Desi and Micah Springer co-own and instruct at Vital Yoga Studios. Micah initially used smoothies to bribe Desi to practice yoga with her, a tactic common amongst older sisters. They quickly discovered that Desi was better at yoga, so Micah now makes smoothies! Joking aside, they share a love of humor, transparency, integrity, and connection. It is these traits that contribute to their successful studios, thriving community, and commitment to their practice. Vital Yoga is celebrating its 10th year. Desi and Micah extend their gratitude to each of the 20,000 people who have passed through Vital’s doors and have contributed to the vision that Vital now serves. More info at www.vitalyoga.org

Yoga World Reach Founder and Creative Director, Rachel (Shakti) Redding, CYT, RYT 500, has been teaching the “blissipline” of Inner Power Yoga in the Vail Valley since 2000. She has traveled extensively throughout the world gaining insight, experience and inspiration for her dharma and mission to bring yoga and hope to people from all walks of life. She is a firm believer in the power of yoga to awaken the body’s own healing process and to empower individuals in all areas of their lives. More info at www.yogaworldreach.org

The Denver Post in May 2010 and 5280 (Top of the Town) considers Tina “One of Denver’s top 5 most sought-after instructors”. Join her this Fall at the prestigious, Yoga Journal Conference in Estes Park.
Life with 2 small children is what nourishes her daily practice thus fueling her classes that are a true example of her integrity and devotion. Because of her innate ability to read the energy in the room, each one of Tina’s classes are unique. Her psychotherapeutic monologues have you meditating in movement, relating to her on many levels, opening more than you thought was possible and releasing more than you thought you even held. For more information on Tina and her upcoming Workshops, Festivals and her 3rd Annual international Retreat (1/2012) go to www.tina-yoga.com.

Derik has been a student of yoga since 1991 and teaching since 1998. He draws inspiration from his nationally recognized teachers Baba Hari Dass, Tias Little & Richard Freeman. He has attended teaching programs, both in the U.S. and India and in 2003 founded axis yoga trainings, a Denver based school dedicated exclusively to yoga intensives and teacher training programs. He is the Mind-Body coordinator for Kaiser Permanente, developing therapeutic yoga, chi gong and naturopathy curriculum for the hospital setting.

More on Derik’s program Axis Yoga…

Axis Yoga Trainings offers Denver’s premiere donation based yoga teacher training program.   We serve people who want to experience the depth of yoga practice in a complete and comprehensive way. This training is for people who are committed to going deep and experience the far reaching benefits of intensified practice.

Our veteran staff teaches from the Iyengar, Vinyasa and Raj Yoga and Tantric Yoga perspectives –offering a multidimensional synthesis of classical yogic principals.

Our program is offered on a donation basis, with a nominal minimum fee. If you wish to go further into yoga practice then ever before, I invite you to enroll in this program! more at http://axisyoga.net/.

Katrina Gustafson opened Karma Yoga Center in Wash Park last summer.  Her yogic journey began years ago, and has had a profound effect on her life.  Her class style is strongly influenced by her teachers which lends itself to a heart centered flow.  Katrina leads teacher trainings and retreats several times a year.  She also created the first regular bhakti flow class in Denver (yoga with live music) at her studio, and finds teaching yoga in conjunction with music to be recess for the soul.

More info at www.spiralwellness.com

Cheryl Deer – 7/31

Cheryl’s masterfully taught yoga classes are deeply rooted in the Forrest Yoga philosophy. Dedicating herself to enlighten the healing and empowering qualities of Yoga over the past 13 years, she has taught more than 12,000 hours to people ranging from physically disabled to top level athletes. Many have found themselves mesmerized by her passion, moved by her honesty and changed by her insights. Her classes and workshops are fun and motivating, have great energy and will leave you awakened. Expect to receive great adjustments, connect to your core and flow through vigorous sequences delivered in a way that calls forth your intelligence, intuition and strength. In addition to teaching classes, privates and workshops in Denver, she also travels around the country assisting Ana Forrest at teacher foundation trainings. Cheryl was selected by Ana Forrest to be a Forrest Yoga Mentor, providing inspiration and guidance for other aspiring Forrest Yoga teachers through workshops and trainings. Her greatest teaching influence comes from her students.

More at cheryldeeryoga.com

Simon Park began his Yoga journey 15 years ago with Shiva Rea in the World Arts and Cultures Department at UCLA. Fast forward to the present where he was chosen by Yoga Journal as ” one of the most influential and gifted… next generation of Yoga teachers”.  He weaves inspiration and in-depth experience from many styles into his teaching; Vinyasa, Iyengar, Ashtanga, and Thai Massage.  His core teachers; Shiva Rea, Maty Ezraty, Joan White and Dharma Mittra, are master teachers in their respective fields. Based in Philadelphia, Simon travels worldwide to share Prana Flow Yoga; the amazing Vinyasa style of Shiva Rea.

