Amanda Bent

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Ana Canosa 

I'm from Patagonia Argentina and enjoy spending the warm seasons in Alaska since 2016, after living many years in Mexico. I felt welcomed by the extraordinary community of Fairbanks and found peaceful spots to retreat and meditate, always loving the connection with nature and the Universe. Here's where my practice has become deeper and intense.
My first experiences with Yoga were some years ago through Vinyasa and Ashtanga, then I got completely caught on the Yoga path studying Iyengar with my guru and beloved grandmother in-law, Morgan Jeno, who got certified directly by BKS Iyengar himself and has been teaching in the States for more than 40 years, inspiring me to a yogic life and to spread the benefits of Yoga. 
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As I immersed myself deeper in my own practice having found the ancient Tantra teachings, and as a result of the awareness acquired after many years of Reiki practice as well, I was amazed to perceive instinctively the flow of energy through my Chakras while performing asanas and the transitions between them, but, while seeking for more knowledge to reinforce my intuition, I couldn't find any regular classes from this profound approach.
That's why I was very happy and lucky to find my Italian Masters, Amita and Marco Trabucco from Malini Yoga (Hridaya), who guided me through Tantra into Traditional Hatha Yoga, with the main focus on the subtle energies from the Universe. At the beginning of 2019, after an intensive training with their ancient teachings for practice and meditation, in a small mystical village at the Pacific coast of southern Mexico, I obtained the Yoga Instructor Certificate, RYS 250 Plus, from Aum Tantra Yoga, Kundalini Tantra Academy. Immediately I started teaching classes at few studios in that town, getting the immense fulfillment of sharing this traditional practice, and since then I'm always looking forward it. Now I'm teaching in Fairbanks!

My main motivation is to facilitate the benefits of the Yoga path to all kinds of people, through the transmission of the ancient Traditional Hatha Yoga practice from Tantra, the wellbeing and wholeness that produces with its deeper effects on the subtle plane of our being, not only on the physical body but also on the energetic, emotional, mental and spiritual levels, by the activation of Chakras and balance of our Yin-Yang aspects, to achieve a general state of inner harmony and spiritual elevated unification, bringing about the expansion of the consciousness to increase Universal Love and Peace in the world. AnaHata ​

Amanda Culp

 I tried my first yoga class in 2002 and have been practicing ever since. In yoga, I found a way to experience my body in a way that had been closed to me since I left competitive gymnastics a decade earlier. I loved the movement, the poses, the exercise, the balance it brought to my sedentary life as a college student. Over time, my experience of yoga has evolved from the purely physical to include the mental and spiritual. Now, my yoga is a way of life. It teaches me how to exist as a human BE-ing. It shows me my limitations and how to build on them as strengths. It helps me recover myself. It expands my capacity for acceptance and forgiveness and compassion. I continue to be in awe of how working with the body can bring health and healing and happiness to the mind and the heart. Though I often fall short, I find that the more I practice, the more yoga extends throughout all aspects my life, and the more I am able to live with intention and from the soul. I am eternally grateful for this practice, for all my teachers, and for my opportunities to share yoga with others.
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I grew into a yoga teacher in 2012, after a decade of personal practice. I have also been a teacher all my life—I even played “school” (rather than “house”) as a child! And while the what, how, and whom I teach has changed over time, my love of the teaching and learning process has remained constant. Sharing something I love and watching another human experience that moment of new understanding is one of the great joys of my life. Learning something new myself is another. I have lived in Portland, OR, Miami & Gainesville FL, Spartanburg, SC, Baton Rouge, LA, and now—Fairbanks, Alaska! I have longed to live in this place for as long as I can remember. I look forward to teaching and learning and practicing with you.

Amy Scott

Amy started teaching yoga in 2014 and in March 2016 earned her 200hr RYT certification through YogaFit International which teaches yoga as fitness in a flow style to create balance in the body, and complement the activities of daily life through proper alignment, and building core strength. She believes stretching and fitness can serve as an effective component to mental and physical well-being when partnered with other healthy lifestyle choices.
Amy is insured, and registered with Yoga Alliance International. She earned her M.Ed. through UAF and enjoys her time most when spent outside hiking and skiing.

