YOGA EVOLUTION

Our Tradition (Asana)

	Sri T. Krishnamacharya
TKV Desikachar	Sri K. Pattabhi Jois	BKS Iyengar

Our Inspirations and Influencers

Asana

Ron Reid & Marla Meenakshi Joy – Ashtanga and Swaha Yoga

Ron Reid has been practicing Yoga for over 30 years and teaching since 1988. He is co-owner and Director of the Downward Dog Yoga Centres in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Ron has studied with Sri K. Pattabhi Jois and Sharath both in India and North America and was one of the first Canadian teachers to be authorized by Pattabhi Jois. In addition to regular classes at Downward Dog, he conducts workshops and teacher trainings in Canada, the U.S., Europe, the U.K. and Asia, and is becoming a familiar face at various conferences around the world. Ron is one of Canada’s top teachers, approaching teaching in an inspired, informed and non-dogmatic way. He places the needs of the students ahead of the demands of the practice. While continuing to teach and practice the Ashtanga Vinyasa system as a foundation, he endeavors to blend tradition with innovation, and to balance precision with grace. Students will find his refined approach to practice both challenging and rewarding. Ron is also an accomplished musician and composer and performs with his partner Marla Meenakshi Joy under their group name “Swaha”.

Meenakshi (Marla Joy) first traveled to India in 1988 to study meditation and the philosophy of the Vedas with Swami Shyam, as well as other learned scholars in the Himalayas. She is a Certified Meditation and Yoga Philosophy teacher from the International Meditation Institute in Kullu, Himachal Pradesh, Himalayas. She currently teaches Ashtanga Yoga, Swaha Yoga, Restorative Yoga, Yogadance, Meditation, Yoga philosophy, Sanskrit, and Chanting privately and in yoga studios in Canada, the U.S. The UK, Europe and Asia. She has been teaching Sanskrit and yoga philosophy in Teacher Training courses since 1999, in Toronto and abroad. She has been a practicing Shiatsu Therapist since 1993, and has a healing and informative touch. She also leads Kirtan (call-and-response chanting) with her band SWAHA, with inspired musical compositions with her partner/keyboardist, Ron Reid. She has produced three CD’s of Sanskrit chanting Prayer’s, Salutations, and Vishnu’s Dream, as well as their newest release entitled Bolo.

Richard Freeman – Ashtanga Yoga

Richard Freeman has been a student of yoga since 1968. He has spent nearly nine years in Asia studying various traditions which he incorporates into the Ashtanga yoga practice as taught by his principal teacher, K. Pattabhi Jois of Mysore, India. Richard’s background includes studying Sufism in Iran, Zen and Vipassana Buddhist practice, Bhakti and traditional Hatha yoga in India. Starting in 1974 he also began an in-depth study of Iyengar yoga, which eventually led him to Ashtanga Vinyasa yoga. Richard is an avid student of both Western and Eastern philosophy, as well as Sanskrit. His ability to juxtapose various viewpoints, without losing the depth and integrity of each, has helped him develop a unique, metaphorical teaching style.

Richard teaches public classes at the Yoga Workshop in Boulder, Colorado, USA as well as spending a good part of each year traveling as a guest instructor, teaching at studios throughout the world. As the founder of the Yoga Workshop, Richard sets the standard for the classes at the studio. As part of that he offers Teacher Intensive courses and special classes through the Yoga Workshop and also gives Studio Talks on Indian philosophy at the studio on a regular basis. He is the author of the book, The Mirror of Yoga (Shambhala Publications).

Shiva Rea – Prana Flow Yoga

Shiva Rea is a yogini, activist and leading innovator in the evolution of Prana Flow Yoga, a transformational vinyasa flow yoga integrating the tantric bhakti roots of yoga, Krishnamacharya's teachings and a universal, quantum approach to the body. Shiva is known for bringing the roots of yoga alive for modern practitioners in creative, dynamic and life-transforming ways and for offering the synthesis form of prana flow out in the world. Shiva is the creator of Prana Flow Yoga, Yogadventure Retreats, Yoga Trance Dance for Life, Moving Activism for 1,008,000 Trees, the worldwide Global Mala Project, Yogini Conferences and E2: The Evolutionary Edge Tour. She has studied intensively with Chuck Miller and Maty Ezraty at YogaWorks in the Ashtanga Vinyasa tradition for almost 10 years, as well as directly with Pattabhi Jois, Eddie Modestini Erich Schiffman, Lisa Walford, Richard Freeman, Tim Miller, Gary Kraftsow, Annie Grover, Shankara Narayena, Aadil Palikhava, Donna Farhi and Rod Stryker. She honour the many teachers that have provided guidance and inspiration. She earned her Master of Arts in Dance Studies from the University of California at Los Angeles, where her graduate thesis 'Hatha Yoga as a Practice of Embodiment' forms the foundation of her teaching and innovation. She writes for Yoga Journal, Yoga Plus Joyful Living, is the author of award-winning CD's and DVD's, and contributor to many publications and features.

Cyndi Lee – OM Yoga

Cyndi Lee founded OM yoga center in New York City in 1998. Her first yoga class was in college in 1972. After completing her MFA thesis on Women, Spirituality and Indian Dance at UC, Irvine, Cyndi arrived in New York as a recipient of an Art History Fellowship to the Whitney Museum of American Art. This was a wonderful opportunity to learn but not enough cash so Cyndi began teaching yoga in Greenwich Village.
 
Soon she became a fixture in NYC’s downtown modern dance scene, choreographing and performing primarily in XXY Dance/Music and Cyndi Lee Dance Company/Big Moves, Inc. Cyndi also choreographed over 20 music videos for Rick James, Simple Minds, Appolonia, the Dirty Dancing soundtrack, and many more including Cyndi Lauper’s “Girls Just Want to Have Fun,” which won the 1983 MTV Best Female Video of the Year award.
 
After meeting her root guru, Gelek Rinpoche, in the late 1980s, Cyndi’s practice of yoga and Buddhism merged with her choreography. In 1994, "Dharma Dances" was her last concert, which featured Allen Ginsberg singing his own songs and accompanying himself on harmonium.

Cyndi lives in New York City with her husband, David Nichtern, an Emmy award winning musician and meditation teacher, and their chocolate poodle, Leroy Brown.

Philosophy

Chögyam Trungpa – Shambhala Buddhism

François Lorin - Yoga Philosophy