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Class Schedule More Links REGISTER/Pricing Class Teacher Bios Workshop & Sub Bios Forms New Student Form Registration Form |
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 Our teachers at Devanadi are experienced, multi-certified tranmitters of knowledge inspired by personal practice, connection to lineage, and are deeply invested in sharing the gifts of yoga, healing and wellness with all who they encounter. Our classes are smaller and more intimate than larger, fitness oriented yoga gyms or studios, allowing - and encouraging - students to develop a personal guiding relationship with teachers. This is how the tradition of yoga was carried on for thousands of years, and our teachers are commited to helping students achieve their highest potential - in all aspects of their lives - through the benefits of yoga, mindfulness, self-discipline, contemplation, and acting as a light of peace and contentment in the world. See below for more on our amazing staff!  |
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Tanya Boigenzahn Sowards, E-RYT 500, RTT/Instructor, CHTP & Reiki Master Wellness Therapies with Tanya: Thai Yoga Bodywork, Energy Work, Ayurvedic Yoga Privates, Meditation Privates, & Combo Sessions of any of the above Tanya is the director/owner of Devanadi Yoga Studio. She heads up our 200/500 Teacher Training & Intensives and also operates her Thai Yoga Bodywork training and certification program at the studio. Blessed to have been in the company and service of many amazing and globally conscious teachers, she is a senior student of Yogarupa Rod Stryker and one of the first and only ParaYoga® Level II Certified™ teacher/practitioners in the world, as well as an initiate of the Himalayan Tradition of Swami Rama and Pandit Rajmani Tigunait. Tanya has studied and been certified in many other yoga styles including Larry Schultz's It's Yoga Ashtanga, Judith Lasater's Restorative Yoga, Janice Clarfield and Jennifer Gray's Prenatal Yoga, and trainings with Dharma Mittra, Tias Little, Paul Grilley, Seane Corn and more. As a Thai Yoga Bodywork therapist/instructor, Certified Healing Touch Practitioner, Reiki Master, Seichem and Qi Gong practitioner, she uses this training and experience to help deepen students' knowledge of the traditional practices of healing and wellness. Tanya's focus with students is to help them find their Sva Dharma (individual destiny) through use of Ayurvedic principles, Vinyasa Krama (proper sequencing), tapas (discipline), smarana (rememberance of the self) as well as mantra and meditation practices. She's commited to help people laugh and feel more at ease through yoga! She has been practicing yoga since 1993 and teaching since 1996. In the past, Tanya opened her first yoga studio, Popo Agie Yoga, in Lander, WY. She has also served as a Director for the Yoga Center of Minneapolis and was a senior teacher and teacher training facilitator there for many years. Tanya also is a part-time freelance writer focusing on health in wellness, and has been published in Metro Magazine, FIT, and several other periodicals. She's also used her creative juices in many other fields including working in cities such as Portland, OR, San Francisco, and London as a senior web/graphic designer for dot-coms and design firms such as WebMD.com, Kmart.com, and Razorfish, serving as a substitute teacher on the Wind River Indian Reservation, and even worked for a year at a rock climbing gym. Tanya holds Instructor status with the Thai Healing Alliance International (THAI) and has served on their Executive Council. She's a senior student of Master Teacher Pichest Boonethame of Chiang Mai, Thailand, and has studied with other respected teachers in the field, at home and abroad, including Jonas Westring, Maw Homprang Chaleekanha, and Bob Haddad. Tanya visits Thailand annually where she continues her study of Thai Massage, as well as Buddhist meditation, Thai Shamanic Healing techniques, traditional Thai herbal and medical practices, and other cultural delights. and meditation practices. Living just a block from Devanadi Yoga Studio, Tanya shares her life with her partner and fellow yogi, Jason - who recently opened his locally-owned and sustainable brewery (HarrietBrewing.com) - and 5 year old son, River. |
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Juliet Alden Juliet completed her undergraduate studies in Dance at George Mason University in Fairfax, VA. After relocating to Minneapolis from San Francisco in 1997, Juliet pursued theater with the Margolis Brown Theatre Company where she taught, performed, and trained as an actor here in the Twin Cities until 2003. Since leaving the company 2003, Juliet has been studying yoga with Yogarupa Rod Stryker. She has completed 8 of the 9 modules in the highly esteemed ParaYoga Master Training Certification, and will complete her training in 2012. While pursuing Level 1 certification in Parayoga under the tutelage of her teacher, she concurrently finished her graduate studies at the University of Minnesota with an M.Ed in Sports and Exercise Science. Juliet has been involved in the fitness industry since 2002, teaching and training locally as an avid cyclist, personal trainer, group fitness instructor, and yogi. Juliet has been honored to be apart of the Himalayan lineage as an initiate since 2004 under Rod Stryker, Pandit Rajmani Tiguniat, Swami Rama, and all the great sages and saints of the tradition. As a true yogi at heart Juliet's life and teaching is influenced most by what Swami Rama, the Himalayan tradition's master believed, "that we should live life to it's fullest." |
