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In high school, Shana Kuhn-Siegel found mentorship from a beloved theater teacher whose mantra of instruction remains indelible in her mind, “Do the work”. Through improvisation and movement, a yoga practice was born, one that started as self study outside the asana classroom. It was not until college, that Shana began to explore yoga more traditionally, beginning with her early visits to the Sivananda center in Manhattan. Her passion for the physical practice, however, did not fully ignite until she found Astanga. Disenchanted with the monotony of the treadmill that she was on, she renounced her shoes and began Mysore classes at a local Crunch gym. This experience led to a daily practice and more in-depth study with such teachers as Richard Freeman. Shana also had the great fortune of working privately with Rebecca Menashe, a Jivamukti certified teacher, who introduced her to the philosophical teachings found in such texts as the Yoga Sutras and the Bhagavad Gita. In 2003, Shana took her practice on the road when she enrolled in the Peace Corps. Each morning, her practice of the Primary Series became the most watched program in her small village in Paraguay, South America. Returning prematurely from service to care for her dying grandmother, Shana found the true power of sangha at Yoga Shanti in Sag Harbor that has helped her to become the teacher she is today. There Shana enrolled in a year long teacher training program to receive her certification. Shana is endlessly grateful and bows humbly to her teachers Jessica Bellofatto and Colleen Saidman who believed in her potential and offered instruction from a place of the utmost compassion and sincerity. Their lessons remain the force behind Shana’s asana instruction and her spiritual inquiry.