After
Bon'L "Bhakti's" first
Integral Yoga class, she knew right away that she was hooked. Since then
her love and passion for yoga has continued to deepen over the years.
Bhakti is a graduate in Integral Yoga through the Satchidananda Ashram. She has studied with a medley of teachers and gives sincere thanks to each of them. She has also spent time in India practicing and learning Yoga traditions. Bhakti's approach to yoga is gentle and meditative. Her classes incorporate bodily postures (asanas), breathing practices (pranayama), deep relaxation and chanting. Bhakti uses a variety of music in her classes, ranging from Krishna Das to Tibetan Bells, which make them vibrant and melodious.
Bhakti specializes in hatha yoga and yoga for children. She holds a black belt in American Freestyle Karate and is certified in Thai Yoga and Ayurvedic Massage.
Tilak's
love and fascination with yoga has led him to study with many teachers
throughout the U.S. and India, but most importantly it continues
to take him
to
his mat every morning. His unique teaching style is creative, passionate,
and influenced most by his work with Yoga Masters Sri Swami Satchidananda
and Erich Schiffmann. He holds degree is Religious Studies, Literature & Religion,
and has studied Sanskrit at the American Sanskrit Institute and the
University of Virginia. Tilak's yoga classes are fun, challenging,
and meaningful. He recently released his first DVD, Yoga:
Altar of the Heart.
Sarabeth is a lifelong learner and lover of the human body. She holds a masters degree in Health Sciences and has been practicing yoga for ten years. She loves movement of the body and finds yoga to be a wonderful way to both invigorate the senses and calm the mind. Sarabeth's classes are challenging and fun. She is a seeker of knowledge and is not aftraid to try new things in class!!! She wants to help you understand how your body responds to movement and feels everyone can benefit from yoga at any stage of their life. She studied under Grace Morales at Charlotte Yoga in North Carolina and is a registered yoga teacher with the yoga alliance. Sarabeth lives in Staunton with her husband and two daughters who are growing way too fast!!
David experimented with many genres of yoga before discovering that his teachers, direct and indirect, were housed at Shanti Yoga of Staunton, VA. After several years of study with some of the coolest kids on the block, David obtained his RYT at Charlottesville Yoga School of Charlottesville, VA. This unique blend of training resulted in a teaching style appropriate for advanced yogis, those who simply can’t touch their toes, and (almost) everyone in-between. His classes are melodic with time for silence and render the practitioner a state of being they’ll want to take off the mat. David is now a resident of the west coast but does teach when he finds himself in town.
Linda has had a lifelong passion for helping people to achieve a better life, first in the field of community mental health and now in various healing energy practices. She holds a Blue Belt in Nia (a body-mind practice which incorporates 9 different movement forms), is a Usui Reiki Master (a form on energy healing) and is certified in Kids Yoga, Laughter Yoga, Past Life Regression, and Tai Chi for Health. Her bliss is being realized by offering these classes and seeing the positive experiences the participants have. Her hope is for Shanti to continue to grow as a Healing Center for our community. Her philosophy for life is to dance and laugh through it. As we say in Laughter Yoga, "Very good, very good, yay!!!!"
Anna Shapiro is an independent artist who lives and works in Staunton, VA. She holds a degree in Sculpture from the Rhode Island School od Design and is currently a fulltime textile designer. When she's not creating in her studio, Anna is a yoga and pilates enthusiast. She has been a student of both practices for the past 9 years and has founde that the two compliment one another very well. In 2009 she received her Pilates Certification from the Pilates Method Alliance. In February 2011, Anna completed her 200hr RYTT teacher training through Frog Lotus Studio in Costa Rica with Vidya Jacqueline Heisel. Anna's classes are heartfelt and challenging, blending Iyengar alignments with dynamic Vinyasa flow. Teaching yoga has filled her life with a new sense of purpose, love, and devotion to one's practice.