Barbara Jacobson 

Barbara Jacobson is a licensed massage therapist, a dedicated yoga practitioner, and a passionate mother. Her goal in teaching yoga is to share the ability to find a deeper meaning in movement, and to empower people of all backgrounds to feel good in their body. Her yoga background is rooted in traditional ashtanga yoga method , but she often teaches more playful vinyasa flow classes infused with traditional postures. Barbara firmly believes that through a dedicated yoga practice, you can heal your body and soul.

Colin Campbell

Colin Campbell first tried yoga 6 years ago as a very inflexible runner and multisport athlete. He saw it as a way to gain flexibility, hoping to get closer to being able to touch his toes so his mom would no longer tease him about this shortcoming and to also reduce the incidence of injuries.
 
Colin found the practice very challenging, but along with the physical flexibility gain, he felt unusually calm and mentally clear after class. He was introduced to hot yoga a couple years later and was an instant addict. After 2.5 years he decided to take the necessary steps to enable sharing with others how much yoga could benefit them both physically and mentally, as it had for him.
 
Colin believes that classes should be challenging, but above all fun. In his spare time Colin enjoys running, traveling, peanut butter, and arm balances.

Daralyn Cantebury

Daralyn Canterbury is a long time Fairbanksan (since 1974) who is a retired school counselor/P.E. teacher and grabbed an interest in yoga about 15 years ago.  At that time, she trained  in Ashtanga Yoga with Bryan Kest in Santa Monica, CA.  Over this past 15 years Daralyn has developed her own class that includes various yoga experiences and she began teaching yoga at that time and has not stopped since.  Her practice and training has also included Kundalini yoga.  Daralyn developed her class based on various yoga experiences and self training.  Her background and degrees include a Masters of Education in School Counseling and a K-12 teaching certification in Physical Education.  Daralyn currently still teaches Jazzercise. She also studies Tibetan Buddhism.  All, this wide array of training and experience have allowed Daralyn to develop her own class to incorporate various levels of pilate type exercise and Ashtanga Yoga primary series with a sprinkle of Kundalini breath.  Daralyn is currently teaching yoga at UAF, Infinite Yoga of Alaska, Heartstream Yoga and at the Jazzercise studio.

Dee Gard

Dee Gard is a 2014 graduate of the Wilmington Yoga Center 220 hour Kunga Teacher Training Program, and is a registered yoga teacher through Yoga Alliance. She originally began her yoga practice in 2007 to supplement her intense marathon training. She reaped fitness and well-being benefits very quickly, and soon began practicing yoga several times a week to enhance her running performance.

In recent years, her practice has flip-flopped. Dee now runs (bikes and skis) to support her strong vinyasa flow practice, which is most influenced by teachers, Tiffany Cruikshank and Dice Iida-Klein.
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Though she offers up an athletic practice, she does so with warmth and playfulness, encouraging her students to honor and celebrate their bodies and their strengths as they move on their mats.
She is known for her strong verbal cuing, paying close attention to the subtleties of postures, and guides her students to move mindfully from an intelligent place using sound body alignment and movement principles. Dee believes magic happens in the practicing of yoga, and is truly excited to share the magic with her students.

Devta

Devta Khalsa  is a certified Kundalini Yoga teacher with the Yoga Alliance and Kundalini Yoga Research Institute.  (RYT 220 hr)  She has been teaching yoga since 1978.  Devta’s studies have been directly under the world master of KY, Yogi Bhajan.  She has attended numerous 6 week “Women in Training” yoga camps in New Mexico.  She has also attended countless White Tantric Yoga workshops.  Devta has completed all five modules of Level Two trainings (300 hr) and is a certified teacher trainer of Kundalini Yoga as taught by Yogi Bhajan.

Devta has taught in numerous venues throughout the Fairbanks area and in the Lower 48 states.  She specializes in pre and postnatal yoga and KY for addiction and the Twelve Step Program.  She lived and worked in an ashram which was a live-in addiction rehabilitation and treatment center in Tucson , AZ based on the lifestyle practices of Kundalini Yoga.  Devta has advanced training in the Mind and Meditation. 

