Leala attended her first yoga class in New York City when she was nineteen.  It was a gentle, meditative class that opened a tiny doorway into her heart, and catalyzed great changes in her life. Within a year, she had moved to the remote side of Maui where she met David Williams and began a three month intensive study of Ashtanga Yoga. She went on to develop a steady home practice.  Living in community on Maui and traveling, she taught whoever wanted to learn, including Sequoia Indians in the Amazon tributaries of Ecuador.

Her exploration of yoga led naturally into an interest in meditation, and in 1994, she attended her first silent ten day Vipassana meditation retreat, which deeply rekindled her sense of connection to the source. She continued to travel, attending meditation courses and at times living and working at retreat centers, practicing yoga all the while.
In 1997 she met her husband at a meditation center, and a few months later they had the grace of meeting their spiritual teacher, John DeRuiter of the College of Integrated Philosophy in Edmonton (www.collegeofintegratedphilosophy.com).

In 2000, Leala attended an Ashtanga Yoga teachers training course with renowned instructor David Swenson and in 2003 completed her level three training through Trinity Yoga. With Trinity she has explored many styles of yoga, branching out from her traditional Ashtanga training.  Most recently, she hosted and attended an additional 200 hour teacher training course with her beloved yoga teacher Yogi Vishvketu of Northern India (www.worldyogafamily.com) at Prana Yoga Studio, further exploring the diverse and traditional aspects of yoga, including pranayama (breathwork), chanting, mantra and yoga philosophy.

Debbie teaches yoga as a practice of reconnecting with our wholeness.   She warmly welcomes the uniqueness of every yogi’s experience and supports students in their exploration for meaning and balance in their lives. She loves to share the passion and awareness she has for yoga by teaching and guiding others.

Taking yoga off the mat, into everyday life is a primary inspiration of her teaching.  She emphasizes loving-kindness, patience and compassion as keys to a beautiful practice both on the mat and everywhere we walk. She is eternally grateful to all of her teachers.

Debbie completed her Yoga Teaching Training with Yogi Vishvketu of Northern India (www.worldyogafamily.com) in August 2009.  Aside from teaching yoga, she is also a Mathematics professer at NAIT.  She holds a Masters degree in Mathematics Curriculum and Instruction from the University of Colorado, Boulder.

Debbie is passionate about yoga, hiking, reading, kirtan, travel, and mostly her son Jonah and husband Erik. 

Kate's yoga journey began in 1998, at a point in her life when she was struggling with an eating disorder. From her first class, yoga opened doors that led her down the path of self-awareness. She became certified through the Gerda Kerbs Hatha Yoga Centre in 1999 and began her training as a Reiki Master and Thai Massage therapist. Kate teaches Hatha, Ashtanga and Vinyasa yoga and has had the pleasure of taking classes with esteemed teachers: Seane Corne, Shiva Rea, Judith Lasater and David Swenson. Through her gregarious personality, Kate has a natural gift of bringing out the best in people. One of her biggest joys is seeing the look in students' eyes when they move further into a pose than they ever thought that they could. Kate's unique style leads students to find softness within strength and activity within stillness. She also believes in living her yoga 'off the mat' and has taught yoga classes to young girls and women in-need and has led numerous drumming and chanting circles with all donations given to local charities. Kate feels honoured to share her love of yoga with the Prana community.

Jeanette's passion and enthusiasm for teaching yoga is a delight to be a part of.  She began to experience the numerous positive benefits of practicing yoga in 1996 and started teaching in 2002.  With a background in Group Fitness (since 1988), Jeanette has discovered that bringing unity and balance to the mind, body and spirit, is just as important as keeping the physical body in shape. 
During her extended yoga teacher training in India (2009), Jeanette’s knowledge and understanding of yoga was deepened and enriched by her teacher, Yogi Vishvketu.  She considers it one of the most transformational experiences of her life, and is most grateful for the profound healing that she received.
Other teachers that Jeanette feels most fortunate to have studied with are:  Donna Farhi, TKV Desikachar, Mark Whitwell, Rodney Yee and Shiva Rea.

