sharing her love of yoga in classes for people with special needs and disabilities. Her teaching is grounded in her observation and knowledge of the body, and her intuitive awareness of both the needs and potential of her students. JoAnn offers workshops and apprenticeships on teaching yoga to people with disabilities as well as private sessions. [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]