East Yoga

Kari Harendorf

Kari discovered yoga in 1996 while recovering from a knee injury suffered during the Off-Broadway production of "Tony 'n Tina's Wedding". Inspired, she has been practicing ever since, becoming certified through the Integral Yoga Teacher Training Program in 2002, the Bhava Teacher Training program in 2003, and the founding of East Yoga Center in 2004.

Kari’s passion for yoga continues through her continued study with John Friend in the anusara tradition of yoga and Rodney Yee, who never fails to change her practice again and again.

Kari is also an accomplished dog trainer, having merged her passion for yoga and dogs with a monthly Dog Yoga class at East Yoga. This has led to features in numerous publications, including Yoga Journal, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal as well as the 2005 Animal Planet television series, “K9 Karma” which followed Kari and her dog Charlie both in and out of the yoga studio.

Abby Allen

Born and raised in New York City, as a young child Abby Allen was made to sit on a cushion in silence and turn her body into bridges, wheels and frogs. The words “meditation” and “Yoga” meant nothing. Years later, her obsession with all things intense and physical drew her to a Bikram yoga class, and from there, she re-discovered the incredible, transformative power of the Yoga practice, ultimately falling in love with the rhythmic flow of Vinyasa. She credits Yoga as the one thing finally able to restore her spirit after the loss of her father. It was Yoga where she found peace, surrender and joy. It’s Abby’s wish to share that healing and realization of inner strength with students everywhere.

Abby was trained in Conquering Lion Yoga by the fiery, renowned yoga master, Kelly Morris, to whom she's forever grateful. Kelly is one of only a handful of Senior Jivamukti Yoga Teachers in the world and has been featured in New York Magazine, The New York Times, and Yoga Journal as one of New York's premier teachers. Conquering Lion Yoga is one of the only programs that unites two sacred systems: the Indian tradition of Vinyasa and the Tibetan Buddhist Principle Paths of Renunciation, Bodhicitta and Correct View. Abby has also completed children's yoga training with Bija Kids and will be training in Tibetan Heart Yoga this fall.

Before becoming a yoga instructor, Abby attended Columbia University and then many years working in the corporate world, its own form of spiritual challenge.

Camy Becker

Camy discovered yoga four years ago while majoring in theatre at NYU.  Regular practice became a complement to her acting by connecting her more fully to her breath and body. Yoga became an integral part of Camy’s life post- graduation by providing her with stability and grounding while she pursued the unstable path of an actress.  Camy wanted to share her love of yoga, and having taught theatre to children before thought she would try her hand (and feet) at children’s yoga and is so glad she did!

Camy loves children and is constantly inspired by their playfulness, truthfulness, and silliness! A big kid herself, Camy can easily relate to children and make even the shyest of kids feel comfortable in her presence. Camy’s classes encourage the kids (and adults) to participate, play, sing, dance, imagine, and most importantly have tons of fun while learning yoga! Although Camy does not have any children of her own, she does have a baby daschund puppy named Emmy who has recently started practicing doga!

Camy is originally from Florida, is certified by Karma Kids Yoga, and has a BFA in Drama from NYU.

Erin McFarland

Erin began practicing yoga before she really knew what it was: taking a series of stretches and warm-ups done in a Modern Dance class out to play in the sprawling and isolated outdoor campus parks of Texas Christian University, where she received her BFA in Modern Dance.  As a high school dance teacher and company director, her yoga practice served to focus, strengthen, challenge, and reward her dancers.  

After receiving her yoga teacher certification from New York City’s Laughing Lotus College of Yoga, Erin’s path as a yoga teacher began to unfold.  She is currently teaching all bodies, all ages, at yoga studios, high schools, and health clubs throughout all of New York City.  Her dynamic interpretation of Vinyasa Yoga matches breath to the creative and fluid sequencing of asana, with an emphasis on core strength and safe alignment.    

