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Joanna Colwell | Russell Comstock | Mary Claire DeHaven
Sansea Sparling | Olga Pschorr | Brian Slavin
Linda McCuen | Annie Konopke | Karen Winston
To
be truly healthy, we must take care of our body, mind, and heart.
A great yoga class should leave you feeling cleansed and energized,
clear-headed, warm-hearted, and deliciously relaxed. Joanna
Colwell has a gift for helping students of every age
and ability to grow stronger and calmer, relax the body and mind,
and have fun. With warmth, humor, and deep compassion, Joanna
rejoices in sharing the treasures she has received from her practice.
A
yoga instructor since 1996, Joanna completed teacher training
with some of North America's finest teachers, including Rodney
Yee, Judith Lasater, Tony Briggs, and Gayna Uransky. She is the
founder and director of Otter Creek Yoga.
joanna@ottercreekyoga.com |
Russell
Comstock, Co-Director of Metta Earth Institute, has given
his life to living, learning, and loving. As a stepfather for
over twenty years to three sons Russell
is dedicated to fathering, family, and community life. Always
moved by the soul of earth, he holds an MA in Contemplative and
Ecological Leadership and a BA in Human Ecology. A practitioner
of yoga for more than twenty years, he is certified in both Interdisciplinary
and Jivamukti Yoga, and brings to all his teaching a spirit of
embodied devotion. With extensive experience directing programs
in wilderness, adventure, and experiential education, Russell
integrates a steady intention to help humans connect more compassionately
with earth and with each other. He has trained as a quest and
wilderness guide with Earth Rise Foundation, School of Lost Borders,
and Outdoor Leadership Training Seminars. He is a licensed New
York State Guide and is a nationally certified Wilderness Emergency
Medical Technician (WEMT). Currently Russell is authoring a book
called Metta Earth Yoga - Contemplative Ecological Practices
for a Sustainable Future.
russell@mettaearth.org
Mary
Claire DeHaven has been a Certified Kripalu Yoga Instructor
since 1996. Respect and compassion are key elements of her
yoga teaching, She invites her students to find the tension
in their bodies and minds. Then, through movement and holding
postures for sustained periods, her students naturally move through
this tension, gaining flexibility and strength along the way.
"Some students appreciate a challenge; others need a gentle
practice." Students are free to work at their own pace in
her classes.
Mary
Claire draws from both her background as a meditator and her practice
as a psychotherapist to make yoga a meditation in motion in which
students are encouraged to be centered and relaxed in their bodies.
Mary
Claire has taught yoga classes in Huntington, Vermont for the
last 10 years. In addition to her teacher training in 1996 at
Kripalu, she has been influenced by the renowned yoga teacher
Donna Fahri who focuses on the experience of breath throughout
the body, Rudy Pierce from Kripalu and Martha Whitney from Burlington,
VT. Mary Claire has also studied Thai Yoga Massage at the Lotus
Palm school in Montreal. She is a licensed Psychotherapist currently
practicing in Middlebury, where she has practiced for 13 years.
mcdehaven@gmail.com
Sansea
Sparling loves yoga. She delights in helping students
of all ages to gently open their bodies with yoga postures, breathing
exercises, and generous amounts of humor and compassion. A long-time
student of Deborah Felmeth, and registered Yoga Alliance teacher,
Sansea is certified by Don and Amba Stapleton at Nosara in hatha
yoga instruction and Pranassage©. Her influences include
Anusara yoga, Donna Farhi, and the study of dance and anatomy.
ssparling@gmavt.net
Olga Pschorr strives to give all levels of students a safe, yet vigorous practice that emphasizes inner somatic awareness, whole body alignment in order to increase the movement of energy and prana through the physical body and yoga nidra. Her classes are fluid, calming and energizing with an inward focus.
Olga loves the grace and wisdom of the body in movement and in stillness, at all ages of life and ability. Her early influences include ballet and modern dance, and she was first introduced to the importance of the breath by a childhood friend who became a professional opera singer. A long-time student of Joanna Colwell's and deeply inspired by her teachings, Olga became a certified teacher in 2010 at Yoga Center Amherst where she studied yoga, embodiment, and experiential anatomy with primary teacher, Patty Townsend and visiting teachers Andrea Olsen and Bonnie Bainbridge-Cohen.
Olga offers an ongoing yoga class to her neighbors in Salisbury village, assists in Amherst teacher trainings and will continue yoga studies with Tias Little in New Mexico in 2012. Off the mat, Olga provided state leadership in service to Vermonters with disabilities for 18 years, and she is now the director of New Leaf Montessori in Leicester, where she plays, tumbles, teaches, and practices yoga with 20 children under age five, each year. Many people know her by her childhood nickname, Gigi.
Olga loves the unique simplicity of working through practice towards experienced knowledge. She is happy and grateful to dedicate her time to Otter Creek Yoga!
newleafmontessori@pshift.com
Brian Slavin is a father, husband, artist, massage therapist, yoga instructor, and collector of cool hats. Brian received his training from the Kripalu Yoga Center in 1997 and soon after opened The Union Pearl Center for Yoga and Healing Arts in his hometown in Muncie, Indiana. After six years of growing the center, life shifted and his family relocated to Vermont in 2004 and found Middlebury the perfect place to put down his roots. He says”, I love this community for its people, beauty, and opportunities to be involved in the things that inspire me. Yoga inspires me and I look forward to teaching and being a part of the Otter Creek Yoga family.”
babaslavin@gmail.com
Linda McCuen initially explored dance education as a high school student. Since then, dance has continually pulsed through her life as a means of expression and rejuvenation. Linda completed her Nia certification in April of 2007 and has taught Nia courses ever since. She’s a regular faculty member at Cobra Gymnastic and Dance Center, where she teaches weekly classes (www.cobravt.com) and has monthly and bi-monthly offerings at the Open Sky studio in Bristol, Vermont. She is excited to become part of the Otter Creek Yoga studio and offer classes in our studio.
lcallnan@gmail.com
Annie Konopke comes to the practice of Yoga from an extensive background in dance, which included Latin and Middle Eastern dance, her favorites! After three years of exclusive Ashtanga study, Annie set out to discover what else the world of Yoga had to offer. She tried Kundalini, Yin, Iyengar, and Kripalu, then discovered Anusara through a workshop at Otter Creek Yoga. At the beginning of 2011, Annie enrolled in an Anusara Immersion program, which is an intensive study of yoga philosophy and alignment principles. Annie participates in bi-weekly Anusara classes here in Vermont and travels to Massachusetts to study at an Anusara studio there. Annie’s life goal is to help her brothers and sisters of the earth experience total body wellness through yoga and positive life choices. She believes the magnificent gift of Yoga produces sincere well-being and an enduring capacity for joy. Annie is excited about and grateful for the opportunity to begin the teaching part of her Yoga journey at Otter Creek Yoga.
bellydants@yahoo.com
Karen Winston has been a psychotherapist for 25 years
and is a certified Matrix Energetics practitioner. She has recently incorporated energy work into her practice, and has found that this new combination profoundly deepens and accelerates the process of growth and healing.
karenwinston24@gmail.com |
