Faculty
Whistler Yoga Conference Faculty 2012
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Driven by a fierce passion for empowering women through movement, Alice is known for delivering fun, spiritually inspiring workouts. As Founder/CEO of Bellyfit International, Alice draws on 15 years of experience as a fitness professional, dancer and Yogini, and has certified hundreds of Bellyfit Instructors through her company’s international training courses.
Chetana Panwar |  | 
Colleen Felgate | |
She is the creator and primary instructor for the Yoga Alliance approved Whistler Yoga Teacher Training Course. She is certified in Yoga Therapy as well as Stott Pilates, and uses these techniques incorporated within her yoga style to help heal various injuries and ailments. Most recently she is training in Anusara which has helped her to expand her practice and evolve her teaching techniques. With her background she teaches predominately a Vinyasa (flow) style of yoga and a yoga pilates flow; both of which she incorporates awareness on alignment, the breath and engaging the core. She enjoys creating a connection with her students with a light hearted intention helping them get the most from their practice physically, mentally and spiritually. "Danielle Mika Nagel is certified, by the Chopra Center of Wellbeing in Carlsbad, California, as a Primordial Sound Meditation Teacher, a Seven Spiritual Laws of Yoga Teacher and Ayurvedic Lifestyle Consultant. She is registered as an Experienced Yoga Alliance (“YA”) Teacher. She completed her initial YA Teacher Training in the styles of Ashtanga, Anusara and Iyengar. Danielle is the Director of the Chopra Yoga Center in Vancouver, B.C. She currently teaches at the Chopra Yoga Center as well as at Chopra Center events in the U.S. She is originally from Los Angeles, is an ambassador for Lululemon Athletica, and has been featured in TV commercials for companies throughout the U.S. and Canada. In addition to yoga, she has taught vocal, dance and fitness classes and is certified by the American Counsel on Exercise as a Group Fitness Instructor. Prior to her yoga career, she performed professionally in Broadway shows (Cats, Miss Saigon, Beauty and Beast and The Hunchback of Notre Dame) for six years in Germany. Danielle is fluent in Japanese and German. For more information on Danielle, visit www.daniellemikanagel.com" Eoin Finn | |
Julia McCabe | |
I have been teaching and practicing yoga since 2001, with my beginnings at Neoalpine Y-Yoga in Whistler, B.C, Canada. Between 2005-2008, I had the opportunity to teach at Pure Yoga, Hong Kong with a mind-blowing faculty of big spirited bohemians and teachers. I also had the opportunity to assist and teach with renegade yogi, Patrick Creelman (Anusara certified). Leslie Young | |
Leslie Young, owner of Mountain Yoga, began exploring yoga as a teenager looking for depth. Teaching in Whistler since 1991, Leslie divides her time between the mountains and the ocean...teaching in Belize, Mexico, Cortez Island at Hollyhock and on Savary Island, where she is building a home/retreat. In the Krishnamacharya lineage, she certified both in the Iyengar tradition originally and again with Dona Holleman and Orit Sen-Gupta, founder of Vijnana Yoga. Biotensegrity and the explorations of Gioia Irwin continue to weave into her practice. Leslie's approach balances flow and precision and explores space and freedom in the body and mind. Her committment to spiritual practice runs deep, inspired by Vipassana meditation and Dhamma studies with Jayanta and the teachings of Adyashanti. She brings yoga's ancient practices alive exploring meditation, pranayama, mudras, asana and sutras with passionate enthusiasm. Teaching for over 20 years, Leslie has trained teachers locally and beyond, encouraging all to find the truth of unconditional love and freedom. Meghan Currie | |
When I teach I let go as much as possible so I may be an open channel for creative energy to pass through Every student is everyones teacher so I plug my heart into everyone and do my best to translate the teachings which present themselves in the moment I believe it’s not all up to me. Like any recipe, there must be just the right amount of all the ingredients to produce epic flavor. When I teach I mix my given ingredients well with all other unpredictable and delicious ingredients to co-create with the playful universe and be a part of something grand. I never know what is going to happen. And if I attempt to know too much, something is lost. I love life and food in raw true form Much fear has brought me to where I am, so I encourage all sides of everyone to be welcomed, honored and faced. For fears, if faced, are like really good manure for the soul. I am SO grateful to all my teachers, especially Steve Merkley, Paige Faraci, Chris Chavez, and everyone I have ever met… Born and raised in a small village outside of New Delhi, Pradeep is an internationally certified yoga teacher who draws mostly from his training in India. He has practiced and studied yoga his entire life – starting with his grandmother in his early years. He is known for bringing the roots of yoga alive for modern practitioners through the integration of meditation, yoga philosophy, nature’s vitality, spontaneous humor, and joy. His unique teaching style brings alive the holistic nature of healing in a way that is simple, powerful, and accessible – allowing people to connect more deeply with their own authentic power and spirit. "He fills his classes with Bhakti(Devotion), Nada(Sound) and Shraddha(Faith)" Ryan Leier | |
