YogaVidya Program

Amy was inspired to take a community-education yoga class 10 years ago and then went on to study power yoga, ashtanga, vinyasa, jivamukti, hatha, anusara, restorative, thai yoga bodywork, meditation, and pranayama. Her teaching style is inspired by a desire to learn more about the self, not just the body - to find the place between effort and ease, using breath and focus to subtly conserve the energy of the body for the inward expression of joy and well-being. She has spent over 800 hours teaching yoga, with its roots in Tantra, Ayurveda, and Hatha. Amy has had many teachers and influences over the years and currently studies with Para yoga teacher Yogarupa Rod Stryker.

Chandra Easton has taught yoga and meditation for 7 years, blending the receptive yin style of yoga with more active, dynamic forms to prepare the body and mind for meditation. Chandra’s teaching is fueled by the perspective that yoga, while being a wonderful tool for cultivating health, is essentially preparation for the transformative insights gained through meditation. She has studied Buddhist philosophy and Tibetan language at the Library of Tibetan Works and Archives in Dharamsala, India, founded by H. H. the Dalai Lama. Chandra later received a degree from the Religious Studies Department at UC Santa Barbara where she worked on the translation of Tibetan Buddhist texts on meditation. Chandra integrates her academic studies into her teaching of both meditation and yoga in order to encourage a deeper understanding and appreciation of the practices. In 2007, Chandra co-founded Metta Journeys (www.mettajourneys.com), a service oriented organization that offers yoga retreats internationally to help women and children in developing countries.

Diane is a passionate teacher and practitioner of yoga. She brings a sense of ease and joy to her teaching which emphasizes mindfulness practice as well as physical alignment. Diane guides people to listen to their bodies’ wisdom by providing a supportive environment for students to find their edge and practice at their own pace. She is skilled at offering students the right practice for their specific needs.

Yoga, dance and movement have been lifelong passions for Diane. She found yoga because of a chronic aching lower back, but she continued her practice when yoga hooked her with all that it offers. After a major car accident in 1999 yoga became her path to rehabilitating her body. Yoga has taught her patience, compassion, how to live her truth and so much more.

As a teacher, Diane is interested in guiding people towards greater embodiment so that their own unique spirits and beauty can shine through. She is grateful to be able to share this path with her others.

Diane is thankful to have such great teachers including Donald Moyer, and Sarah Powers. Recently she began her studies with Scott Blossom, who is also an Ayurvedic practitioner and Chinese Doctor. Pema Chodron and Mary Oliver are inspirations to her. Gandhi and Martin Luther King are her heroes.

Diane holds a Masters in Arts and Consciousness from JFK University. She is also a dancer and a poet.

Jennifer Taylor is the co-founder of Blue Sage Ayurveda and has a private healing and teaching practice in Berkeley at Rudramandir. Her early years in ballet and gymnastics prepared Jennifer for a natural transition during her 20s into teaching yoga. Jennifer’s teaching style is influenced mainly by Iyengar and Hatha yoga. Jennifer taught yoga in the South Bay for many years before transitioning into Ayurveda. She has also been authorized by Swami Khecaranatha to be an Assistant Teacher in his Sacred Space kundalini meditation practice.

Jessica Ezra Patri is a registered yoga instructor, trained modern dancer, certified massage therapist and somatic educator. She has been practicing various Hatha yoga forms since 1992 and began teaching yoga classes in 2000. Jessica received her formal yoga teacher training from Greenpath Yoga in San Francisco, in addition to her collective studies with teachers in the Bay Area and New York City, including David Life, John Berlinsky, Lea Watkins, Peggy Orr and others. During 2001 and 2002, Jessica lived at the Omega Institute in Rhinebeck, NY where she had the opportunity to study with renowned teachers from around the world and be immersed in community, service and personal growth. Jessica has been dancing and teaching dance for many years and graduated from the Alvin Ailey American Dance Center in NYC in 1998. She has also completed the Certified Massage Therapist as Somatic Educator training at Moving on Center in Oakland. She has also completed the Whole Birth Yoga Teacher Training with Robin Sale and the Pregnancy Massage training with Mariah Blackwolf and Alive and Well, Institute for Conscious Bodywork. Jessica is currently pursuing a specialty in working with Conscious Birth through yoga, meditation, movement, massage and breath.

As a yoga teacher I am most interested in unhooking yoga from its contemporary framework of attainment and struggle towards a future result, in a remarrying of yoga to its tantric origins, as each person’s means to directly participate in the strength and nurturing of life. My yoga studies began in ISHTA (Integrated Science of Hatha, Tantra, & Ayurveda) at Be Yoga/Yoga Works under Alan Finger, however my main study has been with Mark Whitwell, student of Krishnamacharya and his son TKV Desikachar. I attempt to honor this lineage, teaching yoga as Hatha, the magic of opposites merging: inhale with exhale, above with below, inner with outer, female with male, to remind us of who we are- that we contain everything. For the past year and a half I have been traveling and teaching with Mark throughout North America, Asia, Europe, and the South Pacific. My background is a BA in psychology from Amherst College, a short-lived dance career in NYC, and random interests in feminist theory, midwifery, and Afro-Caribbean religion.