She has extensive studies in Naad Yoga – the psychology of sound healing, chanting and meditation.  She has traveled to London and Canada to study Naam Simran with the world masters, Bhai Ajit Singh and Simer Singh.   Devta has traveled to India to study the philosophy and history of ancient yogic traditions with master historian Yogi Amandeep Singh and experience the Udasi yogic practices given by Baba Siri Chand.
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Devta has learned to play the 30 inch, handmade symphonic Gong as a healing instrument and occasionally incorporates that into her yoga classes or conducts Gong meditations.

Donna Lanni

As a teenager in the 1970s, Donna Lanni  began yoga movement in front of her stereo while listening to Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young.
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Initiated and named Devaki by the  Acharyas of Ananda Marga, Donna began teaching yoga and leading kirtans from her home in the late 1980s. In 1991, she was asked to teach yoga at a women’s martial arts retreat which led to 20 years of martial arts training in both Kung Fu and Shudokhan karate. Years of studying movement, martial arts and yoga  brought her to her Maha teacher, Shiva Rea, founder of Prana Vinyasa® yoga with whom the rivers of her trainings blend into an ocean  of discovery.  She is truly grateful for the teachings of Dr. Charles Scott and yoga and movement mentor,  Teri Vierick. Her other influences have been through the works of Emily Conrad, Gabrielle Roth and Beth Rigby, creator of Yoga Meets Dance (TM).

Currently, she holds a 4th Dan in Shudokhan karate as well as a 1st Dan in Kung fu. She has a 100hr certification in Yoga Meets Dance.  Donna completed her 200hr certification to teach Prana Vinyasa®  Yoga in 2011 and that year, with the help of her business partner , Marsha Munsell, she opened Heart Stream Yoga. For the past 4 years, she has taught in her studio, at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, and throughout the community. In the Summer 2014 she completed  certification training  Through Lazy Dog Paddle Boards and received  certification in water safety ( WPA) and sequencing paddle board yoga classes for a wide range of individuals. She is also certified to teach Yoga Trance Dance®, an integrative fusion of yoga merging to free flowing dance. Always the student, Donna is currently enrolled in the 500hr teachers training  program offered by Prana Vinyasa, finishing over 250 hours of contact hours this year that included the study of Ayurveda with master instructor Maria Garre.  

Donna lives in Fairbanks with her beloved, Ron and blended family of five children. She is a lover of 2 small smiling dogs and a loud  obnoxious Amazon parrot. She brings to her classes humor,  the spiritual alchemy and integration of seasonal, solar and lunar rhythms, poetry, and music.

Dory Casper

​Dory is a lifelong Fairbanksan who fell in love with yoga in 2016.... so intensely she enrolled in a 200hr local teacher training less than a year later. Dory’s focus is as much non-physical as physical. Meditation, pranayama, deep stretching, essential oils, and some form of hands-on adjustment during savasana are all very common elements in Dory’s practices. Dory has taught yoga here in the interior and as far away as Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Dory is excited to go where this amazing yoga journey takes her.

Emily Winfield 

Emily grew up in a small town in Nova Scotia and found yoga after moving to Alaska where she fell in love with the practice and the mental and physical benefits it provides. Awareness and acceptance are at the forefront of Emily’s teaching. She guides students to turn inward to find ease and flow in each form. Using the breath as a tool to deepen the practice and find steadiness in our bodies. She aims to help students connect with themselves in a welcoming environment. Emily completed her 200h vinyasa yoga teacher training in addition to a 30 hour yin yoga training. Her daily ashtanga practice informs her teaching by emphasizing the importance of balancing strength with flexibility.

Grace Peterson

Everyone has their own perception of what yoga is. That’s the beauty of yoga. Yoga is yoga is yoga is yoga is yoga. I want the world to know, feel and resonate with (in their own special way) peace, love, compassion. It just so happens, I connect with these qualities through my body, breath and soul in yoga.
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My practice, and by extension, my classes revolve around classical yoga philosophy and simple vinyasa. Balancing the traditional with the modern is a yoga practice I’ve been exploring, on and off the mat. A little sweat, pranayama, mindfulness and yogic philosophy is what you can expect from our time together.  I fell in love with yoga in 2008: in 2012 I completed 200hr Yoga Teacher training in Chiangmai Mai, Thailand through Wise Living Yoga Academy. WLYA is associated with The Yoga Institute of Santacruz, Mumbai, India and is accredited by the International Board of Yoga. 

