Kimberly Allcock, RYT
Since her introduction to yoga in 2002, Kim’s practice has encompassed athletic vinyasa, pre-and post-natal practice, and the spontaneous joy of sharing yoga with her three children. She completed a 200-hour instructor training with Kimberlee Orenstein in 2005, and prenatal yoga teacher training with Deborah Jordan in Grass Valley CA in 2008. Her classes draw from numerous influences (including Viniyoga, Iyengar, Ashtanga and Anusara), integrating breath and body mindfulness, postural alignment, and yoga philosophy in a flowing and exuberant practice. She delights in sharing her love of yoga with students of all levels and is unceasingly grateful for their wisdom and energy.
Denise Barclay
Denise has been practicing yoga since 1996 and started to teach in 1998. Due to injuries to her tailbone and collarbone at a developmental age, she had weaknesses in her spine affecting the neck, middle back and lower back. Yoga has been a key element in her strengthening and bringing balance back to her body. Denise's background includes studying with Doug Swenson and Lilias Folan, and she has completed the 200 hour teacher training with Kim Orenstein. She also brings her studies with Jack Kornfield of vipassana meditation to assist in training the mind to be more present while practicing yoga, and in daily life. Along with these practices, she enjoys gardening, hiking, movies, reading, decorating and crafts. Her husband, Larry, shares her passion for yoga and combined they have two grown daughters and one grandson, as well as a son and daughter at home.
Cheryl Bruce
fell in love with the practice of Yoga after taking her first class at age 16 and has been practicing yoga and meditation for over 35 years. When Cheryl was a professional ballet dancer she used her yoga practice to gain strength, flexibility, mental focus and a peaceful mental state. After dancing professionally she taught ballet for over 20 years while raising her two sons. She took her yoga teacher training with Kim Orenstein at Yoga Loka. She also teaches Pilates and Qi Gong. Cheryl has a love and passion for teaching and hopes you will join her in this nurturing class.
Tom Burton, RYT
Tom moved from Virginia to Northern Nevada in 1984, at which time he had no idea either where Nevada was or what yoga was. After reading a Yoga Journal article in 2000 that recommended yoga as a perfectly balanced workout, he began to explore the concept through reading, an occasional class and a daily home practice. Then, after seeing first hand what a difference yoga can make in one's life, a<br />nd attending a 4-day yoga conference in San Francisco, Tom began a more focused study program with Kim Orenstein, including participation in her 2005 - 2006 advanced yoga study and teacher training program. Tom's main objective in teaching is to convey how gentle and spiritual and nurturing the practice of yoga can be for absolutely anyone, no matter a person's age, body type, flexibility or physical strength. One of Tom's basic tenets in yoga is that anyone can do any pose - you just do it in a modified manner.
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Lindsay Chapman
Lindsay Chapman has been guiding students in the practice of yoga since 2004. Her enthusiasm for movement is deeply rooted in dance, which she has studied extensively throughout her life. Lindsay provides a safe haven for all who seek instruction to reunite the three aspects of body, mind, and spirit, which may have been formerly unaddressed. With ample experience and innate sensitivity, her classes flourish in an intimate dance of self-exploration. Lindsay is forever grateful for the unspeakable stability that yoga has provided for her, and thus empowers students to meditate and to take better care of themselves.
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Mandy Colbert, HBCE, RYT
As a mother of three, Mandy knows first hand that the practice of yoga is one of the most effective ways a woman can prepare to bring her baby into the world in a calm, mindful and more comfortable way. Mandy completed her yoga teaching certification with Kim Orenstein in May 2004. She then went on to receive her pre/postnatal and HypnoBirthing certifications in 2006. Her classes create a safe, supportive and informative envirionment. Mandy's web site is www.cultivateyourbirth.com.
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Jim Dakin
Jim practices both Hatha and Kundalini yoga. He is a lifelong spiritual adventurer on an expansive path of personal growth. Through the practice of yoga, the body can become an instrument of transformation and you will become a more reliable witness to your own existence. WAHOO! Jim wishes to share his love of yoga and encourages everyone to awaken to life's possibilities.
