Yoga District Yoga Instructors
Matsimela Ajani, Senior Instructor. Matsimela has been a disciplined practitioner of body science for over a decade. He has studied various martial arts from Bagua, to Xing Yi Quan, to Tai chi Quan-- all known as traditional internal style arts which incorporate an understanding of breathe with movement to maximize overall health. As a dedicated student and teacher of yoga, Matsimela received his teacher certification in the Sivananda tradition. Combining elements from his various practices and as a certified reflexologist, Matsimela provides a holistic approach to yoga, creating a powerful and synergistic connection between mind, body and soul.
Christina Alon teaches Yogalates classes at Yoga District, combining aspects of the Pilates Method and yoga. Christina began practicing yoga and pilates in 2000 as an alternative to the standard aerobic classes at the gym. She was immediately hooked for its mental and physical benefits. She obtained her yoga certification through DC Yoga and completed her pilates mat training at Quantum Pilates of DC. Christina combines elements from her trainings to build core strength and increase flexibility in her classes, and the combination works as her classes are among the most popular at Yoga District!
Leslie Brenowitz has been a yoga practitioner for 10 years in the Iyengar, Asthanga and Vinyasa traditions, and has been an instructor for 2 years. She completed Ashtanga Primary Series teacher training with David Swenson, and is fortunate to also have studied with Saul David Raye, Tzahi Moskovitz and other gifted instructors. To help participants get to know themselves and their bodies, her classes incorporate a focus on alignment, flow and the breath as well as a healthy dose of humor and the occassional Citizen Cope tune.
Jasmine Chehrazi has been studying yoga since 2002 and loves to combine approaches of different yoga traditions to come up with classes tailored to students' needs. Jasmine traveled to Berlin to study Vinyasa Flow under Henning Scheel and Florian Schoessler at Yoga Shala, and to Austria to study at the Sivananda Yoga at the Sivananda Ashram in Kitzbuhl. Jasmine also obtained certification from YogaSource in the Baron Baptiste Power Yoga tradition. In December 2006, Jasmine founded Yoga District in an effort to bring an eco-friendly, untraditional, challenging, affordable, accessible, light-hearted, community-based, grass roots, creative yoga studio to all communities in the District. Jasmine’s various classes focus on building core strength, increasing flexibility, and combining various types of yoga to offer challenging classes that are therapeutic and athletic both. Jasmine's "past life" involves writing articles and speaking at conferences about U.S. immigration procedures. To cope with work-related stress she sought yoga frequently and a drink occassionally. So it is perhaps suitable that after ten years in the immigration field she quit her job to teach yoga and occassionally bartend to help others relieve such stress!
Kritis Dasgupta, M.D., teaches the Russian martial art of Systema at Yoga District. Kritis began studying the martial arts at the age of twelve. He holds a black belt in hapkido and has studied tae kwon do, taijutsu, pakua and other arts. He began training in Systema in 2003 and became certified to teach in 2006. He works as a Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation physician and specializes in Brain Injury Rehabilitation. His classes emphasize self-defense as a natural progression of proper body mechanics, posture, and breathing.
Ariele Foster has studied yoga her entire life, and has been strongly influenced her grandmother (who, at age 80, still teaches multiple Iyengar-based yoga classes each week). Certified at the 200-hour level through the Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health, and teaching yoga since 2001, Ariele incorporates many influences from other studies (including classical indian and modern dance, anatomy, Anusara, Ashtanga, mindfulness meditation, Nonviolent Communication and Sivananda yoga) to lead her vinyasa flow classes with a foundation in the compassionate style of Kripalu Yoga. Ariele has completed three long-term sevas, or volunteer stints, at the Kripalu Center, which have enabled a greater integration and knowledge of the yogic lifestyle. A music lover now armed with an iPod, expect fun, personalized music playlists (if not live music!) and an experience of meditation in motion from each class with Ariele. For more information, please see www.sacredsourceyoga.com.