Gretchen Nolan

​Gretchen has been teaching yoga for over 20 years now. She was first certified in Yogaville by Yogiraj Sri Swami Satachidananda in 1995. She has since continued her studies with Paul Grilley, Leslie Kaminoff, and Lynn Minton. You should expect a practice that is a little slower than normal. Gretchen has her own style that she calls Healing yoga. It's kinda a cross between Hatha and Yin. 

Jacie Sturm

Jacie began her yoga journey over 10 years ago, right here in Fairbanks, Alaska. At 16, she attended her very first yoga class as a favor to a friend who was afraid to go solo. She had no idea at the time that this single class would lay the groundwork for her journey of self-discovery for many years to come. Since that first class, Jacie has spent countless hours exploring all different styles of yoga. From Hatha to Vinyasa, restorative to ashtanga; she makes it her personal mission to never stop learning. However, the one style that has really stuck with Jacie is Vinyasa, a flow-style of yoga that links breath to movement, which aids in building a deep mind-body connection.
 
In 2009, Jacie moved to California and stumbled upon CorePower Yoga. She immediately knew that this studio was aligned with everything she wanted out of a yoga class: intelligent sequencing, clear cues, and a practical approach to integrating yoga into daily life. Having always loved public speaking and connecting with people, teacher training was the next natural step in her yoga journey. In 2011, she competed her 200-hr certification with CorePower Yoga in Huntington Beach, CA, complimented by an additional 5-week extensions course. 
 
“Serving my students is my biggest inspiration as a teacher,” Jacie says, “I encourage students to approach life both on and off the mat by setting intentions and staying present.” Expect a creatively-sequenced flow in Jacie’s classes, filled with fun transitions, and hands-on adjustments to aid in deepening your practice.

Jade Bodenhamer 

Jade moved up from North Carolina about five years ago with an appetite for adventure. She hadn’t discovered yoga until she moved to Fairbanks. Yin & restorative brought stillness and awareness to her life like nothing had before. She has found a way to create a flow of self-awareness and self-love through yin and restoring practices. Sharing this practice and helping others find this loving awareness within themselves brings great joy to her.

Jane Reilly

Jane took her first yoga class at UAF in 2004.  What started as a whim became a lifestyle.  Influenced by Iyengar and Anusura yoga, she studied with Todd Norian at Ashaya Yoga in 2015-16 for her RYT training.  Registered with Yoga Alliance, she strives to teach mindful alignment-based asana with pranayama while encouraging strength and balance with an emphasis on the core.  Jane has taken 25 + semesters of yoga at UAF and has been active in the UAF Yoga Club for 15 years, enriching her own practice each week through the wonderfully diverse teachers of Fairbanks. 

Jody Hassel

Jody Hassel, M.F.A., E-RYT, TCTSY-F Jody Hassel is an Experienced Registered Yoga Teacher (E-RYT 200) and is certified as a Trauma Center Trauma Sensitive Yoga Facilitator (TCTSY-F) by the Justice Resource Institute’s Trauma Center in Boston. She is registered with Yoga Alliance in Iyengar-based hatha yoga, which roots her practice in a clear awareness of aligning breath, body, energy, and mindfulness. Jody is blessed to receive yoga through a diverse lineage. She has studied vinyasa yoga with Seane Corn, restorative yoga with Judith Lasater, yoga in balance with Jean Couch, Kundalini yoga with Devta Khalsa, therapeutic yoga with Sarahjoy Marsh, and hatha yoga with Lynne Minton and Teri Viereck--her first master teacher in 1985. She completed the 200-hour teacher certification program at Yandara Yoga Institute in Todos Santos, Mexico where she studied Iyengar-based hatha in 2007. Prior to her work at Yandara, she completed Seane Corn’s Vinyasa Teacher Training at Kripalu in 2006 and again at Santa Barbara Yoga Center in 2013. Her additional training with Divine Action and Off the Mat into the World has informed her practice of integrating yoga with social justice work. Jody loves sharing her practice of yoga with others and has also spent many years in the practice of dance, music, writing, theatre, healing, and esoteric arts.

