Sofi is an advanced certified Jivamukti Yoga Instructor who has been teaching Yoga since 1997. She was first certified by Alan Finger in the tradition of Ishta Yoga, and soon after found her foremost teachers David Life and Sharon Gannon, co- founders of Jivamukti Yoga. Along with David and Sharon, Sofi cites contemporary philosopher Alan Watts, and senior Jivmaukti instuctors Uma Nanda Saraswati and and Ruth Lauer-Manenti as her main influences. Sofi is also the founder and co-director of “I’ll Yoga For You” – Yoga Vermont’s community outreach program.

Sofi lives in Burlington, Vermont with her daughter, Delia, and her poodle, Penny.

Listen to her Podcast on iTunes, or go to www.bowdownyoga.com to download episodes.

Connie: “I am Connie Chan, the founder and owner of Levitate. I had never dreamed of opening a yoga studio. In fact, I was the most unlikely candidate to even try yoga. In my earlier days I drank, smoked and stayed out until many sunrises. Fitness wasn’t in my vocabulary, and anything with “spirit”uality in it was almost always followed by a hangover. I was your average out-of-shape, stressed-out, jaded New Yorker. Then I discovered Yoga Shanti, a yoga studio in Sag Harbor, New York and it altered my lifestyle. I started practicing yoga regularly and my life changed considerably. Yoga has given me happiness, awareness and joy. My love for the practice has inspired me to open my own studio, where people can practice in a warm and friendly environment. I invite you to visit Levitate, and hopefully change your life as well.”

www.levitateyoga.com

780 Eighth Avenue, 3 rd floor
(Between 47 th and 48 th Streets)
New York, NY 10036
tel 212.974-2288

Wade Imre Morissette creates his own original blend of indie rock/pop music, combining Sanskrit mantra chants and English lyrics in his highly anticipated third kirtan chant album.

An accomplished musician and yoga teacher, he unites his two passions – yoga and music – in a fusion of Eastern influenced musical arrangements with Western sensibilities.

Collaborating with the award winning producer, David Nichtern, Maha Moha: The Great Delusion, uses an array of instruments from tabla, sitar, Bansuri (bamboo flute), guitar and harmonium and sound clips from around the world, including, horse carriages recorded in China. This album draws in listeners to a connection of humanness and spirituality, through the darker elements of suffering and the light of hope and faith.

Known around the world for his abilities as a teacher, spiritually and musically, his worldwide tour has included stops in Tokyo, Hong Kong, Australia, New Zealand, Mexico and 32 cities in North America. Each of his performances incorporate chanting, kirtan and bliss dance, engaging audiences in a soulful experience of self-discovery and celebration.

His first book, “Living Your Joy” and a series of motivational seminars will be a part of his Winter tour beginning in Jan 2009.Visit Wade online: www.wadeimremorissette.com

Judith Lasater has taught yoga since 1971. She holds a doctorate in East-West psychology and is a physical therapist. Judith is president of the California Yoga Teachers Association, and serves on the advisory boards of Yoga Journal and the Yoga Research and Education Center. 

Her yoga training includes study with B. K. S. Iyengar in India and the United States. She teaches ongoing yoga classes and trains yoga teachers in kinesiology, yoga therapeutics, and the Yoga Sutra in the San Francisco Bay Area. Judith also gives workshops throughout the United States, and has taught in Canada, England, France, Indonesia, Japan, Mexico, Peru, and Russia.

She is the author of six books: A Year of Living Your Yoga, Yoga Abs, Yoga for Pregnancy, 30 Essential Yoga Poses, Living Your Yoga and Relax and Renew.

www.judithlasater.com 

As a fitness expert for the past 20 years, Tony Horton has established himself among the elite in the world of personal fitness training. From Hollywood celebrities and recording artists such as Tom Petty, Shirley MacLaine, Bruce Springsteen, Sean Connery, Annie Lenox, and Ewan McGregor, to the average person looking to lead a healthier lifestyle, Tony’s conditioning skills and motivational abilities are consistently in high demand. His expertise includes circuit, cross, and interval training; weight and resistance training; cardiovascular training; post-rehabilitation; advanced stretching; kickboxing, and yoga. Tony shares his fitness expertise and charming personality in Beachbody’s P90X®, Power 90® programs, and in fitness camps nationwide.