Erin Teague

Erin was first introduced to yoga at the age of 19, through an Iyengar class in Ann Arbor, Michigan.  After experimenting with various styles of yoga, she was drawn in by the creativity of Vinyasa flow.  Erin has completed a 200 hour certification, having studied with Richard Freeman, Shiva Rea and Roger Cole, and she is currently enrolled in the 500 hour teacher training program at Yoga Sutra in Manhattan.

Erin draws from many sources when teaching.  Her classes include unique Vinyasa transitions and an emphasis on precision.  She is fascinated with the power and beauty that can be created by linking the breath, pose and mind.  She is enthusiastic to share with others the many blessings that come with this practice. 

In addition to being a yogini, Erin practices dentistry in New York City and enjoys down time with her pug, Maude.  

Francesca Bove

Francesca found Yoga because of a serious back injury. What seemed like a future of physical therapy and medication turned out to be the true path towards health and happiness.

Originally from Rome, Italy, she arrived to New York to pursue her career in acting and found Yoga on her way.Francesca loves to combine breath to the true expression of oneself through the Vinyasa flow.

She thanks all her amazing teachers especially Stacey Brass and Bryn Chrisman, Laughing Lotus Yoga Center, her wonderful mentor Rachel Meyer-Welch, amazing friends, and especially a big thank-you to Kari and Katie for allowing me into the East Yoga community.

Jessica Bellofatto

Jessica Bellofatto, Founder and Director of KamaDeva Yoga in East Hampton, NY, is best known for her easy laughter, radiant energy and matchless knowledge of the body. A mother, yogini, doula and triathlete, Jessica has inspired thousands of students in their journey to better understand themselves and their world. She uses movement as play, movement as therapy, and most importantly, views movement in general and the asana practice specifically as a spiritual practice done to benefit all beings.

Featured in The New York Times, TimeOut New York, The New York Post and New York Magazine, Jessica co-founded Yoga Shanti in Sag Harbor, NY in 1999, co-directed Yoga Shanti’s first 500 hr Teacher Training Program and leads sold-out retreats worldwide. She has studied extensively with many of yoga’s most famous names, from John Friend Richard Freeman, and Angela Farmer and Victor Van Kooten, and most recently with Lara Brunn at the Iyengar Institute in NYC. She is now a close student of James Conner and Dr. Lisette Garcia, Geshe Michael Roach and Lama Christie McNally in the Tibetan Buddhist Gelukpa lineage of His Holiness The Dalai Lama. She bows low at the feet of all of her holy teachers.

Jessica Caplan

A Montreal native, Jessica recently relocated to New York City after spending six years living in Hong Kong. Jessica stepped foot in her first yoga class in 1997, but it wasn’t until she moved to Hong Kong in 2002 that yoga became an integral part of her life.

A regular yoga practice evolved into a deeper curiosity, which led to her participating in Pure Yoga Hong Kong’s first 350-hour yoga teacher training in 2006 and ignited the spark to teach. She taught at Pure Yoga for three years, where she was deeply influenced by Anusara yoga and her teacher Patrick Creelman, had the opportunity to study with Anusara founder John Friend, and participated in workshops with inspiring teachers such as Seane Corn, Ana Forrest, Shiva Rea, Mark Whitwell, Maya Fiennes, David Life and Sharon Gannon, and many others.

Jessica is an actress and singer, and brings her love of all forms of expression – the body, music, singing and the spoken word – and her own playful nature into her yoga teaching. Set to an eclectic soundtrack, her Vinyasa classes are challenging and grounding, with a focus on alignment, core strength and connecting to breath.

For her, yoga has become a lifelong passion that continues to open her to life’s amazing possibilities. Her desire is to help lead students to their own wells of creativity and intuition, just as yoga continues to lead her to hers.