Kate Avery

The main philosophy of yoga is simple: mind, body and spirit are one and cannot be clearly separated. I deeply believe that people need to experience life on a mental and physical level. For me yoga is the perfect expression of both. I want to teach yoga to help people discover themselves, to connect with their breath and their inner sanctuary of peace. I hope to guide students to see that there is power in softening, grace in stability and that life is in every breadth.
I found a sanctuary at Yoga in the Pearl, Portland, Oregon and became a dedicated student of Power Yoga. My teachers included the Lauren Ingram, Tiffany Cruikshank, and Sarah Lakey.​

Lisa Currie 

Hi I’m Lisa. I’ve been around the UAF yoga club for years and most of you know of me from there or from Yoga in the Park. I started yoga over 20 years ago taking class here and there but didn’t really get hooked until I found Brooke 17 years ago. She taught me proper form and challenged me to know my body and how it feels with all movements. Now, I was smitten and wanted to share, so next step, teacher training and 15 years later I still love sharing yoga with everyone. I have studied with various teachers over the years but power yoga was my first love. Now as I’ve aged I’ve developed what I call a modified power yoga practice with long holds and a little slower movements that I will love sharing with everyone.

Marsha Munsell

I began my yoga journey in 1975 with Richard Hittleman’s book, 28 Days of Yoga. Taking the book to live in the Alaska bush with my husband, Jim, I established a daily practice of yoga and meditation that has served me to this day. After moving to Fairbanks I became involved in several Mind-Body disciplines and yoga took a back seat. I studied the art of Shudokan and Gosoke-Ryu karate for 23 years and hold blackbelts in Shudokan karate, Iaido and Gosoke Ryu and a brown belt in Kung Fu with Dr. Charles Scott.  I presently enjoy Tai Chi and the ancient art of Qigong. In addition to my passion for the martial arts, I returned to pursuing yoga passionately in 2000, and have been instructing since 2005. I have taught yoga classes at the International Karate Association, as a private instructor, for seniors in the OLLI program and currently I teach weekly classes at the Senior Center and Heart Stream Yoga. My teacher training came about through Sundari’s Anusara teacher immersions and Lynn Minton. I am grateful for the influence of Susanne Lyle and Teri Vierick. My 200 hour certification process was through White Lotus Yoga with Ganga White and Tracey Rich and I am a 200 hour RYT  and a 200 hour E-RYT with Yoga Alliance.
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I bring to my classes a love of alignment, the beauty of a quiet center, and the joy of inner discovery.

Morganne Armstrong

Morganne sees yoga as an opportunity to strengthen both body and mind and step out of the daily routine. She creates an atmosphere of self-investigation in her classes, allowing students to tune out their surroundings and focus in. An alignment and adjustment-focused instructor, Morganne’s vinyasa flow class combines engaging sequences to build strength with deep stretches. Morganne received her 200hr RYT from CorePower in Honolulu, HI in 2014 and furthered her practice instructing with their Extensions program in 2015.

Molly Tedesche

Molly has been practicing yoga since 1999, where she spent her first years learning the alignment-based styles of Iyengar and Anusara yoga asana and traditional philosophy from several experienced teachers in upstate New York. Molly later added both Ashtanga and Prana Flow styles to her training while living in California and Colorado. Colorado was also the place where Molly began practicing Shambhava Yoga at both the Shoshoni and Eldorado Ashrams.  In 2010, she traveled to Mongolia as a Fulbright Scholar and was invited to teach her first yoga classes in Ulaanbaattar’s first Hatha yoga studio. She then moved to Alaska to work as a hydrologist and earn a PhD degree in Snow Hydrology at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Molly has studied at the Central Institute for Buddhist Studies in Ladakh, India; and has taken took vows with the Nyingma Tibetan Buddhist group here in Alaska. She also studied Shambhava yoga and meditation at the Konalani Ashram in Hawaii and is a certified RYT-200 hour yoga instructor through the Shambhava School of Yoga. She is self-taught in Yin and Restorative yoga, and continues to develop her knowledge and teaching skills in this style; including work with Yoga Nidra meditation. Molly teaches an eclectic style of yoga, integrating detailed instructions on physical alignments with elements of Eastern philosophy. She also has an appetite for Alaskan backcountry adventures like climbing mountains, snowboarding, nordic skiing, mountain biking, backpacking, and boating.