Mary Dugan, RYT
Mary's personal practice began in 1995 with meditation, based on the method of her spiritual teacher, Sri Eknath Easwaran. Over the years, she started dabbling in asana (posture) practice, eventually studying with Yoga Loka Director Kim Orenstein and local teacher Sally Schuster, completing Kim's Teacher Training in 2003. Mary finds that meditation and the use of a mantra provide a spiritual foundation for each day. Asana practice builds on this foundation, developing not only stamina and strength, but also providing a release for the tension and frustration that daily life can bring. Yoga, in total, provides Mary a haven from her other professional life as an attorney. And yoga, she says, is teaching her, or trying to teach her, patience. "I don't have too much trouble being patient with others, but being patient with myself is another story." Mary loves teaching and the opportunity it brings to share her commitment to yoga with others. She also credits yoga, in all its forms, with enabling her to maintain a sense of balance in her life and juggling a professional career, four children, a husband and her yoga practice puts this to the test daily!
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David Funk
David began practicing yoga in 2000. His interest in yoga originally began as a way to improve his flexibility but he soon realized that the practice of yoga is a powerful and transformative way to live your life. David leads an active lifestyle, participating in activities such as cycling , running, snow boarding and long distance backpacking. Yoga helps him to remain strong and healthy while pursuing these passions. He has completed the 200 hour teacher training course with Kim Orenstein. David hopes, through his teaching, to share his love of yoga with others and to guide and inspire them on their journey.
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Jackie Gallagher, RYT
Jackie Gallagher,RYT, MFT has been practicing yoga since 1999. She has trained extensively with Kim Orenstein and began teaching in 2004. Jackie was looking for some spiritual fulfillment when she discovered yoga on a women's white water rafting retreat. Since then, she has continued to explore her spirituality through yoga's transformational qualities. Also a high school counselor and a practicing marriage and family therapist, she has found yoga to be invaluable in assisting students and clients to learn how to allow their breath to be their internal guide. I can't believe I lived without yoga for as long as I did!
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Jeri Glines
Jeri, a.k.a Spiace, found yoga in 2006. After months of hobbling around on a fractured ankle hindering her from her other passion, snowboarding, she decided to explore yoga. These days she has to think about which ankle it was. She soon fell in love with the effects that yoga has on the body and mind, intrigued by the power of a pose and its detoxifying effect. She knew from the start she wanted to be a teacher. After a year of basic classes she was thrown into the primary series of Ashtanga and remembers the mind recoiling from it, she took time to practice at home and soon returned to the studio to be with her teachers. Her body yearns for the asana limb of Ashtanga. She loves this practice because each pose prepares the body for the next allowing her to experience changes in the body each time she practices. She grooves on the moving meditation of this practice using the breath to move the body and quiet the mind. Jeri completed her 200-hour teacher training with Kim Orenstein at Yoga Loka. She hopes to visit the birth place of her yoga practice, Mysore, India. “I am very grateful for my teachers and I hope to make them proud. My goal as a teacher is to inspire my students and meet them where they are mentally and physically.”
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Amber Jesch, RYT
Amber’s journey on the hatha yoga path began in 2002 when she took her first yoga class at UNR with Kim Orenstein. She was initially drawn to yoga purely as a form of physical exercise because she already followed another path that nurtured her mind and spirit. Amber was fortunate enough to have been raised an initiate of a branch of jñana yoga: Transcendental Meditation. She quickly discovered that this physical asana practice complemented her 15-year meditation practice perfectly. As she further embraced the yogic philosophy, she found it was one and the same as her TM background. As Amber began to expand her practice, incorporating more vigorous disciplines such as Power and Ashtanga, her love of movement and her need for a healthy lifestyle expanded as well. Admittedly, she was never the athletic type, but through her asana practice, she has found joy and fulfillment in other activities, including hiking, cycling, and skiing. While completing her 200-hour yoga teacher training with Kim Orenstein at Yoga Loka, she garnered a new passion for the science and mechanics of movement and the body that complements, however diametrically, her university education in the language arts. Her personal practice has evolved tremendously in a short while but she has never forgotten the gift her first class gave her: a love of precise movement coupled with challenging effort, a gift which she offers to all her students.