 Jeanette's awareness of the energetic aspect of the human body has been enhanced through the practice of yoga.  She has taken numerous courses in energetic anatomy, is a Reiki Practitioner and has experienced first hand, the power of hands on healing.  Jeanette is thrilled to be sharing the many gifts of yoga and energy healings on a full-time basis.

Jaya began practicing yoga in a tiny bedroom in 1997, learning from the pages of a discount book. She was immediately enamored by the embodied freedom she found from moving through the poses and connecting to the breath.  Jaya moved on from that book to study ashtanga, power, hatha, and kundalini but ultimately fell in love with the art of intuitive flow, tapping deeply into the body’s innate intelligence and utilizing yoga as a profound tool of life exploration. Jaya was honored to train with Yogi Vishvketu in the classical Raja system of yoga and was deeply moved to receive the spiritual name Jaya Devi which means goddess of victory. She endeavors to inspire her students to feel victorious in their inspirations through challenging the ways in which they believe themselves to be restricted. As a certified Holistic Health Practitioner and Reiki Master/Teacher Jaya approaches the body as an incredible metaphor that dramatically reveals the secrets of the head and heart. Her intention for all of her students is to fall in love with exploring the vast freedom that can be found within any apparent set of limitations, mind/body/spirit. Her classes are a combination of philosophy and fun, challenge and rejuvenation. Mostly she hopes others are inspired to have fun keeping it real. Hari Om.

Yoga Alliance Certified Teacher
Corinne’s yogic journey was sparked in a high school drama class, where everyday warm-up consisted of Asana and Pranayama. Her studies then took her to Montreal where she danced semi-professionally, a discipline which encouraged her to develop a deep home practice.  Corinne completed a 200 hour yoga teacher training through Trinity Yoga and she is a certified yoga instructor with Yoga Alliance, providing her with a solid foundation to continue her journey of self-discovery while assisting students to deepen, open and “let go”.

Corinne’s friendly and joyful personality brings honesty, humor, and an open heart to her teaching. She balances and integrates her flowing classes with breath, alignment, strength, and ease. With a communications and performing arts background, Corinne incorporates a love of yoga in all aspects of her life, including her work as a Certified Doula (DONA) and Thai Yoga Massage practitioner (Lotus Palm).   Corinne is delighted to be teaching at Prana Yoga Studio and she feels blessed to be able to share the harmony and serenity that yoga brings to her life with others.  For more info on Doula care or Thai Yoga Massage please go to www.lotusmoonwellness.com

Elise shares a deep passion for therapeutic yoga with her students that stems from her own journey and experience with scoliosis. Diagnosed at the age of 13 and faced with the prognosis of eventual surgery to fuse her spine with rods, she found yoga changed her life. She is a 500 hour certified Yoga Alliance teacher with Yogi Vishvketu (World Conscious Yoga Family) and is deeply appreciative of the teachings she has received including Yoga Therapy with David McAmmond, Yoga for Scoliosis with Elise Browning Miller, Prenatal Yoga, as well as Yoga for Depression and Anxiety. She has recently returned from India where she was living and teaching at Anand Prakash Yoga Ashram and studying intensively with Yogi Vishvketu. Elise assisted the Yoga Teacher Training Programs in India with World Conscious Yoga Family and provides therapeutic back workshops for the teacher training programs internationally.  Elise believes that to live life fully with no physical pain is to live with an open heart and mind. She inspires students to release blockages in the mind and pranic body to ease constriction in the physical body.