Kristine first experienced the gifts of yoga in 2004. The class was free; offered in a coffee shop after hours. Her lasting impression: “This is me. I need to follow this.” She started teaching yoga, as a staff person, to patients in the acute wards of a state psychiatric hospital. First, it was only standing poses on the tiled floor – with the furniture pushed to the side, in the dayroom. Later, she obtained state funds to purchase twenty mats . . . mats that were often used, sometimes fought over, and occasionally utilized by the patients for swatting each other. Teaching these people for two and a half years, who were mostly men awaiting trial or serving sentences, solidified for Kristine that yoga is a gift for everyone: Everyone can participate, can benefit, can use it as a tool, can explore its depth beyond the poses, can shine. Under the guidance of John Newman, owner of East-West Yoga in Harrisonburg, VA, Kristine completed a basic yoga teacher certification through the America Aerobics Association and International Society for Sports Medicine. She anticipates continuing more formal yoga education through Yoga Alliance when finances allow. Her classes are inspired by a variety of sources and influenced by the Ashtanga and Iyengar yoga traditions. They unfold with an emphasis on the breath, on the flow, on the rhythm -- and on the still and quiet undercurrent beneath the movement, words and thoughts.
Donna Williams has brought her love of teaching to many of her life's passions. She holds a degree in classical piano performance and over the past 28 years has taught music, outdoor experiential adventure, timber framing, and yoga. Donna took her first yoga classes in California in 1989, but dedicated herself to a daily practice five years ago as a way to heal her body from the abuses of timber framing, backpacking, and playing a musical instrument! In January 2008 she received her 200 hr yoga alliance certification after completing studies with Anna Pittman at The Breathing Space in Blacksburg, Va. Currently she is working towards her 500 hr yoga certification with master teacher Shiva Rea in the style of Prana Flow Yoga.
Come to class prepared to move through an often vigorous, always pranifying, vinyasa flow. Using strengthening and opening asanas this practice unites mind and body with synchronized movement and breath.
Sheree Kiser has been active in the field of fitness for many, many years.
She has taught a variety of fitness classes over the years. As she
became older and wiser (she hopes), she came to realize that taking
care of one’s body and mind was equally important. Sheree’s
first endeavor into a mind-body class was Pilates. She became certified
and enjoys teaching these classes. For Sheree, the logical progression
from Pilates was to “try” yoga. After her first yoga class,
she knew there was something that yoga offered that other classes she
had experienced did not . Sheree’s love of yoga and teaching
lead her to the conclusion that yoga needed to be part of her life.
She felt the need to become a yoga teacher and share the happiness
she feels when experiencing yoga. Since this realization, Sheree has
become an RYT 200 with Yoga Alliance. Her style of teaching is a vinyasa
flow. Her trainings include restorative, therapeutic, senior, prenatal,
and yoga for children. Sheree loves learning from her students and
other yoga teachers. One thing that she has discovered as she continues
her yoga journey is that the more you learn, the more you realize that
there is always more to learn AND that is a good thing. One of Sheree’s
favorite quotes says it all to her………
“
I am beginning to learn that it is the sweet, simple things of life which
are the real ones after all.” Laura Ingalls Wilder
Ginger began her Yoga journey while living in Vermont many years ago. In 2008 she started training and working towards becoming a yoga teacher with Beth Shaw’s school of YogaFit based in California. Ginger completed her 200 hours of yoga trainings as well as trainings in Kids’, Seniors and Prenatal yoga. She is a registered yoga teacher with Yoga Alliance. Ginger enjoys yoga workshops, having taken everything from Pranayama workshops at Yogaville to “Yoga En Fuego!” with Jane Vaganek Bahneman. Ginger teaches a Vinyasa flow yoga class with a mindfulness of linking the breath with the asanas (poses) to form a connection with the mind and body. Ginger also holds certifications as a Personal and Group Fitness Trainer with AFFA as well as a Star 3 Spin instructor certification with Mad Dog Athletics. Ginger is an avid skier, cyclist, hiker and traveler. She and her husband live in Staunton, VA with their two labs, Bode and Emmy, while their 4 children live all across the country!
Received her 200hr certification from Ashtanga Charlottesville in partnership with Charlottesville Yoga School.
