Based in Los Angeles, Marla is a Senior Intermediate level Certified Iyengar Yoga teacher. Her 20 years of experience have made her a prominent instructor both throughout the United States and abroad where she leads workshops, intensives, retreats and teacher training programs.
Marla teaches at Iyengar Yoga Institue of Los Angeles (http://www.iyila.org/)
Sean Johnson – Founder of Wild Lotus Yoga, and Soul School: Wild Lotus’ Interdisciplinary Yoga and Spirituality Training Program
Sean is a proud native of New Orleans. He has been teaching yoga in New Orleans since 1999 and opened Wild Lotus in 2002. He shares an integrative teaching style that weaves the emotional power of bhakti yoga with the sensuality of hatha yoga to free the spirit and bring more love, creativity, and depth to our lives. His classes focus on opening the heart through creative vinyasa flows, chanting, storytelling, mythology, poetry, and enchanting music.
Sean’s unique yoga education began with intensive, experiential, interdisciplinary study of yoga and related spiritual traditions in college and in graduate school. He received a Master’s Degree in Creation Spirituality from The Naropa Institute where he apprenticed with South Indian teacher and yogi-musician Russill Paul. Sean is also gratefully inspired by his friendships and study with many heart-centered yoga teachers including his college mentor and first yoga teacher Doranne Crable; Dana Flynn and Jasmine Tarkeshi founders of Laughing Lotus Yoga; holistic yoga teacher Saul David Raye; kirtan singer Jai Uttal; and Soul School collaborator Mitchel Bleier.
Sean was named one of New Orleans’ outstanding achievers in Gambit Weekly’s 40 Under 40. He is the first Louisiana-based yoga teacher to teach at Yoga Journal’s Conferences and also teaches at other yoga conferences and festivals internationally.
Sean and The Wild Lotus Band are celebrated as one of the guiding voices in Western kirtan music, and tour internationally. To find out more about their music visit SeanJohnsonAndTheWildLotusBand.com. He is also the co-curator of Putumayo Yoga World Music’s yoga releases and a contributing writer to Yoga Journal.
“My intention is for Wild Lotus to be a warm and welcoming place where you can come and reconnect with the authenticity, wisdom and creativity of your own soul.”
Ana Forrest has been changing people’s lives for nearly 40 years. An internationally recognized pioneer in yoga and emotional healing, Ana created Forrest Yoga while working through her own healing from her life’s trauma and experience. With thousands of licensed practitioners around the world, Forrest Yoga is renowned as an intensely physical, internally focused practice that emphasizes how to carry a transformative experience off the mat and into daily life.
An international yoga teacher, author and health & wellness expert Tiffany travels the globe inspiring people to live their lives to the fullest. Tiffany is known for her lighthearted attention to detail and passionate dedication to the practice. With her training in Acupuncture & Sports Medicine her yoga classes are guided by a strong anatomic focus intermingled with her characteristic playfulness using movement as medicine.
Elena Brower
Founder/Co-owner
Mama, founder and co-owner of VIRAYOGA, and co-author of Art of Attention, Elena has taught yoga for 16+ years. After graduating from Cornell University in 1992 with a design degree, she worked as a textile and apparel designer for 6 years, and has studied with master yoga teachers for over 10 years. Through her teaching, influenced by several traditions including alignment-based Hatha and Kundalini yoga, Elena offers yoga as a way to approach our world with realistic reverence and gratitude. Her classes are a masterful, candid blend of artful alignment and attention cues for your body, mind and heart.
From the Museum of Modern Art to the Great Lawn at Central Park, from the playa at Burning Man to the Eiffel Tower, Elena is honoured to offer larger-scale experiences of yoga, but her true service is in shifting awareness within the smallest interactions; one family, one household at a time. As a coach with the Handel Group, she coaches individuals and teaches courses, and she’s been featured in the New York Times, Yoga Journal, Element Yoga for Beginners DVDs, ABC News and NBC News. Dozens of yoga practices with Elena can be found on Yogaglo.
As the Executive Producer of On Meditation, she is curating a project about the relevance of meditation and its benefits. The first limited-edition printing of her first book, Art of Attention, co-authored with Erica Jago, was released in December 2012 and sold out within a few weeks; Art of Attention’s second edition was released in March 2013.
Along with her own writings, Elena contributes to Yoga Journal, Yoga International, Huffington Post, CrazySexyLife, Positively Positive, The Chalkboard Mag, TheDailyLove, and Elephant Journal, and is an original board member of YogaEarth. Elena is also a Beauty Ecologist with Pangea Organics, part of the movement to bring organic, all-natural beauty care products to millions of households worldwide.
Maty Ezraty was the original founder of Yoga Works in Santa Monica California and directed the Teacher Training Program there for over 16 years. She has studied with Sri K. Pattabhi Jois 5 times in India , and during 5 of his American tours as well as once in France .Maty wrote the Yoga Journal Asana Column in 2001. She is known for her joyful, engaging and determined approach to teaching correct form. Teaching since 1985 Maty has been a student of many senior Iyengar teachers which reflects in her practice and how she teaches.
Gurmukh, 70, is the founder of the Golden Bridge Yoga. With centers in Los Angeles, Santa Monica, and New York City, Golden Bridge is the premier center for the study and practice of Kundalini Yoga and Meditation as taught by Yogi Bhajan. Since being baptized 43 years ago with the spiritual name meaning “one who helps people across the world ocean,” Gurmukh has dedicated her life to fulfilling her namesake. As the world’s leading Kundalini Yoga teacher, she and her husband Gurushabd travel worldwide, bringing this vast Technology and Teacher Training Programs to students globally in the U.S.A., Mexico, Europe, Russia, India, and South Africa. She is as well the creator and pioneer of The Khalsa Way Prenatal and Postnatal Teacher Training Program, now in its 30th year. Her daughter Wahe Guru Kaur, 29, works alongside her parents in fulfilling this Mission.