I have practised various styles, including Vinyasa Flow Yoga, Ashtanga Yoga, Hatha Yoga, Yin Yoga and a little Iyengar Yoga for almost 30 years and have been teaching for 14 years. My first yoga class was at a gym, and I loved it! I completed my yoga teacher training with Marina Contardo at the Ishta School of Yoga in 2008. The reason why I chose to study with Ishta, is that I believe it allows its member to practice the best of all schools of yoga. This means that one can modify one’s yoga practise to include the best elements of each style, and the asana’s and components that work best with you personally.

I am addicted to yoga, and practised yoga throughout both of my pregnancies. My passion for yoga grows every time I get on the mat! I do believe it is a great learning experience and it allows one to get more in touch with oneself. In this busy, material world, we often forget that the most important thing in our lives is ourselves, and this includes our body. For me it is the best way to connect body and mind.

I started studying pilates a few years ago, in order to increase my knowledge and capabilities as a yoga teacher. I utilise my studies of Stott Pilates principles, combined with an Injuries & Special populations course, and other further study to deal with many different types of students and different bodies and to help students to prevent injuries & strengthen their bodies. I am really enjoying my pilates practice, and how well it combines with yoga.

I have been teaching students of different ages and body types, as well as students with previous injuries and medical conditions (what I like to call Yoga for All Bodies). I find it really rewarding to take a beginner and teach them to either fit into a mainstream yoga class, or just to make them comfortable in their own body, or improve their health and body strength. I am also starting to teach family yoga, and hope to offer family yoga classes at my studio.

I feel that I am still close to the beginning of my journey with yoga, and that there are many more years (and lifetimes even) to grow in my yoga practise.

But there is nothing like getting on your mat and just doing it!

Tanya is a hatha yoga teacher who has been teaching for almost 20 years.  She studied through YYI, which has an Iyengar Yoga influence. She is an experienced instructor and is very sympathetic to her students. Her classes are great for all levels.  She goes out of her way to create inspirational and interesting classes.

My own yoga practice started in 2012, finding Yoga felt like coming home! A year later I started my Kundalini teachers training and soon after I was introduced to children’s yoga. I was inspired to see how these lessons were teaching the children essential life skills through a fun yoga practice. That’s when I decided I wanted to get involved and make it a part of my life.

I enrolled in one of South Africa’s leading children’s yoga companies, Yoga4kids with Suzie Manson and completed my children’s yoga teacher certification at the end of 2014. I knew my souls purpose – to share these tools and teachings with toddlers, children and teens.

Through my passion and heart song of teaching yoga to kids, I have seen the benefits that yoga brings and how this practice is working towards the holistic healing of the next generation. I currently teach yoga at 11 schools and I am involved in 3 Yoga outreach projects at Salvazione Christian School in Brixton, St Matthews in Soweto and Mayfair Convent Primary School.

My yogic journey first began in Belgium when I was 7 years old and did yoga classes for a year. I quickly realised that I was able to achieve incredible things with my body and I loved it! I was 9 when my family and I moved to South Africa. That’s when I discovered Equestrian Vaulting. This was the sport for me! It combines my love for horses with the fun of acrobatics. I really found my passion in vaulting and competed for 8 years, reaching the highest level. My appreciation and awareness of my body grew immensely throughout this time and at the end of 2013 when my Vaulting career was cut short due to injuries I sustained in a serious car accident, I felt frustrated to have lost that part of myself.

That’s when I found yoga again!
It was the first time in a while that I felt truly connected to my myself and my body since the accident. My love for yoga grew and I knew I wanted to share this feeling with others. I did my Hatha teachers training through The Yoga Alliance International South Africa. I started teaching in 2016 and have loved every second! I feel very privileged to be able to help and guide people on their own personal yogic journey.

For me the most beautiful thing about Yoga is that it’s often exactly what you need it to be. Whether it’s to physically challenge yourself, prevent or rehabilitate injuries, relieve stress, let go of personal trauma, aid you on your spiritual journey… You can take from it what you need and anybody, young or old can grow through their practice.

“Yoga is the journey of the self,through the self, to the self.” – The Bhagavad Gita

From a young age I trained in Karate, but after a few years my passion for martial arts moved towards exploring and learning about many of the world’s religions and expressions of spirituality. Spending countless hours playing soccer at University, I stumbled upon a hot yoga class in Cape Town, and was blown away by this incredible mind body practice.

After I left University I moved to South Korea for two years, where I began training in martial arts again. When I returned to South Africa in 2013 I decided to start taking yoga classes regularly and quickly my understanding of eastern traditions and philosophies fueled a passion for understanding yoga.

In February 2018 I traveled to Rishikesh in India to complete my 200 hour Ashtanga and Hatha yoga teacher training. Since starting my journey deepening my understanding of yoga, I cannot overestimate the benefits this has brought into my life, from mental focus and physical strength, to emotional resilience and compassion. I aim to share the insights that I have gained from reading up on and practising yoga, philosophy and psychology with the students in my class and aim to cultivate a sense of presence that students can infuse into their practice and into their yoga journey. I believe that becoming centered, peaceful and in harmony with life is the true purpose of yoga. I hope to energise and be part of this shift in awareness of others.

Phoebe’s greatest endeavour in life is to see what the body is capable of. Whether it’s dancing, rock climbing and teaching yoga, to sketching or posing for a camera, everything is about MOVEMENT. She began dancing at the age of five and went on to learn modern, contemporary, tap, acrobatics, and hip hop.

Phoebe was home schooled, which allowed her the flexibility to pursue her passions over and above her education. After high-school she added rock climbing and gymnastics to her list of hobbies and is also now a trained, certified Hatha yoga instructor since 2018. Yoga helped to expand her range of motion, helping her talent for dancing to be taken across the globe.

In 2019, she got to perform on the royal Shakespeare theatre in Stratford upon Avon, England as part of the SA team for the WLDF competition and now she continues to pursue movement in any direction it takes her, aspiring to add different yoga styles and more to her repertoire of movement. She hopes to share her experience to help others connect with their bodies and the way they move.

I have always been drawn to yoga. I practised yoga for years until 2020 when I completed
my teacher training which had a focus on vinyasa. My passion for yoga deepened as I learnt
that yoga is much more than movement and that it is a way of life. Through this, I learnt to
cultivate a loving relationship with my body and mind. Additionally, I have been studying
Psychology for four years and have found inspirational links between yoga and psychology. I
have gained so much empowerment on my own healthy living journey. Yoga has been
integral in developing that mind-body connection.