Amy Dara Hochberg, Senior Instructor, has been practicing yoga since childhood. She began her teacher training with Alan Finger, Lisa and Charles Matkin at Yoga Zone (which became Be Yoga and then Yoga Works) in 1999, and earned her Yoga Alliance-approved advanced teaching certificate from OM Yoga Center with Cyndi Lee in 2001. She was also certified by Judith Hanson Lasater to teach Restorative Yoga. Exploring yoga's dynamic balance between movement and stillness, Amy Dara also studied with Beryl Bender Birch, Susan 'Lip' Orem, Rodney Yee, Christopher Hildebrandt, Rolf Gates, Michael Hamilton, and David Ingalls. She taught classes and private sessions in New York City and Boston, and served on the Board of Directors of the New York Yoga Teachers Association from 2000 through 2003. She is studying for the Doctor of Physical Therapy degree. Her yoga classes incorporate her growing knowledge of physical therapy with a playful emphasis on alignment and intense relaxation.
Ellie Kaufman draws on her years of yoga experience and her training at an Iyengar yoga ashram in India to offer classes focusing on building deep core strength, proper alignment, and good breathing habits. Ellie was drawn to hatha yoga in 2002 and enjoyed studying with various teachers here in Washington. She spent the better part of 2004 expanding her
understanding and practice in India. Her studies began at the Vemana Yoga Research Institute in Andra Pradesh and then she went on to focus on the Iyengar tradition at Parmarth Niketan ashram in Rishikesh.
Jennifer Karius has been a regular practitioner within the method taught by B.K.S. Iyengar for the last 18 years, becoming certified to teach in 1998. She visited India four times to study directly with the Iyengar family, and has taught at Iyengar Yoga Java-eiland, the Iyengar Yoga Institute in Amsterdam, and various studios in San Francisco.
Jenny LaFleur, Senior Instructor, first practiced yoga as a child at an after-school program in Chicago and was re-introduced to yoga by her lifelong pal, Sara Cohen, at a community yoga class at the Chicago Park District in 2002. After earning her RYT 200 from DC Yoga, Jenny has worked integrate her love for vinyasa and anusara yoga into her classes. Jenny likes to create fun and challenging asana sequences and hopes her students will come to class ready to smile, experiment, and believe in themselves. She aspires to encourage people to bring their diverse physical, spiritual, economic, cultural, and intellectual experiences to class so that we all practice and reap the benefits of yoga together.
Michelle Mae, Senior Instructor, has been practicing and training in yoga in the Sivananda, Ashtanga, Iyengar and Vinyasa traditions for 10 years, and teaching it for the past 3 years. She also teaches meditation and is a practitioner of several yogic and healing traditions, eastern and western. Michelle encourages the understanding that yoga doesn't have to be a path of levels and stages, but a simple opening to the openness of your individual experience, whatever it is in the present; discovering your self, not only in body, but in mind. Practice for the now, not for the future. Her classes provide a balance of self-awareness and self-discovery by taking students beyond their limited perceptions, allowing them to connect more deeply with their own authentic power and energy in order to take yoga off the mat and into their lives.
Helen Medina believes that everyone can be a yogi. Her goal is to continue to build relationships with budding as well as experienced yogis in order to create a community. To connect with students, Helen makes an effort to assist and give each person individual attention. She uses her energetic personality, humor and contagious smile to create classes that are athletic, challenging, interesting and above all fun! Helen likes to share her favorite music to accompany the energy in class and is always searching for new tunes. Helen started yoga as a way to "get a deep stretch" after her daily runs, but following several months of consistent practice, she found that her mind and body were addicted to yoga! Increasingly, she began using the lessons she learned on her yoga mat to her daily life and yearned to discover more about the amazing physical, mental and spiritual benefits of yoga. To help her deepen her own and others' practice, Helen enrolled in a teacher training program with DC Yoga and became a certified yoga teacher.