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Sandra Li
Yoga has been a force of positive change, spiritual growth and mind-body awareness for Sandra. She took her first class in 2003 and was hooked ever since she discovered it as not only a spiritual practice, but a great complimentary activity to running, rock climbing, lindy hopping, aerial silks, and knitting! She is a graduate of the Sivananda Teacher Training Course at Neyyar Dam and Kim Orenstein's 200-Hour Teacher Training course. Her practice draws from styles such as Ashtanga and Vinyasa/ Power Flow classes. Sandra hopes her classes can be a place where practitioners can explore the fullest expression of their beings through asana. Sandra is grateful for what yoga has taught her, including a way to experience compassion and equanimity that she strives to translate off the mat.
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Monica Limon
Monica first witnessed yoga as a kid while watching her mom turn into a pretzel on the family room floor sporting her Jane Fonda-like tights and leotard as the local PBS station aired a not so trendy Hatha yoga show. In 1999 the always on the go career gal and avid runner, Monica discovered yoga again, this time from her friend and teacher Denise Barclay. She began practicing Ashtanga yoga to add more strength and flexibility to her workouts but earnestly learned that yoga had more to offer than just strengthening the physical body and bland couture.
Monica recently completed the Kids Yoga Training with Mery Mares. While thrilled to teach, she understands the overwhelming stresses kids face in our society and would like to offer children a safe, secure and fun place to move their bodies, to breathe in life and to sit with stillness. Off the mat, Monica can be found exploring all things curious with her energetic son Julien and maintains her creative duties at MeshCreative with beloved spouse, Milan Sperka. Her daily mantra is "Keep smiling and breathing."
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Katie Louvat
Katie fell in love with the practice of yoga in 1998. She began teaching in 2000 following an apprenticeship with Kim Orenstein and has since graduated from Yoga Loka’s 200-hour teacher training. The quality and character of her vinyasa-style practice is a reflection of her playful nature and love for creative movement. Through movement, breath, and guided introspection, Katie supports and empowers her students to live more balanced, healthful, and joy-filled lives. Off the mat, you'll find Katie gliding down a glassy wave on a surfboard in northern CA; mountain biking over a curvy section of Tahoe single track; running with her little black dog, Ruby; and generally loving life.
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Amaia Maite Oiz
Amaia is a graduate of the It’s Yoga Teacher Training level 1, level 2, Rocket Series, and Yoga Kids. Her style of teaching derives from her personal practice and from her teachers Sri K. Pattabhi Jois, Larry Schultz, Katie Cariffe, and David Swenson. Her passion is to share her growing knowledge of the yoga lifestyle. She owned and operated a private yoga practice in Pacifica, CA and has taught in various settings all over the San Francisco Bay Area. She also taught in La Pine Oregon at a therapeutic boarding school for girls. “We are all each other’s teachers” is her philosophy and she is delighted to be able to inspire others through yoga. She believes that children are truly enlightened beings and finds that they practice yoga with wisdom. In her kids classes she focuses on the various types of learning and sensory integration. Her goal is to share the jewels of yoga with all ages.
Amaia has her B.S. in psychology with focus in child development and drug and alcohol recovery. She also volunteers for CASA, Court Appointed Special Advocates for children, in Washoe County. Amaia is a RYT, CPR certified (adult/children/infant), licensed and insured.