Yogi Vishvketu has studied and practiced Hatha and Raja yoga and the Vedic healing arts in northern India since childhood. From the age of 8, he studied Vedic wisdom at Kanvashram in the foothills of the Himalayas. With its historic temple and Ayurvedic clinic, Kanvashram attracts many yogic saints and Ayurvedic masters and was an ideal place to absorb these ancient healing and consciousness-raising traditions.
Vishva went on to attain a Bachelor’s degree in Sports and Humanities with a specialization in yoga, as well as an M.A. and Ph.D. in Yoga Philosophy. While at the University of Haridwar, he also pursued courses in Naturopathy, Reike, Pranic Healing, and Yoga Therapy. In 1992 and 1995, he won the All India Inter-University Yoga Championships. He moved to Ottawa in 2001, where he continues to dedicate himself to teaching the arts of yoga and Ayurveda. Internationally, he offers holistic yoga workshops including asana, pranayama, cleansing kriyas, Ayurveda and Vedic chanting. He also offers yoga teacher training programs, and retreats for dedicated practitioners in Canada and in the foothills of the Himalayas. The teacher training programs are recognized by the Yoga Alliance at the 200-hour level.

Tyler is Prana Yoga Studio’s resident writer.  His workshops explore the origins of creativity, encouraging self-discovery through the use of language, meditation, and visualization.  Writing opened for him at the age of twenty-one when he chronicled his adventures in Asia: teaching English in Cambodia, sneaking into Tibet, and hitchhiking to Mt. Kailas disguised as a Buddhist monk. His work has been awarded the Writer’s Federation Of New Brunswick Literary Prize, the New Times Fiction Prize, the Feathertale Micro Fiction Prize, and others, appearing in numerous journals throughout the US, Canada, and Europe.  His children’s book, Wrush: The Secret Worlds Of Tabetha Bright (Greenleaf Book Group) is due out in 2010. Keep your eyes open for The Tinderbox: A Creativity Workshop, as it tours Alberta’s art venues, hospitals, and elementary schools this fall. For more information, please visit www.thetinderbox.ca

Chantel Sampson has been dancing since the age of three years.  A lifelong passion for dance has continued to fuel her spirit.  Her background includes tap, jazz, ballet, contemporary, and modern.  She has studied and trained under many talented teachers from across Canada.  During university, her parents exposed her to the world of ballroom dance where she met her husband and lifelong dance partner.  After seven successful years in competition Chantel felt it was time to explore a new genre of dance and began training in Irish dance.  Her Adult Ceili team recently returned from Nashville with the North American Irish Dance Championships title and look forward to travelling to Ireland for the All Ireland Championships in February 2010.  Chantel received her Bachelor of Education degree in Elementary Education from the University of Alberta and has always brought her love of dance into her teaching.  She currently teaches an elementary school dance program to 450 wonderful and enthusiastic students and believes that every child should have the opportunity to express themselves through dance.  Chantel began For the Love of Dance because she believes that everyone should have the opportunity to find the dancer within themselves.  She embraces the philosophy of dance as a universal form of expression.  Her teaching provides children and adults an opportunity to explore different dance and movement styles in a non-competitive, supportive environment.

I came to the path of yoga the long way around. It began as part of training I took in Traditional Thai Massage in Thailand. Each morning we rose at 5 to sit for meditation, pranayama and asana practice. After my initial misgivings of practicing surrounded by roosters, it began to feel quite natural and now more than 10 years later is an important part of my life. –the yoga I mean, not the roosters.
I left Thailand with the beginnings of a steady practice but living in Whitehorse at the time, I turned to video tapes of Rodney Yee to keep my connection. (yes, -video tapes) After this, I had the opportunity to study yoga with Darby and Alison Ulan in Montreal for a number of years and took my first teacher’s training with Dr. Bali –then 84 years old and teaching yoga for many of them. He taught me about the body’s incredible capacity to heal itself when we give it the opportunity through daily yoga practice. I have also taken both my 200 and 500 hour teacher training with Yogi Vishvekatu in Rishikesh who taught me much about the spirit and heart of yoga. I have been influenced by friends in Germany who are committed yogis and yoga teachers with Yoga Vidya. I have learned a lot about devotion and service to others through them.
I’m continually inspired by yoga and it’s ability to bring about changes at the deepest level. It works because it develops that which is already within us. As a certified Thai massage therapist and yoga therapist, I am interested in giving people the opportunity to explore the patterns of movement within themselves and then working with breath and asana to develop healthier movement, flexibility and strength.
I now happily make my home in Edmonton with my partner Elise. We are both committed to the study and practice of yoga in our lives and within our community.