Nicole is passionate about helping others find freedom and release through practicing yoga. Yoga can bring about the connection with the mind, body and spirit. Regular yoga practice has changed her life by allowing the space to find inner peace from her restless spirit by balancing upward and downward energy when moving through life. 

​Expect her classes to be moderately vigorous, inclusive, and playful yet complete with all seven classes of Asana. She has a non authoritarian compassionate teaching style with a background in trauma informed practice. Her flow practice is based upon the original style from the White Lotus Foundation in Santa Barbara, CA, that was established in 1968. Her yoga is based upon an alignment based Hatha/Vinyasa style. Nicole graduated from White Lotus in March, 2016. Mentored by Ganga White, Tracey Rich, Sven Holcomb, and James Morrison.    

Sunny Castillo

Taryn Hughes

Taryn Salinas found her yoga path after the birth of twins in 2007, practicing at her home in the small rural community of Tok, Alaska. Yoga enabled her to keep active while being closely tied to home, tending to her young family’s needs.Practicing yoga evolved into a curiosity about the link between physical practice (asana) and life away from the mat. Taryn found her yoga manifesting in an increasing desire to serve her community, so she began a grass-roots effort to bring yoga to the people in Tok; guiding small groups through basic sun salutations in her basement. As her life began to take shape around her yoga practice, she felt an ignited passion to attend Yoga Teacher Training.

In January of 2014, Taryn began her 200 hour Prana Vinyasa™ teacher training; traveling from Tok to Fairbanks to study with Coral Brown, a widely respected yoga teacher with deep roots in Hindu philosophy. Prana Vinyasa™’s fusion of slow-moving transitions, long holds, and connection of breath to movement resonated strongly with Taryn. She completed her training in January of 2015, having been personally and professionally transformed by the experiences drawn from her training.
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Taryn has been living and teaching in Fairbanks since June of 2015. She joins Fairbanks Yoga with nearly 500 hours of yoga instruction, and in 2017 will complete guidance with Off the Mat, Into the World, a training program with focus on yoga as it applies to social activism.
Taryn’s teaching philosophy is strongly rooted in the theory that mindful movement connects yoga practitioners to our own humanity. As a teacher she seeks to serve the community of Fairbanks by fusing her practice with her appreciation for the diverse people and the unique customs of the city that expanded her roots as a teacher and a person.

Tracy Lease 

Tracy Lease, the director of Full Life Yoga Studio, completed her original yoga teacher training with Todd Norian and Anne Greene who have been both Kripalu and Anusara Yoga teacher trainers. Tracy, loving different insights into yoga, has studied with a variety of Anusara, Iyengar, Yin and Ashtanga teachers including Sundari Lucey and Lynne Minton. As a Montessori middle school teacher, Tracy taught both yoga and human body to her students, using yoga to help students identify muscles and bones, fascia, and to feel into their respiratory and circulatory systems. Tracy has been teaching yoga since 2005 in her elementary and middle school classrooms, at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, in studios in Alaska, Idaho, Wyoming, and California and at Esalen Retreat Center on the Big Sur coast.

One of Tracy’s greatest teachers has been her own body. Discovering structural scoliosis in high school due to extreme pain, Tracy has been working with two extra vertebrae and four curves in her spine most of her life. Her spine led her to Pilates where she learned to integrate limbs and work from the core of her body, a lengthened and

Pilates Machine Workstrengthened spine during her Classical Pilates certification. Tracy also had extra bones in her feet which were removed in 1979. She has worked hard to bring back natural muscular strength in her arches and awareness in her feet. Tracy’s experiences with her spine and feet help her to have empathy for students and their body challenges.

Tracy loves alignment and feels that when students find it, they feel internal music—like fine-tuning a radio antennae, the body can move past the static to pure sound. Tracy revels in helping students find the music

​I love both yoga and teaching. I think of our yoga practice as an exploration, a way to know ourselves more fully. Yoga is play, adventure, and study and offers freedom, awakening and joy. I would like everyone to experience safe, alignment-based yoga and the healing and contentment I have found in the practice. -Tracy