Allison McCready

Allison’s classes are a unique combination of introspection, self-enquiry, and playfulness grounded in attention to breath, alignment, and anatomy. She encourages her students to discern the nuances of each pose by focusing on breath and sensation, guiding them into an intuitive awareness of their body’s story. In her popular DeepFlow classes the vinyasa is deconstructed into component parts so that students build strength and stability without risk of injury. Allison has completed teacher trainings with Max Strom, Erich Schiffmann, Jamie Elmer, Sherry Brourman and Jill Miller. She is a Certified Yoga Tune Up® Teacher, a member of the Yoga Alliance as a Certified E-RYT and a member of the International Association of Yoga Therapists.

For more information visit Allison's Facebook Page.

Catherine McDonough

Catherine McDonough is a Family Nurse Practitioner and has been in practice since 1984. She has been practicing and studying yoga since 1982. Numerous teacher trainings and one certification program led to her opening The Yoga Center in 1994 in Billings Montana. She taught at that studio for 10 years before returning to her home town of Los Angeles. Catherine specializes in therapeutic yoga for many medical problems and concerns. She is enthusiastic, and has a practical approach when teaching postures, with the aim of helping students incorporate yoga in daily life at home and at work.

UPDATE September 2011:  She is currently volunteering in a hospital in Dharamsala, India and teaching yoga there as well.  You can follow her India blog here.

Cindy Fraser

Cindy Fraser teaches a slow, deep practice influenced by Taoist and hatha yoga principles, offering students of all levels the opportunity to explore the power and the beauty of body and breath. A yoga practice of 15 years brought Cindy to teaching.

Claire Abuan

Claire Abuan seeks to create a stable foundation that counters compaction from gravity and common modern body positioning. Controlled, graceful movement from the deepest core allows us to liberate stagnation through alignment and posture.  The goal is to enhance body awareness to move with confidence.  Claire is a certified Pilates Mat (BASI), Pre Post Natal Pilates, and GYROTONIC® instructor. For more information, you can check out Claire on Tumblr or on her website or Facebook page.

Daniel Stewart

Daniel Stewart studies yoga and other wisdom traditions to explore the practice of becoming fully alive in each moment. His playful, heart-centered teaching, combines alignment, meditative breath, music and spirit, in vigorous vinyasa-flow classes that encourage students to quiet their minds and reconnect to themselves, releasing energy for renewal and joy. For more information visit danielstewartyoga.com.

Deborah Raoult

Deborah Raoult is a yoga and Continuum Movement teacher whose primary interest is exploring the dynamics of breath and motion as gateways to freedom. Her expertise is working with women throughout the life stages. She has a special passion for the childbearing cycle. Her focus supports women and their families, celebrating pregnancy, labor and parenting as powerful rites of passage that transform our relationship to body, community and the Earth. Deborah's twenty-five years of experience includes presenting at the Yoga Journal conference and offering pre and postnatal yoga teacher training. For more information visit www.unfoldingbody.com.

Elizabeth St. Clair

Elizabeth St. Clair has taught traditional kundalini yoga at Santa Monica Yoga since 1996. Her classes are joyous - they empower the body, mind and spirit through asana, pranayama and meditation. She is a certified Relax and Renew Trainer and has trained in Yoga ASSIST for cancer patients at LMU where she is pursuing certification in yoga philosophy. Elizabeth is also deeply involved in using yoga to benefit those with Alzheimer's and brain injuries.

Grace Flowers

Grace (Wang) Flowers is a dedicated yoga instructor, lifelong student and founder of Yoga for Change, The OM Project and the Inspire Yoga Series®. Grace believes in the power of healing through movement and has dedicated her focus to teaching well-balanced vinyasa flow yoga classes with emphasis on healthy alignment, therapeutic instruction, and encouraged doses of laughter.

Grace teaches a dynamic blend of yoga and pranayama designed to explore the body’s full range of motion while cultivating precision, balance, flexibility, and grace. She has over a decade of experience in various yoga lineages having studied with some of the most revered modern day yoga teachers, but finds home base with her teachers, Annie Carpenter and Maty Ezraty.  Known as a teacher who actually "teaches" instead of simply "leading practices", she is skilled in her ability to guide students how to dive deep into their bodies and into their consciousness by using clear language and deliberate hands-on adjustments.

For more information visit www.graceflowersyoga.com.

Indira Shekerjian

Indira Shekerjian Compassionate. Dynamic. Hands-On. Intuitive. Challenging. Restorative. Transformational. But ultimately, expect the unexpected! Indira may start each class with a theme, but she crafts each class based on who shows up. Her intent is always to help guide you in your journey whether it's physical, emotional or spiritual. With her non-ego approach she creates a safe environment-- great for beginners, seniors, seasoned students and those who claim they're "inflexible". She connects to her students through touch and mindful awareness. Indira believes that the real power of yoga is contained in the breath and when combined with movement, healing can occur.

Jane Zingale

Jane Zingale is a hands-on instructor who has training and experience with various styles of yoga. Her classes are a mix of Iyengar, Hatha and Kundalini yoga. She encourages energy, strength and conscious breathing promoting the student's focus. Slowly warming the body from the inside out she guides the student’s attention to form and alignment, lengthening the spine, and caring for the lower back.

Joan Uemura Shure

Joan stepped into her first Yoga class is 1999 and hasn’t stopped since.

Her classes are a harmonious blend of stretch, strength, balance, and flow, with emphasis on core work and connecting breath to movement.