From the age of 19 I have been involved with health, fitness and movement. For 22 years I taught group exercise at numerous places in Edmonton; it was during those years I went back to school to become a personal fitness trainer. For 12 years I enjoyed mentoring my clients on their journey to better health. I was asked by one of my clients to develop the Remedial Exercise program for her massage college; this was to lead me down another path. I worked for the school in this capacity for a few years, eventually took the two year massage program myself and have continued on with the school as an instructor for the last 5 years.

It was four years ago that I took my 1st "real" yoga class at Prana. Leala was teaching ... and I was learning!! In yoga I felt all the threads coming together. I immediately realized yoga's nourishing effect on my body tissues, my awareness of alignment and expansion, the freedom from my mind's distractions and a deep sense of God's presence. I feel that everything I have been learning and practicing up to now has been preparing me to teach yoga. As Fra Giovanni wrote in 1513 AD," Life is so full of meaning and purpose, so full of beauty ... that you will find earth that cloaks heaven. Courage then to claim it, that is all! But courage you have, and the knowledge that we are all pilgrims together, wending our way through unknown country, home." I will always be a student and a seeker most of all, but I humbly offer my guidance as we wend our way down this path together.

 Carmella has been practicing yoga since 1999. Her interest in yoga began when several friends suggested she take a yoga class.  She enrolled in evening classes with Julie Jeung and was hooked from day one. The combination of movement, breathwork, chanting and meditation appealed to her. She felt the rejuvenating and energizing effects of the classes immediately. Since then she has taken classes and workshops with a variety of teachers learning the different approaches and styles of yoga. In 2010 she completed the YogaWorks/Yoga Alliance  200 hour certification.  Carmella is continuing her study of yoga through the Yoga Association of Alberta Teacher Training Program learning the Therapeutic style of Desikachar and pursuing her interest in meditation and chanting. Yoga is a meditation in movement that brings a smile to your heart and soul.

I was born on the Caribbean island of Puerto Rico.  I lived and danced there for the first 24 years of my life. My yoga journey started in 1998 when I was a dancer. In the beginning it just felt like a good warm-up, but one day during Savasana my body started to surrender.  My mind followed and I experienced a new openness that set the pattern to further investigate the real meaning of what was happening.  In 2004 I started a long trip to South America, and was introduced to Vipassana Meditation. During the following years I attended and worked in several retreats. These silent ten-day meditation retreats were an amazing tool that deepened my stillness and self-discovery. In 2006 I attended my first Yoga Teacher Training (Iyengar tradition) at Anandayoga, Buenos Aires, Argentina. I practiced Iyengar for the following years and then started to combine the practice with Ashtanga. Using the combination of alignment and body awareness of dance and Pilates, I started teaching yoga two years ago to my massage therapy clients.    
I'm very blessed to have had the opportunity to attend the Yoga Teachers Training with the big-hearted Yogi Vishvketu. I feel very inspired to share with my students the deep meaning of yoga, a beautiful tool to realize the wholeness of what we really are.
I'm enormously grateful to my spiritual teacher John de Ruiter for the light he sheds on the meaning of life and the beyond. 

Although Isabelle first experiened yoga asana practice in 1995 while living in Berkeley, California, she considers herself a latecomer to the physical aspect of this profound and unifying discipline. For years her internal emphasis was on gnana yoga - the yoga of inquiry and intellectual exploration - and bhakti yoga - through devotional singing (kiirtan), songwriting, and chanting. At age 40 she has come to see the sweetness, the necessity, and the privilege of including the whole of the body in realization and development. In her practice she delights in striking a dynamic balance between vigor and release, precision and spontaneity, and silence and humor. Join her for Sunrise Yoga on Tuesdays and Thursday mornings, and at regular kiirtans (group singing) and other special events at Prana Yoga Studio. Through her company KindMind (www.kindmind.ca), she also offers the Work of Byron Katie - a simple yet profoundly effective method of inquiry that identifies, and questions, thoughts that cause suffering in our lives and in our world. Look for periodic Intro Sessions to the Work at Prana!