Brandon draws from his life experience to create an authentic, inspiring and humorous voice in the yoga room. Introduced to yoga at a very young age by his Aunt Susan, Brandon left his high stress job eleven years ago to pursue his passion…yoga.  He is an avid student and teacher of yoga classes, workshops and teacher trainings – Brandon’s workshops and trainings are sought after across the United States.  It is this passion for everything yoga that brought him together with Trevor Tice in 2002 – their unified vision of ‘yoga for the masses’ birthed the first CorePower Studio in that same year.  Now, a CorePower brand with over 50 yoga studios, Brandon lives and works from Boulder, supporting local initiatives and national teacher trainings. Although he travels extensively to teach, you’ll often meet him as a humble student. He appreciates a lighthearted yet physically intense approach to yoga. Join us for the CorePower Yoga experience! www.corepoweryoga.com

Shan, as she is known to her students and friends, is the founder and muse of om time. She is an activist, an eternal optimist, and a lover of the flow of grace within everyone. She is truly here to be part of the collective flow that is “changing the world one downward dog at a time.” More info at www.omtime.com; www.ShannonPaigeYoga.com

Karen has taught various modalities of fitness and dance since 1981. She has taught in Denver, Boulder, New York City, and Los Angeles. Karen began her yoga journey in 1997. In 2002 she received her first 250 hour yoga teacher training certification from Hansa Knox. Since then, she has studied Anusara Yoga with Mahduri Martin and John Friend. Learn more here.

Shelley Coughlin – 8/28

Shelley Coughlin, owner of Studio Shakta in the Santa Fe Art District, brings a big heart and love of yoga to all her classes. Her approach to teaching yoga is built on the integration of empowerment, authenticity, play and openness! Her teaching is greatly influenced by the many teachers in her life, including Anirudh Shastri, Dharma Mittra, Shannon Paige, her children, and every day life experiences. There is a flare of traditional, alignment, and flow, and no two classes are quite the same. It is assured in every class you will be inspired through purposeful, mindful and graceful movement and teachings. You will be both challenged and nurtured.

Kenny Graham is a fully Certified Anusara Yoga teacher whose love of yoga began at a young age. He has studied under the best teachers in the world and is full of gratitude for his master teacher and mentor Anusara Yoga’s founder John Friend. Kenny teaches workshops, teacher training’s,immersions and retreats in the United States and around the world. His passion is to support others in finding more ease in their life and in discovering their own unlimited potential. Kenny’s broad knowledge of yoga is taught in a kind and authentic way that brings students deeper into their own hearts with self acceptance, honesty, compassion and love.

Have you ever returned to something wholly familiar—a book, a place, a song, a lover—and suddenly found within it something new? That’s how Denver yoga instructor Scott Anderson approaches just about everything. A devoted student of the human spirit, Scott strives to see the world with a wicked kind of curiosity, seeking wisdom in any number of unconventional combinations and unexpected sources. And find it he does: in Shakespeare and Saint Augustine; in Robert Frost and Fight Club; in the musings of Rumi and My Chemical Romance.

Scott is an ordained minister, and indeed, every one of his classes is a marriage of sorts—between each student and their personal intention; between the community and its limitless potential for compassion. But it’s also his goal (and his gift) to bring yoga’s lofty ideals down to earth. And, judging from his loyal following, Scott’s contagious “pure heart, dirty mind” philosophy is successful in bringing a serious measure of fun to the mat.

By nature, enlightenment comes when we least expect it—so you can’t ever be fully prepared for the “mosh pit of mindfulness” that is a Scott Anderson class. But you can always expect to leave the room with your heart, mind and body a bit more open than before. Learn more here.

To Dakini, yoga and Bhakti is a way to delve deep into the spirit of the heart and to serve and dedicate herself to the people in her life. She took her first yoga class in 97 after injuring herself as a professional ballet dancer and fell instantly in love with the deep alignment it brought to her body as well as the harmony it created in her mind. She has studied and trained with many including Shiva Rea, Seane Corn, Judith Hanson Lasater, Saul David Raye, Jai Uttal, Madhuri Mudd, CorePower, Yogini Shambavi, and Dr. David Frawley. She has always been aware of how the mind, body, and spirit all need to be in balance for a life of clarity and success, which is why yoga so appealed to her sense of a personal and universal truth. Dakini’s company, Blue World Yoga, currently owns the CorePower Yoga in Stapleton. In owning a studio she is able to create an environment in which each practitioner feels supported in his/her yogic journey. Dakini likes to incorporate harmony and fluidity into her teaching and enjoys sharing her energy with her yoga students. She believes that through yoga and the understanding of the body, a deeper knowledge of the mind and spirit will be developed.

Dakini is also known as a local Bhakti musician and loves to share the Divine offering of chanting and connection to the Beloved through sound. She leads Level II Teacher Trainings and is humbled every day by the beautiful light in the people that she guides.
Click here for more information.

Michelle Corriell, the owner of Harmony Yoga, first discovered yoga while attending the University of Iowa and became hooked by its ability to ease stress and connect her mind with her body. Later, as a high school English teacher with the Cherry Creek School District, Michelle found that yoga was what helped best to keep her balanced. In 2003, her love of health and passion for teaching led her to the Community College of Aurora’s Teacher Training Institute for Classical Hatha Yoga, where she completed a 200-hour yoga teacher training program. More info at www.harmony-yoga.com

Triputi is the perfection between the Body, Breath and Mind; this orientation signifies the purpose of the inspirational classes that Santosh guides. By incorporating physical alignment wisdom with the higher values of a focused mind with the breath, is inner freedom. Santosh, for the last six years has taught teachers in Yoga Teacher Training programs and guides weekly classes in Denver and Breckenridge. His training has included asana of numerous styles finally blending into an inspirational mixture called Hatha Yoga Fusion.  He has in-depth study of ayurveda, Raja and Tantric meditation, advanced pranayama and eastern spiritual philosophy. The expanding summit of his work culminated in his teacher, Sri Baba Hari Dass initiating him into the sacred teachings of the Pujari or Vedic Priest. He has spent over a decade in highly focused spiritual practice and he continues to polish the one magic stone in search of the perfect Breath…. the state of the Breathless

Info www.santoshyoga.net.