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Lil Almstrom, RYT 200 Lil came to yoga when illness prevented her from her reformer pilates routine. Working one-on-one with an instructor, she could do a few standing poses but most were seated because of her diminished health. As she slowly regained her strength, she realized what an impact yoga had in her return to good health and she was hooked. It continues to transform her physically, mentally and emotionally every day. Teaching allows Lil to share the tools, practices, insights, and wisdom that she has learned through her various trainings. She brings a sensitivity to her teaching style which she hopes students find welcoming, accessible and healing. Lil is a graduate of Devanadi Yoga 200 hour Teacher Training & Intensive and is currently studying in the 500 hour Advanced Teacher Training program with Tanya Sowards. She is also enrolled in the Para Yoga Master Training program and has completed two (of five) parts with Rod Stryker. She has spent time at Kripalu Center for Yoga & Health in Massachusetts and has studied meditation with Sylvia Boorstein. |
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Anna Befort, RYT 200 Anna has been hooked on yoga since she wandered into her first vinyasa class at the Uptown YWCA in 2003. Yoga quickly became her sanity - the perfect balance to the always-in-her-head rigors of work as a magazine editor and writer. After years of practice with Julie Lerner Schmit at the St. Paul Yoga Center, Anna took her 200-hour teacher training at the Yoga Center of Minneapolis in 2008. She capped off that experience by following Tanya Sowards to the holy city of Rishikesh, India, for a yoga retreat in the foothills of the Himalayas. Anna is also a graduate of Devanadi's 500 hour Advanced Yoga Teacher Training. Anna has learned from many teachers, including Tanya, Julie Gudmestad, Darren Main, Rod Stryker, Doug Swenson, Dharma Mittra, Max Strom, and Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh. Most recently, she completed teacher training with Street Yoga, a Portland-based nonprofit that offers free yoga to homeless youth. Anna loves yoga’s potential to help people find calm, balance, and openness in an often-chaotic world, and she dreams of creating yoga and wellness programs for at-risk teenage girls (which, let’s be honest, is most teenage girls in one way or another). |
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Amanda Brink, RYT 200 Amanda views yoga as practice or process of becoming whole. She believes that a good practice should touch the parts of a person that needs healing. Amanda started practicing yoga out of a physical illness, and in doing this, discovered how the mind could be elevated thru yoga. Once she experienced how breath and mindfulness can bring about significant change; Amanda started working to become a certified yoga instructor to bring this awareness to others. Amanda has studied, various methods of yoga including: Vinyasa flow, ParaYoga, Restorative Yoga and meditation. As a student each style gave her something she needed. Amanda offers her class out of a desire to expose people to the profound and healing practice of these various forms of yoga. Her desire is to create a stimulating, safe and comfortable, environment where students can identify opportunities and explore the limitless potential in their minds and bodies. Amanda has taken workshops and intensives with such teachers as: Tanya Sowards, Doug Swenson, Susan Sterling, Andre Ram Om, Rod Stryker, Judith Hanson Lasater, Tara Cindy Sherman and Rebecca Sheldon. These are the teachers she feels blessed to have had the opportunity to practice in their physical presence. Besides the teachers listed above Amanda says that her teaching style is heavily influence by several Yoga Masters though their writings. T.K.V. Desikachar, Russill Paul, Rod Stryker, David Frawley, and Judith Lasiter are examples of great teachers who have published teachings that she has found readable, easy to digest, and applicable to anyone’s persons. Amanda is a graduate of Devanadi's 500 hour Advanced Yoga Teacher Training. |