Sophia Qureshi teaches beginner-friendly stress-relief yoga at Yoga District, specializing in calming the mind and rejuvenating the body. Sophia first began teaching two years ago, specializing in the Sivananda tradition.
Annette Tapia has been practicing yoga since moving to DC and has been teaching at Yoga District since 2007. She is certified in the vinyasa tradition, has a background in dance, and regularly incorporates yin and restorative work into her classes. Her biggest inspiration is watching her students gain confidence as their practices advance. Annette has a way of making students immediately feel at ease, and her Yin/Restorative classes take relaxation to a new level!
Bernie Wandel is a committed yogi who works to combine his practice with all aspects of his life. Having earned his certficiation in the hot Vinyasa tradition, he combines this with the many other types of yoga he has practiced, with a strong emphasis on Iyengar. Bernie continues to further his expertise by meeting and practicing with other committed yogis, including some of the most revered experts of various yoga traditions practicing today. He believes that everyone and everything can be your teacher. Asana is about breath. The body must create length and space to form movement and heat all accommodating the breath. He believes in the transformative power of yoga from a first-hand experience.
Alice Watland has been involved in long-distance running and practicing yoga and for over 30 years. She received her certification in the Bodhisattva yoga tradition, focusing on including a variety of yoga traditions in her classes. More info on Alice is coming soon!
Sheila Shadmand is Yoga District's guide to the belly dancing arts. Sheila helps her students learn that belly dancing is a unique form of physical expression promoting fitness of mind and body, within a rich cultural and historical context. More information about Sheila will be available soon.
Stacy Weibley, MPA, CHLC offers Holistic Counseling at Yoga District. Stacy draws on both eastern and western traditions and utilizes a diversity of modalities, including counseling, mentoring, and guided visualization, to help clients negotiate life’s challenges. Emphasizing the connection between body, mind, and spirit, she offers a supportive environment to assist individuals in dealing with daily stress, combating depression, identifying harmful patterns and addictions, removing blocks, discovering their life purpose, and ultimately creating a more balanced and fulfilling life. Stacy’s approach recognizes that even the most seemingly trivial behaviors or concerns can offer rich insights regarding the unconscious processes that shape our lives. Stacy is a Certified Holistic Life Coach and is currently completing her doctoral degree in Public Health. Both individual and group sessions are available.
Christina Alon teaches Yogalates classes at Yoga District, combining aspects of the Pilates Method and yoga. Christina began practicing yoga and pilates in 2000 as an alternative to the standard aerobic classes at the gym. She was immediately hooked for its mental and physical benefits. She obtained her yoga certification through DC Yoga and completed her pilates mat training at Quantum Pilates of DC. Christina combines elements from her trainings to build core strength and increase flexibility in her classes, and the combination works as her classes are among the most popular at Yoga District!
Leslie Brenowitz has been a yoga practitioner for 10 years in the Iyengar, Asthanga and Vinyasa traditions, and has been an instructor for 2 years. She completed Ashtanga Primary Series teacher training with David Swenson, and is fortunate to also have studied with Saul David Raye, Tzahi Moskovitz and other gifted instructors. To help participants get to know themselves and their bodies, her classes incorporate a focus on alignment, flow and the breath as well as a healthy dose of humor and the occassional Citizen Cope tune.
Jasmine Chehrazi has been studying yoga since 2002 and loves to combine approaches of different yoga traditions to come up with classes tailored to students' needs. Jasmine traveled to Berlin to study Vinyasa Flow under Henning Scheel and Florian Schoessler at Yoga Shala, and to Austria to study at the Sivananda Yoga at the Sivananda Ashram in Kitzbuhl. Jasmine also obtained certification from YogaSource in the Baron Baptiste Power Yoga tradition. In December 2006, Jasmine founded Yoga District in an effort to bring an eco-friendly, untraditional, challenging, affordable, accessible, light-hearted, community-based, grass roots, creative yoga studio to all communities in the District. Jasmine’s various classes focus on building core strength, increasing flexibility, and combining various types of yoga to offer challenging classes that are therapeutic and athletic both. Jasmine's "past life" involves writing articles and speaking at conferences about U.S. immigration procedures. To cope with work-related stress she sought yoga frequently and a drink occassionally. So it is perhaps suitable that after ten years in the immigration field she quit her job to teach yoga and occassionally bartend to help others relieve such stress!