Check out his blog at: http://tonyhorton.blogspot.com/; and his dvds at: www.beachbody.com

James Bailey, LAc, MATCM, MPH, Dipl Ayu
James is a third generation physician and health educator who has been living yoga and ayurveda for 20 years with his wife, yoga teacher Shiva Rea. He practices Oriental Medicine, acupuncture, Ayurveda and Yoga Tantra, aiding patients via acupuncture, clinical Ayurvedic techniques of Pancha Karma detoxification, Chinese and ayurvedic medical herbology, nutrition, marma therapies, pranayama, and meditation. His training includes 5 years (4000+ hours) of formal clinical studies in Oriental Medicine (Yo San University) and training in Ayurveda under such luminary teachers as Dr. Vaijayanti Apte (Dipl Ayu from the Ayurveda Institute of America), Dr. Subash Ranade, Dr. Avinash Lele, Dr. Vasant Lad, Dr. Robert Svoboda, and many Ayurvedic doctors and therapists in Kerala, south India where he spends time teaching and studying while on retreat each year. James teaches Ayurveda and Yoga Tantra meditation workshops worldwide. He is a contributing editor and former columnist for Yoga Journal, Light on Ayurveda, LA Yoga magazine and other wellness magazines. He served as an active Board member of the California Association of Ayurvedic Medicine (CAAM), and is founder of Sevanti Oriental Medicine and Ayurveda in Santa Monica, CA.

Visit James online: www.sevanti.com 

Beth Filla, MSW, E-RYT, Co-Founder YogaWood

Beth met yoga at a gym in 1997. The classes were intense, and required a different kind of focus than anything she had previously encountered. Over the years, dabbling in different styles and types of yoga, Beth has come to recognize the effects of consciously quieting the mind and intentionally facing the physical challenges of yoga practice. The effects have included moving beyond the boundaries of what she thought was possible on her yoga mat and in the rest of her life. Having worked as a social worker with various community based programs in Philadelphia and as a high school English teacher right here in Collingswood, Beth has always been most inspired by helping people work toward finding their greatest potential. Since completing her Vinyasa Yoga Teacher Training with Corina Benner and Jill Manning at Wake Up Yoga in Philadelphia and her Pilates Mat certification with Sylvia Byrd-Leitner at Pilates Core Center she has been encouraging her students to see the power of placing their intentions and the wonder of each breath.

Visit Beth online: www.yogawood.com

Shan, as she is known to her students and friends, is the founder and muse of om time. She is an activist, an eternal optimist, and a lover of the flow of grace within everyone. She is truly here to be part of the collective flow that is “changing the world one downward dog at a time.”

Shannon founded and teaches Anjali Restorative Yoga, a deeply restful and healing yoga practice. The practitioner is guided through meditations and thoughtful visualizations, while the body is held and supported by bolsters, pillows, and blankets. By resting deeply, the body engages its natural ability to heal and reset. The effect is profoundly nurturing, thoughtful, and balancing.

Shannon has been a dedicated assistant to Shiva Rea and the Global Vinyasa Collective since 2005. She teaches and mentors Prana Vinyasa Flow, an energetic, creative full-spectrum approach to embodying the flow of yoga. This style was founded and cultivated by Shiva Rea and the Global Vinyasa Collective of Teachers. Students of all levels are empowered to experience prana (the universal source of breath, life energy and conscious intelligence) as the navigating source of yoga practice and vital living. Practitioners learn classical and innovative approaches to vinyasa yoga and the state of flow drawn from Krishnamacharya’s teachings, Tantra, Ayurveda, and Bhakti.

As proof of yoga’s healing power, Shannon believes in and practices all that she teaches. Her smile, her laughter, and her enthusiasm for living is happily contagious. Her courage and compassion breathe energy, as well as being an inspiration for potential to all her students. Shannon began yoga in 1993. A traumatic illness led her in a search to regain her health and uplift her spirits.

Many different teachers and styles have influenced her over the past decade: Shiva Rea, John Friend, Judith Lasater, Dr. Douglas Brooks, Sianna Sherman, Amy Ippoliti, Jaime Allison and Cindy Lusk. Shannon has been featured in Alternative Health Magazine and Yoga International. She presents for Yoga Journal Conferences and leads weekly classes in Boulder and Denver, as well as workshops, intensives, teacher trainings and retreats nationally and internationally. For more information or direct inquiries, please email, shannon@omtime.com. www.omtime.com

Chrissy is a senior teacher and teacher trainer at Yoga Works in New York. Her combination of intelligent sequencing with a breath- centered practice encourages her students to explore their own personal edge with consciousness and purpose. Known for her sense of humor and her light-hearted approach, Chrissy’s classes reveal how yoga can infuse the everyday. Her teaching style blends precision and alignment with the teachings of Krishnamacharya, guiding the practice inward towards the divine. Chrissy worked on Wall Street as an equities sales trader before making her part-time passion for teaching yoga a full-time career in 2004. A writer, singer, self-proclaimed domestic Goddess and gastronome, she strives to find yoga in all aspects of her life and invites her students to do the same!

www.yogachrissy.com