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Nyssa Brown, RYT 200 Nyssa came to yoga more than 12 years ago, hoping to find more stillness and inner calm in her life. Her goal for all her yoga classes is that her students feel welcome exactly as they are and leave class feeling more relaxed, with a slightly different perspective. A dedicated music teacher for elementary children, yoga became a way to balance the noise and perpetual motion of the day. Over the years practicing many styles of yoga (power, vinyasa, yin, Anusara, restorative yoga, and ParaYoga) has allowed Nyssa to integrate many perspectives and facets of various traditions into her own practice and teaching. She completed her 230 hour trainings at the Yoga Center of Minneapolis and at Devanadi Yoga, and is a graduate of Devanadi's 500 hour Advanced Yoga Teacher Training. She also brings experience with Buddhist teachings and meditation and energy healing (Reiki, Healing Touch, Qigong). Nyssa loves to folkdance and is a singer/songwriter, currently recording her second cd. |
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Danielle De Pillis, RYT 500, PYT 1000 Wellness Therapies with Danielle: Integrative Yoga Therapy, Yoga Privates Danielle originally came to yoga seeking a way to reduce chronic sciatic pain. When she realized all that yoga had to offer, she realized there was no turning back and began to explore a new life path. Danielle has had the opportunity to study with many amazing teachers along her yogic path. Just a few of them are Tanya Boigenzahn Sowards, Rod Stryker, Dharma Mittra, Judith Lasater and Joseph Le Page. Danielle received her 200-hour certification from the Yoga Center of Minneapolis. She received an additional 200-hour certification through Devanadi Yoga with Tanya Sowards in the ParaYoga inspired tradition. She studied Integrative Yoga Therapy at The Kripalu Institute with Joseph Le Page, Lillian Le Page, Maria Kalima and Cathy Prescott to earn certification as a Professional Yoga Therapist. She has received her 500-hour certification in Integrative Yoga Therapy. She has also completed her 1000-hour level certification in Integrative Yoga Therapy earning the Professional Yoga Therapist 1000 designation. Danielle has continued her training in yoga therapy earning certification in Functional Yoga Therapy with Maria Kalima. Additionally Danielle is certified to work with veterans with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) through the Yoga Warriors program. Danielle has a private Integrative Yoga Therapy practice working one on one with people with a wide variety of conditions. She sees clients out of her home in downtown Minneapolis as well as Devanadi Yoga and Spirit of the Lake Yoga. Her teaching is greatly influenced by her Integrative Yoga Therapy training. Her style includes the teachings of Hatha, Tantra and Ayurveda as well as the knowledge she has gained in her personal practice and healing journey. She likes to encourage her students to go inward in their practice whether they are in a standing pose or savasana. She gets excited by the new awarenesses her students and private clients have week after week and is honored to help guide them on the path to healing. Danielle is a member of the International Association of Yoga Therapists and the Yoga Alliance. |
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Ann Gibbon, RYT 200 Ann has a background in classical ballet and she has practiced Yoga for the last 7 years. She graduated from the Yoga Center of Minneapolis Teacher Training program in 2009 and has been teaching at the Minnesota Zen and Meditation Center. Ann was mentored during her practicum by Tanya Boigenzahn Sowards, continues to study with her weekly, and is a graduate of Devanadi's 500 hour Advanced Yoga Teacher Training Program. She has taken workshops with teachers from various Yoga traditions such as David Swenson, Andrei Ram, Christy Burnette and Rod Stryker. Her most influential teachers at the Minneapolis Yoga Center were/are Monique Maxwell and Tanya Boigenzahn Sowards. Her first Yoga teacher was Ann Fink (former I-Yoga) who taught how to have fun with Yoga. Yoga is a spiritual experience for Ann and she continues to study the ancient texts for nourishment and inspiration. She teaches Beginning Yoga in the Slow Flow Vinyasa style – Vinyasa, a Sanskrit word meaning to place intention. She tries to help students move toward body wisdom and tap into the great source of joy that rests within the Heart Chakra. Ann lives with her husband Guy at the Minnesota Zen and Meditation Center at Lake Calhoun where Guy is the resident priest. Guy has been on the Buddhist path since he was a teenager. Ann loves doing physical activities outdoors in any form or shape and her favorite activity in the summer is berry picking on a hot summer day at her favorite berry patch on the Gunflint Trail. |