Kritis Dasgupta, M.D., teaches the Russian martial art of Systema at Yoga District. Kritis began studying the martial arts at the age of twelve. He holds a black belt in hapkido and has studied tae kwon do, taijutsu, pakua and other arts. He began training in Systema in 2003 and became certified to teach in 2006. He works as a Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation physician and specializes in Brain Injury Rehabilitation. His classes emphasize self-defense as a natural progression of proper body mechanics, posture, and breathing.
Ariele Foster has studied yoga her entire life, and has been strongly influenced her grandmother (who, at age 80, still teaches multiple Iyengar-based yoga classes each week). Certified at the 200-hour level through the Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health, and teaching yoga since 2001, Ariele incorporates many influences from other studies (including classical indian and modern dance, anatomy, Anusara, Ashtanga, mindfulness meditation, Nonviolent Communication and Sivananda yoga) to lead her vinyasa flow classes with a foundation in the compassionate style of Kripalu Yoga. Ariele has completed three long-term sevas, or volunteer stints, at the Kripalu Center, which have enabled a greater integration and knowledge of the yogic lifestyle. A music lover now armed with an iPod, expect fun, personalized music playlists (if not live music!) and an experience of meditation in motion from each class with Ariele. For more information, please see www.sacredsourceyoga.com.
Amy Dara Hochberg, Senior Instructor, has been practicing yoga since childhood. She began her teacher training with Alan Finger, Lisa and Charles Matkin at Yoga Zone (which became Be Yoga and then Yoga Works) in 1999, and earned her Yoga Alliance-approved advanced teaching certificate from OM Yoga Center with Cyndi Lee in 2001. She was also certified by Judith Hanson Lasater to teach Restorative Yoga. Exploring yoga's dynamic balance between movement and stillness, Amy Dara also studied with Beryl Bender Birch, Susan 'Lip' Orem, Rodney Yee, Christopher Hildebrandt, Rolf Gates, Michael Hamilton, and David Ingalls. She taught classes and private sessions in New York City and Boston, and served on the Board of Directors of the New York Yoga Teachers Association from 2000 through 2003. She is studying for the Doctor of Physical Therapy degree. Her yoga classes incorporate her growing knowledge of physical therapy with a playful emphasis on alignment and intense relaxation.
Ellie Kaufman draws on her years of yoga experience and her training at an Iyengar yoga ashram in India to offer classes focusing on building deep core strength, proper alignment, and good breathing habits. Ellie was drawn to hatha yoga in 2002 and enjoyed studying with various teachers here in Washington. She spent the better part of 2004 expanding her
understanding and practice in India. Her studies began at the Vemana Yoga Research Institute in Andra Pradesh and then she went on to focus on the Iyengar tradition at Parmarth Niketan ashram in Rishikesh.
Jennifer Karius has been a regular practitioner within the method taught by B.K.S. Iyengar for the last 18 years, becoming certified to teach in 1998. She visited India four times to study directly with the Iyengar family, and has taught at Iyengar Yoga Java-eiland, the Iyengar Yoga Institute in Amsterdam, and various studios in San Francisco.
Jenny LaFleur, Senior Instructor, first practiced yoga as a child at an after-school program in Chicago and was re-introduced to yoga by her lifelong pal, Sara Cohen, at a community yoga class at the Chicago Park District in 2002. After earning her RYT 200 from DC Yoga, Jenny has worked integrate her love for vinyasa and anusara yoga into her classes. Jenny likes to create fun and challenging asana sequences and hopes her students will come to class ready to smile, experiment, and believe in themselves. She aspires to encourage people to bring their diverse physical, spiritual, economic, cultural, and intellectual experiences to class so that we all practice and reap the benefits of yoga together.