Maja Sidebaeck

Maja Sidebaeck first discovered yoga in her hometown of Stockholm, Sweden in the early nineties. From the sense of clarity, balance and openness the practice of yoga brought her, she knew immediately that she wanted yoga to be part of her life. Through the years her love for yoga has only grown and led her to complete the OM yoga center teacher training program in the spring of 2006. She has also completed the Relax and Renew, restorative yoga teacher training with Judith Hanson Lasater. Her classes are infused with a sense of joyful exploration while being mindful of alignment and invoking the transformative power of the breath. She also likes to add a bit of a challenge and have fun.

When Maja is not practicing, teaching or thinking about yoga she writes her own sophisticated pop songs which she performs around the city with her soulful and jazzy voice.

Megan Murphy

Megan turned to yoga after years of cold New England winters left her feeling drained.  She soon discovered a new strength and balance that resonated well beyond the studio walls. Wholeheartedly believing that a yoga practice will eventually lead people to a place of strength and clarity, Megan encourages students to have patience and a sense of humor in this pursuit.

Megan’s vinyasa classes emphasize alignment, breath, and mindfulness.  Her light-hearted demeanor makes students feel comfortable as she pushes them to challenge themselves.  She loves music, literature, anatomy and nature and incorporates these passions into her classes.  These days she’s most inspired by the breath centered anatomy teachings of Leslie Kaminoff, the writer Alan Watts, and her new neighborhood in Red Hook.  When not teaching classes at East, Megan teaches yoga to kids all over the city. 

Miya Signor

Miya has been practicing yoga for 16 years.  She studied theater at New York University and received a BFA in 1992.  Soon after graduating she began her yoga training with the beloved yoga master Dharma Mittra. She has found that her theatre training translates clearly into yoga in that internal truth, compassion and honesty are necessary at the highest level of both practices.

In 2006 she received her 200 hour certification from Seven Centers Yoga Arts in Sedona, Arizona and in 2009 she completed The Jivamukti Yoga Teacher Training program at the Omega Institute in Rhinebeck, New York.  She currently teaches privately and at many centers throughout New York City. 

Her vigorous classes teach students to bring awareness to the continuous motion of the breath while exploring an external connection to alignment.  Miya loves teaching and her  classes are infused with warmth and sincerity.

Miya would like to give thanks to her truly inspiring teachers Ruth Hartung, Sharon-ji, David-ji, Dharma Mittra, Ruth Lauer-Manenti and Rima Rabbath 

Phil Lynch

 Phil has been teaching yoga for over 10 years.  His unique approach to yoga has evolved from his own visceral synthesis of three different schools: Vinyasa, Ashtanga and Triyoga. 

Each student receives encouragement and support as Phil gracefully links posture to posture with breath, passion and a touch of humor.  Blending yogic philosophies into modern-day metaphors and action into experience,

Phil challenges the student to cultivate a strong and flexible body, steady emotions and an open heart.

Robert Fitzpatrick

For Robert Fitzpatrick self inquiry has been the way of his life for over 24 years.  However about one year of this time was spent NOT meditating as instructed whilst at the feet of Vedic and Sanskrit scholar, overall master yogi, Shri Brahmananda Sarasvati.  Also known as Ramamurti S. Mishra, M.D., Robert met "Guruji" at Ananda Ashram, Monroe New York in 1988.  So karmic irony being what it is, Mr. Fitzpatrick now leads private and group meditations in New York City and other fantastic locals around the globe, including South Bend Indiana! 

Silliness aside, paramount to my approach with students, is a deep respect for others venturing upon the sacred journey of self discovery.  To quote my favorite teacher, whom I mentioned above, "with these terms I wish good luck and a good future to every living being".  Right on...

Sarah Tomlinson

Sarah Tomlinson is a pioneer in the field of Yoga, Ayurveda, andHealing With Yantras.  From extensive time in India with her teacher Harish Johari, Sarah shares the spiritual practice of working with Yantras. http://www.yantratecture.com. 