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Helen Marotta
Whether it be tennis, golf, tai-chi or yoga Helen loves to teach and has been teaching since she was a teenager. She has been practicing yoga, tai-chi and meditation for the past 12 years and upon moving to Reno 2 years ago,she began teaching Tai-chi Long Form at Yoga Loka. Helen completed the Yoga Loka Teacher Training with Kim Orenstein and is also a certified Reiki Master Level Teacher under Reiki Master Laura Bruno. Through Tai-chi (moving meditation), Reiki (energy healing) and yoga Helen practices walking softly and gently on this planet, being fully awake in each and every moment, enjoying all she encounters as a student and as a teacher, on this wonderful journey of life.
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Mery Mares, RYT
Mery held her first asana pose in an Eastern Philosophy class at the University of Southern California in 1998. This class inspired her to take Yoga from the Sivananda Center in Madrid, Spain where she lived and completed courses for her degree. Mery has also practiced Ashtanga and a style of vinyasa yoga taught by Gabriel Hall in Long Beach, CA. After spending most of her college career working with children and teens of all ages through tutoring, nannying, and volunteer camp counseling and mentoring, she was led to the profession of teaching. In Long Beach, she taught Social Studies at an at-risk alternative high school for both teens and adults. She was blessed to start a yoga program there. Mery says, "My students needed a refuge from their gang-ridden world. Somewhere, where they could find peace and melt into their yoga mats.” Mery attributes Yoga to giving her a more, healthy, fulfilling, and spiritual life and to also being able to balance her most important job as a wife and a mother of 2 children. She completed the Yoga Loka Teacher Training from Kim Orenstein in 2006 and most recently has been trained through Global Family Yoga in kids and family yoga. www.yogawithmery.com
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Jen McClellan
Back in 1999, Jen was looking for a healthy way to relieve stress, as well as an enjoyable way to develop her spirituality. Her answer was yoga, and she's been practicing it ever since. "I began this journey by taking Power, Ashtanga, Iyengar, and Vinyasa Yoga classes and soon found that I was in love with yoga."
In addition to relieving stress, yoga has led Jen to change her lifestyle to include a healthier raw vegetarian diet, the use of natural homeopathic remedies, and an awareness of the power of one's thoughts, actions, and spoken words. "I am grateful to be able to share a practice that leads to enhanced physical strength, improved breathing, a pure internal body, a quieter mind, and an overall feeling of peacefulness." Jen is a registered teacher through the Yoga Alliance.
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Sally McGrew
Sally McGrew is a contemporary yoga teacher who practices the art of stillness and teaches yoga both in US and Mexico. Her passion for the evolution of herself and humanity has lead her to study how the biological body and the energetic body relate to each other. She became a certified yoga teacher under Kim Orenstein of Yoga Loka. She has studied under several yoga teachers in the US and is certified to teach and practice EMF Balancing Technique an energy modality to assist the etheric body through its own transformation.
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Kimberlee Orenstein, M.S., E-RYT
Kim Orenstein, Founding Director and Advanced Study TeacherTraining, is a Registered Yoga Teacher at the 500 hour level. She holds a Master's degree in Exercise Science and has almost 30 years experience teaching. Kim’s yoga practice began in 1992 following a knee surgery that suspended her mountain bike racing and professional dancing. She teaches a style of yoga that developed through her many years of study with some of the most well respected western yoga masters of the Krishnamacharia tradition (Astanga, Iyengar and Viniyoga), plus Forrest Yoga, Yin Yoga, and Pilates. She is a certified Yoga of the Heart® instructor, a program that adapts yoga for people with heart disease, cancer and other debilitating disease. Her classes emphasize the linking of posture and breath and her intention in teaching yoga is to inspire people to discover how to move through life effectively and gracefully by learning to dissolve the disconnections to themselves and others. Her teaching expresses her love of movement and provides opportunities for people to explore themselves - in motion and in stillness.
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Jeanine Sigal
Jeanine has been practicing yoga for the past 6 years. As a yoga instructor she enjoys helping others improve their quality of life through all that yoga has to offer. Yoga helped her through the struggles of life and now she has found joy in all that life has to offer. Jeanine completed the 200-hour Yoga Loka Teacher Training with Kim Orenstein.
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