Drawing profound inspiration from the birth of his daughter, Kiyah, Ryan set out to bring yogic teachings to children and created Vinyasa Yoga for Youth, an innovative non-profit organization designed to meet the physical, mental and spiritual needs of youth. Ryan is a firm believer that, through steady practice and devotion, all people—regardless of age, gender, race or religion—can experience the Oneness of Yoga. Ryan is primarily a student of the Krishamacharya yoga lineage and continues to study under Father Joe Pereira, by whom he was authorized to teach. Ryan trains with Baron Baptiste, Eddie Modestini and Nicki Doane (Maya), Danny Paradise, Srivatsa Ramaswami (Vinyasa Krama). He also received instruction from Ashtanga Guru Sri K. Pattabhi Jois. He is scheduled to travel to Pune and study at master BKS Iyengar's Institute. He works closely Dina Tsouluhas and the Moksha Yoga community, respecting their commitment to the environment, to their charitable cause and to taking yoga off of the mat. Ryan is rooted in local sacred teachings. He studies and serves the Elders in his home province of Saskatchewan (which comes from the Cree word kisiskaciwani-spiv meaning "swift flowing river"). Salvatore is a mystic, rogue scholar, and world-traveling recluse. Salvatore began his yoga adventure as a student in 1967. He began teaching ?sana in 1968 and Dhy?na/meditation in 1969. The Yoga-Sutra came into his life in 1968 has been his organizing principle ever since. He has established several yoga centers in the United States and has taught yoga and related subjects in universities, institutes, and ashrams around the world. Salvatore is the founder of the Yoga-Sutras Institute and the author of two highly respected yoga reference books: The Unadorned Thread of Yoga: the Yoga-Sutra of Patanjali in English and The Yoga-S?tra Sanskrit-English Dictionary. He lives with his wife, dogs and a flock of pampered chickens on a tiny hobby farm in western Washington State in the USA. Sara Ivanhoe | |
Sara is the instructor for the "Yoga for Dummies" series, the "Crunch Yoga" series as well as the collaboration with Russell Simmons "Yoga Live" all together selling over 4.3 million units worldwide. She is currently on Fit TV's "All Star Workouts" and her self-produced "Yoga on the Edge" runs on Exercise TV. Sara has been a regular on Vh1's "Dr. Drew's Celebrity Rehab" and has been featured as one of the "Titans of Yoga" in the new critically acclaimed documentary. Saskia Tait | |
Saskia is Co-Founder and Executive Director of the New Earth Institute. She is currently completing her Ph.D. in Contemplative Education at Simon Fraser University. Her interest in transformative learning that brings together eastern and western wisdom traditions started during a family trip to the Himalayan states of northern India when she was 14-years old. Following an undeniable intuition that she had much to learn from India, she journeyed there many times to live, travel, study and volunteer. An always-deepening love and appreciation of India propelled her to focus her undergraduate and graduate studies on the region—its religious and cultural forms and history, its social and ecological development challenges, and especially its ancient wisdom traditions. Following an intensive period of study with a siddha from the Nath lineage, Saskia started a daily personal practice of yoga and has cherished her transformative relationship with the path of yoga ever since. One of the most important gifts Saskia has benefited from in her relationship with India is a deep fascination with integrated approaches to living and change. Inspired by the holistic view embedded in all traditions of yoga, Saskia has sought ways to bridge the gap between the felt need for healthy and sustainable transformation in larger social structures with pathways of deep personal integration. Currently, this exploration is taking concrete shape in the form of a gap year program and school she is founding together with her husband, Shahar Rabi, and a small team of inspired educators and social change agents in Nova Scotia, Canada (www.newearthinstitute.com). How can 'coming home to yourself' shift the way that you choose to act, live, work and play in the world? Shahar Rabi | |