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Amy Howard, RYT 200 Amy comes to yoga with a passion for combining strength and movement, while creating peace in the body and mind. With 15 years of experience in gymnastics, her transition to yoga is a natural one given her already accomplished body awareness, mental focus and playful attitude. In 2006, Amy decided to share her passion for yoga and began to teach in Minneapolis, St. Paul and Edina. In 2007, Amy’s desire for more knowledge and exploration led her to complete yoga teacher training (RYT) at The Yoga Center of Minneapolis with Tanya Boigenzahn Sowards. When not practicing yoga, Amy, Ryan and their three beautiful girls, love to spend time at home in Linden Hills, at the park, walking the lakes and hanging out with friends. Amy draws her influence from the many styles of yoga she has studied and practiced over the years, but Vinyasa is her true love. Her dynamic teaching style incorporates the powerful, flowing sequencing of Vinyasa with proper alignment and pranayama. She believes her path as an instructor is the same as her own; to influence people to do what we love, open our hearts and go about our lives with more integrity, calm and openness due to our practice. |
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Paul Jeannotte, RYT 200 |
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Laurie Lopesio, RYT 500 I became seriously interested in Yoga in 1996 when I met my first teacher Maggie Kessell. With the practice of Viniyoga, Maggie helped me transform my pain riddled body. In 2004 I took Maggie’s eighteen month-200 hour Yoga teacher training and became certified. In 2008 I was able to partake in a deeper training in pranayama through the Krishnamacharya Healing and Yoga Foundation which qualified me to become a certified Yoga teacher with the KHYF. I am a life long learner and I feel that to learn in this life and to share what I learn with others is my dharma. I have always enjoyed serving people in this way. To serve others through the teachings of Yoga is to serve to help make the world a better place. In 2011 I completed Gary Kraftsow’s 500 hour Viniyoga teacher training. I credit my daily Yoga practice for my health and happiness. My asana and pranayama practice make my body feel supple, my meditation practice makes my mind feel still and open and my chant practice makes my heart sing with a sacred feeling. |
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Amy Rieder, MA, RYT 200, Certified Wellness Coach Amy has had a life-long interest in health and wellness. She began participating in sports at a young age and came to realize the many benefits of a physically active lifestyle. She received a Master’s degree in Physical Education from the University of Oregon and spent 15 years working in hospital- based Cardiac Rehabilitation programs, including 12 years at Abbott Northwestern Hospital in Minneapolis. During this time, Amy also became interested in complementary medicine and began exploring a variety of healing arts in her own life. She realized that she wanted to shift to a holistic perspective and became certified as a Wellness Coach. Amy now has a private practice where she works with clients to create personalized , holistic wellness and lifestyle plans. Her coaching philosophy is centered on viewing wellness as a journey , and on the premise that all aspects of lifestyle are connected and influence each other. Amy’s approach draws upon clients’ innate strengths ,creativity, and resiliency and her belief that when individuals follow their own unique path to wellness, they will thrive and grow and experience a happier, healthier, more balanced life. Amy is a graduate of Devanadi's 200 hour Yoga Teacher Training & Intensive. She appreciates the tremendous value and depth that yoga brings to her own life, and incorporates elements of yoga philosophy into her work with Wellness Coaching clients. Her experience also includes training in Reiki and Thai Yoga Bodywork with Tanya, and Spring Forest Qi Gong. Amy is grateful for the opportunity to work with both individual and group clients at Devanadi Yoga Studio, and looks forward to supporting and guiding you on your wellness journey! |
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Jessica Schroeter (Durga Devi), RYT 500 Jessica is a long time yoga practitioner who has had a passion for all things yoga since she flowed through her first sun salutations at the age of 16. Her early introduction to asana and meditation inspired her lifelong passion for studying Eastern texts and delving into ancient Yogic philosophies. Practicing and teaching yoga continues to be a truly transformative journey that she experiences in all aspects of her life. Over the years she has studied and practiced many styles of classical and Hatha yoga (Sivananda, Iyengar, Ashtanga, Anusara, Yin, and ParaYoga) and she joyfully draws from these traditions and brings them into her teaching. Jessica has studied with many teachers but her most influential have been Swami Vishnu Devananda, Sri K. Pattabhi Jois, Tim Miller, Dharma Mittra and Tanya Boigenzahn Sowards. Jessica is grateful to be able to share the beautiful yoga practices she has learned on her personal yoga path. It is her intention to design classes which will inspire students in finding their own inner beauty and stillness. Jessica is a Registered Yoga Teacher with the Yoga Alliance, is a graduate of Devanadi's 200 hour Yoga Teacher Training & Intensive, and is currently enrolled in the ParaYoga Training program with Yogarupa Rod Stryker. For more information about Jessica, go to: bhavatiyoga.com |
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