A Massage Therapist and Energy Worker for over 15 years, the transition into Yoga Instructor came very naturally.  She has been very lucky to be able to study with many amazing teachers here in LA. Her main influences have been right here at Santa Monica Yoga; completing SMY’s Teacher Training with Nancy Goodstein, Julian Walker, Kyra Haglund, and Shari Friedrichsen. Over the years she has studied with Bryan Kest, Ashley Turner, and Shiva Rea.

 “Yoga has been the single most influentially positive factor in my life and I am honored to be able to share it with you.”

Joyce Dvoren

Joyce Dvoren is a graduate of the SMY 200-hour teacher training program. In addition to teaching yoga, Joyce also practices several healing modalities (including Reiki and Oneness Blessing, or deeksha) which she offers to her students during savasana. Her "come as you are" teaching style invites students to honor themselves, to focus on safe alignment, and to use the breath as a master tool for self-awareness.

Julian Walker

Julian Walker brings an integrative and uniquely holistic vision to his teaching that is inspired by sacred poetry, world music, depth psychology, archetypal mythology, and a passion for deeply embodied and healing spirituality. He has been teaching yoga and practicing the healing arts of bodywork, therapeutic dialog and cleanse coaching in Los Angeles for the last 14 years, and has taught across the United States. He studied intensively in L.A. with master teacher Ana Forrest from 1992 to 1998, and was certified by her to teach. Julian's classes are sweaty, energetic, stretchy and meditative, cater to students of all levels and include music and poetry. For more information visit julianwalkeryoga.com.

Katherine Newmark

Katherine Newmark has been practicing yoga for over twenty years and teaching for the last ten. She has studied with Rod Stryker, Lisa Walford, Erich Schiffman, Gary Kraftsow. In her restorative class, with the use of props and breath, she guides students to gently open the body, soothe the nervous system, clear the brain and nourish the spirit. This practice is stress reducing, heart opening and balancing to the system, offering desirable relief for L.A. city dwellers.

Keri Lee

Keri Lee is a certified Iyengar yoga teacher.  She studied with the Iyengar family in Pune, India in the summer of 2010.  Before teaching yoga she already had over 15 years of teaching experience including the movement principles of the Yoshida Technique, various kinds of dance and fitness classes.  Her career before teaching yoga was performing in Broadway shows.  She holds a BA in English. Her primary teachers are Marla Apt and Carolyn Belko.  The profound change she has experienced with her practice instills her teaching with clarity, warmth, humor and devotion.

Kyra Haglund

Kyra Haglund teaches hatha-raja yoga in a compassionate, knowledgeable, and energetic manner. She views yoga as a multilayered journey that inspires greater understanding of and connection to the true self within. She draws on her background as a dancer to evoke inner grace and balance in a safe, creative environment. For more information visit kyrahaglund.com.

Laura Gideon

Laura Gideon has been involved in the fitness/health/wellness industry for the past 27 years. She is IM=X Pilates certified, a fitness formula that advances the traditional teachings of Joseph Pilates integrating a proprietary blend of exercise sequences along with the Alexander Techniques of postural training. IM=X Pilates is designed to develop strength, symmetry, and range of motion along with flexibility. Laura enjoys educating her class "beyond training" teaching students how to advance in an injury free setting. She also holds a M.S. degree in Exercise Science and multiple fitness trainer certifications. For more information visit www.bamboobalance.com.

For a primer on Laura's Level 1/Beginners Pilates Mat class, check out the following video:

Pilates Beginner Level 1 Mat Class at Santa Monica Yoga HD Version from Laura Gideon on Vimeo.

Laura Kachergus

Laura Kachergus has been teaching yoga since 2001 after completing her first teacher training with Anusara's John Friend and her second with Dana Flynn and Amy Ippoliti at the Laughing Lotus Yoga Center in NYC. She also developed the curriculum for Zenergy Yoga for Kids. She has taught every body from toddlers to retirees to ad exes to architects and is thrilled to include prenatal. Laura loved being pregnant and hopes to share this enthusiasm with other mamas and mamas-to-be. Her study of Anusara lends her teaching a verbal clarity with a focus on foundational technique. She offers this class as a way for mamas to connect to themselves - through body, breath and baby and also their peers. Welcome!

Leslie Bogart

Leslie Bogart is certified to teach in the Viniyoga tradition. She has worked with people with physical and emotional ailments as a Registered Nurse since the 1970s. Leslie began practicing yoga in 1982, and received her first certification to teach yoga in 1985. In addition to working for a physical therapist, Leslie continued her studies with different yoga teachers, soon immersing herself in Yoga as therapy. She focused on the teachings of Krishnamacarya and Desikachar, mostly as taught by Gary Kraftsow, and has completed his Yoga Therapists' Training Course.

Lorna Sirota

Lorna Sirota is a Certified Iyengar Yoga Instructor. She has been teaching yoga for the last 14 years, and and has maintained her own practice for over 20 years. Lorna teaches a mixed level, small group, Iyengar class.  Much of Lorna's teaching has been focused on working with Yoga Therapeutics. She has, and continues to work with a UCLA study group using Iyengar Yoga as a therapy for breast cancer survivors with persistant fatigue. As part of the yoga team through the Pediatric Pain Center at UCLA, Lorna  has taught in their Iyengar Therapeutic Yoga studies for young adults with RA (Rheumatoid Arthritis) as well as those challenged with IBS( Irritable Bowl Syndrome) .  Lorna Has studied with the Iyengars in Pune, India, and continues to pursue her education with some of the world's most senior level yoga teachers.  Lorna's dedication to this Hatha Yoga system is reflected in her own yoga practice and her tangible and inspirational teaching style.