She is one of the first teachers to be trained in the Jivamukti Yoga Method by David Life and Sharon Gannon.  Sarah's approach to asana is informed by her studies with Diane Long in the tradition of Vanda Scaravelli.    In Sarah's classes you'll find a delicious mix of finding both fluidity and ease in your yoga practice. Sarah is the author of Nine Designs For Inner Peace, Inner TraditionsPublishing, 2008, www.sarahtomlinsonyoga.com

Shana Kuhn-Siegel

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.

Shana also offers pranams to the many teachers who were also part of the year long process: Manorama, Rodney Yee, Stan Woodman, Heidi Fokine, Anna Holder, Kate “Lalita” Rabinowitz, John Seelye, Leslie Kaminoff, and the nineteen other amazing students who were part of the first Yoga Shanti Teacher Training program. Shana bows to the support of her family, her friends, and most especially to the students that she learns from every day. Shana’s classes are mindful and playful; combining focused and integrated asana sequencing, philosophy and chanting. Inspired by Krishnamurti’s expression, “life is a movement in relationship,” Shana hopes to convey her amazement in life’s endless possibilities to her students. In addition to being a yoga teacher, Shana’s commitment to the moral precepts of satya and ahimsa have led her to pursue a Masters degree in Social Work, working toward the enhancement of educational opportunities for young people so that they too may have the opportunity to walk the path of self-realization.

Sophie Herbert

Since age 16, yoga has been a grounding and guiding force in Sophie's life.  She is extremely grateful to have studied various forms of yoga in the New York area, France, and throughout India. Sophie holds a teacher's certificate and a degree in advanced yogic studies from the Yoga Vidya Dham institute in Nashik, Maharashtra, India.  Over the past three years, Sophie has shared her knowledge of yoga in the United States, Kazakhstan, and India, where she works with destitute and orphaned children at the Deenabandhu Charitable Trust (near Mysore). Her classes, adapted for each individuals' needs, vary from restorative hatha yoga to dynamic, alignment focused vinyasa flow.
 
Her yoga practice has had a tremendous effect on her drive as a visual artist and musician. Sophie is a graduate of the Cooper Union School of Art, where she nurtured her passion for photography and design. As for music, Sophie writes music for guitar and voice and is currently working on her first folk/rock album. For more information, please visit www.SophieHerbert.com
Sophie is also the web designer and NY coordinator for Energy 4 Orphans, a small non-profit that raises support for destitute children worldwide. You can find out more at www.Energy4Orphans.org.

Staci MacKenzie

Staci MacKenzie loves to Sit. She also enjoys being an ayurveda counselor, art director/designer, yoga teacher, reiki practitioner, creative manager and amateur cook. Her Spiritual Path is Bhakti Yoga, devoting herself to compassionate practices through the heart.

Staci has been studying and practicing yoga and meditation for over 12 years. She has directly experienced the transformative power of spiritual practices in her own life. What began as a response to the challenges of a 12-year career in advertising and graphic design in New York City, has resulted in an awakening and an integration of mind, body and spirit in her daily life. She is honored to share her wisdom and dedicated to help others reconnect with their true nature to live conscious, balanced, healthy lives.

Her credentials include: Ayurveda Certification from the Ancient Ayurveda Institute; a BFA with Honors in Communication Design from Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, CA. She received her Yoga teacher certification from Laughing Lotus Yoga Center and has been teaching Hatha/Vinyasa yoga informally to friends and family for over 7 years. She has been studing yantra painting for eight years with Sarah Tomlinson, under the linage of Harish Johari. She is also a second degree Usui Reiki practioner initiated by Master Pamela Miles. She continues to study yoga philosophy, physical, mental and spiritual practices throughout the world to incorporate into her teachings.

Staci is grateful to her beloved teachers for opening and nourishing her mind and heart: Sarah Tomlinson, Robert Fitzpatrick, Alice Tarkeshi, Jasmine Tarkeshi, Dana Flynn, Diane Long, Pamela Miles, Elena Brower, Ed Tarabilda, Doug Henders, family, friends and Sri Mata Amritanandamayi.