Shahar Rabi is Co-Founder and Director of Education for the New Earth Institute, a Vancouver based non-profit education and research organization. He is currently a Ph.D. student in Philosophy of Education at Simon Fraser. He is also pursuing a (second) MA in Counseling Psychology at the Vancouver campus of City University of Seattle. Over the past sixteen years, Shahar has led workshops in Canada, Israel, India and other countries about integral spiritual intelligence and wellbeing, taught philosophy in high schools and universities, and worked as a dance teacher and choreographer. He is a yoga and meditation teacher who lived in monasteries in India, Nepal and Thailand. He has studied with prominent non-dual teachers. Shahar has been a member of communities engaged in the search for a unifying vision and practice of being. He has a Masters degree in education and a B.A. in Philosophy and Education. His Masters thesis focused on the sense of coherence amongst young people and the effects of meditation on wellbeing and health in everyday life. He won an award from the President of Israel for excellence in education and an award for social activity in his home city after founding a Second-Hand Center. He has a great deal of experience in teaching and bringing together Eastern and Western wisdom in a practical way. Shivani Howe | |
 Founder of the Living Yoga Society, and a native of New Zealand, Shivani Howe came into her career after she found herself needing to take a new approach to life. In 2001, she was diagnosed with advanced endometriosis, and began looking for alternative ways to relieve her body of this supposedly incurable disease. It was then she discovered the ancient philosophy of Yoga. The age-old art brought harmony to her life and body, and unraveled the stresses of her illness from its source.She moved from New Zealand to North America in 2002 where she obtained formal certification as a Yoga Teacher in Toronto (500 hour registered course with the Yoga Alliance). Each year Shivani takes a pilgrimage back to India to further her training and perform seva (service) in Rikhia Ashram, India, where she has been initiated into the Satyananda Lineage as a Karma Sanyassin. In addition to her Yoga teaching, Shivani runs a successful private practice for individual clients and leads numerous workshops. Her love and dedication to living yoga takes her and her family to the Purcell Mountains to open a retreat centre where she will be able to provide a deepened LIVING YOGA experience for all visitors. A life that promotes holistic health and harmony with the Universe.
Tanya Di Valentino Deeply inspired by her love of nature and the interconnected web of life, Tanya attained a Bachelors Degree in Geography and studied philosophy extensively within her program. Her gymnastics background, love of people and spiritual connection with nature opened her eyes and heart to a lifestyle guided by the ancient wisdom of yoga. Tanya is currently an E-RYT 200 and RYT 500 certified teacher and is forever grateful for the wisdom imparted by her beloved teachers. She has completed teacher training in Mexico at Yandara Yoga Institute and has since returned as a teacher training assistant. She went on to complete the advanced, 500-hour certification program at Anand Prakash Yogashram in Rishikesh, India with The World Conscious Yoga Family. It was in India that she entered the healing practice of Reiki with known Rishikesh Reiki Master Shanti ji. Her love of Ashtanga Yoga then led her to complete David Swenson's Primary Series teacher training in San Francisco. Finding inspiration in diversity, she travelled to the Sivananda Yoga Ashram in the Bahamas where she lived in the ashram to learn the traditional hatha yoga practice as taught by Swami Sivananda and Swami Vishnu-Devananda. During her stay, she trained in Yoga for Athletes with Dr Don Oyao and Thai Yoga Massage by the founder of the Lotus Palm technique, Kam Thye Chow. Tanya is a co-founder and director of the Whistler Yoga Conference and most recently, taught the Shantiseva 200-hour Yoga Teacher Training program with Advanced Certified Jivamutki teacher, Tina James. It is Tanya's intention with the many paths of yoga to inspire others to care for the planet and all beings and to experience for themselves, that happiness, peace and love is ever present as the essence of their own being. Tina James | |
Tina is an Advanced Certified Jivamukti Yoga teacher, and is known for her chanting, choreographic sequencing, and knowledge of the subtle body. Widely considered to be a 'teacher's teacher,' she transmits the Jivamukti lineage as a mentor at the Jivamukti teacher training and running many of her own teacher trainings over the last 10 years internationally the Uk, Canada and India incorporating for the first time Indigenous teachings.
Each of her dynamic and vigorous classes inspires students to honor and connect to body and spirit. Students regularly note the playful element of her classes and her deep sense of humor.