Michelle Mae, Senior Instructor, has been practicing and training in yoga in the Sivananda, Ashtanga, Iyengar and Vinyasa traditions for 10 years, and teaching it for the past 3 years. She also teaches meditation and is a practitioner of several yogic and healing traditions, eastern and western. Michelle encourages the understanding that yoga doesn't have to be a path of levels and stages, but a simple opening to the openness of your individual experience, whatever it is in the present; discovering your self, not only in body, but in mind. Practice for the now, not for the future. Her classes provide a balance of self-awareness and self-discovery by taking students beyond their limited perceptions, allowing them to connect more deeply with their own authentic power and energy in order to take yoga off the mat and into their lives.
Helen Medina believes that everyone can be a yogi. Her goal is to continue to build relationships with budding as well as experienced yogis in order to create a community. To connect with students, Helen makes an effort to assist and give each person individual attention. She uses her energetic personality, humor and contagious smile to create classes that are athletic, challenging, interesting and above all fun! Helen likes to share her favorite music to accompany the energy in class and is always searching for new tunes. Helen started yoga as a way to "get a deep stretch" after her daily runs, but following several months of consistent practice, she found that her mind and body were addicted to yoga! Increasingly, she began using the lessons she learned on her yoga mat to her daily life and yearned to discover more about the amazing physical, mental and spiritual benefits of yoga. To help her deepen her own and others' practice, Helen enrolled in a teacher training program with DC Yoga and became a certified yoga teacher.
Sophia Qureshi teaches beginner-friendly stress-relief yoga at Yoga District, specializing in calming the mind and rejuvenating the body. Sophia first began teaching two years ago, specializing in the Sivananda tradition.
Annette Tapia has been practicing yoga since moving to DC and has been teaching at Yoga District since 2007. She is certified in the vinyasa tradition, has a background in dance, and regularly incorporates yin and restorative work into her classes. Her biggest inspiration is watching her students gain confidence as their practices advance. Annette has a way of making students immediately feel at ease, and her Yin/Restorative classes take relaxation to a new level!
Bernie Wandel is a committed yogi who works to combine his practice with all aspects of his life. Having earned his certficiation in the hot Vinyasa tradition, he combines this with the many other types of yoga he has practiced, with a strong emphasis on Iyengar. Bernie continues to further his expertise by meeting and practicing with other committed yogis, including some of the most revered experts of various yoga traditions practicing today. He believes that everyone and everything can be your teacher. Asana is about breath. The body must create length and space to form movement and heat all accommodating the breath. He believes in the transformative power of yoga from a first-hand experience.
Alice Watland has been involved in long-distance running and practicing yoga and for over 30 years. She received her certification in the Bodhisattva yoga tradition, focusing on including a variety of yoga traditions in her classes. More info on Alice is coming soon!
Yoga District Workshop Instructors and Therapists
Sheila Shadmand is Yoga District's guide to the belly dancing arts. Sheila helps her students learn that belly dancing is a unique form of physical expression promoting fitness of mind and body, within a rich cultural and historical context. More information about Sheila will be available soon.
Stacy Weibley, MPA, CHLC offers Holistic Counseling at Yoga District. Stacy draws on both eastern and western traditions and utilizes a diversity of modalities, including counseling, mentoring, and guided visualization, to help clients negotiate life’s challenges. Emphasizing the connection between body, mind, and spirit, she offers a supportive environment to assist individuals in dealing with daily stress, combating depression, identifying harmful patterns and addictions, removing blocks, discovering their life purpose, and ultimately creating a more balanced and fulfilling life. Stacy’s approach recognizes that even the most seemingly trivial behaviors or concerns can offer rich insights regarding the unconscious processes that shape our lives. Stacy is a Certified Holistic Life Coach and is currently completing her doctoral degree in Public Health. Both individual and group sessions are available.