 Will Blunderfield, Nettwerk Records/Nutone Music recording artist, yoga instructor + lululemon Ambassador is based out of Vancouver, Canada and leads yoga classes, workshops, and performances locally and abroad. Recent career highlights include headlining at Yogathon to raise money for children affected by HIV/AIDS, Queen Elizabeth Theatre, and a promo tour in October that took him to New York and Japan performing and teaching yoga to raise funds for the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation. He has been featured in numerous yoga and spiritually based media including Yoga Journal and Louise L. Hay’s radio station alongside teachers from The Secret. His debut album HALLELUJAH, featuring a duet with Juno Award-winner Bif Naked, will be available world-wide wherever music is sold July 2011! For more information on Will's yoga, music and international schedule, please visit www.willblunderfield.comYogi Vishvketu | |
He first designed the unique Hatha-Raja Yoga class in 2001 to help bring meditative yoga with pranayama and sound to Western yoga practitioners. In October 2003, he released a DVD, Moving into Bliss with Yoga, a harmonious and meditative flow or asana and pranayama set to classical Indian music. He produced in 2009, Anando-ham, a CD of niirguna mantras from classical Indian texts. Vishva-ji has been a much-loved teacher and demonstrator at the Yoga Show and Conference in Toronto since its inception in 2003, Evolution Asia Yoga Conference in Hong Kong, Whistler Yoga Conference, Purnarnava Ayurveda Conference in Rishikesh. Vishva-ji is committed to offering holistic yoga workshops internationally, incorporating diverse aspects of the practice: asana, pranayama, cleansing kriyas, Ayurveda and Vedic chanting, as well as to offering Yoga Alliance registered 200- and 500-hour Yoga Teacher Training (YTT) programs in Canada and in Rishikesh (India). He calls this holistic style of teaching Akhanda Yoga, meaning whole and indivisible. In January 2007, he and his wife, Chetana Panwar, founded Anand Prakash Yoga Ashram in Rishikesh (India) where they live and teach six months of the year. |
Chétana is passionate about integrating Jnana and Bhakti yoga: philosophical contemplation, and devotional practices. “Yoga is unity in diversity, and allows us to recognize that the apparent duality between mind and heart is illusory”. This merging of mind and heart is apparent in her workshops and in her writing: poetry, short stories, yoga magazine articles and now a yoga blog. 
Movement has always been sacred to me.
Colleen Felgate has been instructing yoga and pilates since 2002. She trained in India and Australia for over 2 years in many styles yet focused predominately on Iyenger & Ashtanga. She then headed back to where she resides now, Whistler B.C. Canada. There she is the yoga and pilates director for Solarice Wellness Spa & Studio and has held that position since they opened in 2003. She also teaches various retreats and courses abroad including; Costa Rica, Mexico and the Bahamas.
Eoin Finn, (BA, EYRT 500 hrs) is a yogi, surfer and blissologist who has been teaching his unique, transformative, alignment-based Yoga for over a decade. Eoin teaches all over the world and shares his passion for well-being and happiness through yoga. He is the founder of Blissology and a strong advocate of the belief in yoga and environmentalism.
Julia McCabe is an EYRT - 500 hr level teacher with the Yoga Alliance.
Leslie Young 
I love... Handstands, motorcycles, smells, bicycles, music, languages, books, trees, beets, mud, dancing, diagrams, sewing, teaching, surprises, shaking, yard sales, anatomy, instruments, watermelon juice, curry, sleeping outside, wisdom, India, nonsense, sprouts, spoons, seeds, cats, insects, honesty, fears, rocks, giving, essential oils, foods that vibrate, photos, Ocean, laughing, naps, spinach, crying, sewing maching parts, singing, Love, wrinkles, long walks, good talks, all creatures, trees, apples, raspberries, learning, breathing....being...
Dynamic and inspirational, Ryan Leier brings his unique energy to every class he teaches. Whether in his own One Yoga studios or as an ambassador of yoga to communities around the world, his expression of this ancient, yet vital tradition consistently touches people's hearts.
Sara Elizabeth Ivanhoe began teaching yoga in 1995 while receiving her BFA from New York University. She holds a Yoga Philosophy degree from Loyola Marymount University as well as their Yoga and Ecology degree completed in accordance with the Green Yoga Association. She has completed teacher trainings with Erich Schiffmann, Yoga Works and John Friend in the Anusara style. 
