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"According to the wise teachings of yoga, if you live your life intensely, with energy, awareness, and love you move inexorably toward the realization of the only final pose there is--the eternal NOW"

Our Teachers

Angela Phillips, Director/Owner, E-RYT 500
Deeply committed to the essence of yoga, Angela has been inspired since she first read Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda in 1976. Angela offers a multi-dimensional approach to her teaching based on years of study with some of the most influential yoga practitioners, including Donna Farhi, Eric Schiffman, Patricia Walden and Temple of Kriya Yoga. Her yoga teaching is enriched with certifications in Barratt Breath Work and Thai Yoga Therapy and she is a 500-hour Registered Yoga teacher with Yoga Alliance.

Cecelia Rice, RYT 500
Dedicated to the disciplines of yoga and incorporating her knowledge of therapeutic and restorative techniques, Cecelia is also trained in the healing arts, psychic development and meditation. She received her 200-hour training through the International Yoga Institute and her 500-hour certification with Anna Pittman. She has been inspired by many teachers including Aadil B. Palkhivala and Desirée Rumbaugh and has most recently studied with Judith Hanson Lasater where she received her “Relax and Renew” certification. Cecelia offers different styles of classes in the studio including her popular restorative class. She invites her students to go beyond the outer shape of the asana and open to receiving the posture through alignment, breath, and mindfulness.

Dr. Diane Malaspina, RYT, 200
Diane began practicing yoga in 2001 at Integral Yoga in Charlottesville, VA. Later that year she found Angela Phillips in Virginia Beach and has been a student of Angela’s ever since. Diane completed certification as a Prana Flow Teacher from Shiva Rea’s Samudra Global School of Living Yoga, where she serves as a mentor for teacher trainees and is in Shiva’s assisting program. Diane has also participated in Kathleen Barrett’s meditation and breath workshops and has served as Angela’s assistant in her teacher training. Diane holds a Ph.D. in Educational Psychology; she teaches university courses and has a consulting business working with families and schools in promoting positive discipline and social and emotional skills in children. She lives at the beach with 2 SPCA rescue pups – Hannah and Prana, with whom she spends much time outside!

Gina Foresta, RYT 200
Trained in the Vinyasa style of yoga, Gina has been practicing yoga since 1993. She lived in Chicago for 10 of these years where she completed an intensive teacher training in 2002 with Rod Stryker of Pure Yoga to achieve a 200-hour Yoga Alliance Registered Yoga Teacher status. She was fortunate with Chicago's vast and diverse yoga community to also study with John Friend, Tim Miller, Sean Corne, and Shiva Rae, among others. Gina strives to educate her students to tailor their practice for individual lifestyles and needs. She is the mother of two children and practiced yoga daily throughout both pregnancies. She believes becoming a mother has allowed her to truly experience yoga's blessings through the purity of children and the opportunity to find the sacredness in the simplest moments of daily life. Although she has studied with some incredible teachers, her children remain her most inspirational gurus.

Har Sharan
Har Sharan has been a student of the teachings of Kundalini yoga for the last 14 years under Yogi Bhajan until his passing in 2004. She presents Kundalini yoga as a direct living experience using mantra, breath, and posture to activate the nervous and glandular systems of the body to achieve relaxation and the removal of stress enabling deep states of meditation. She plays the universal sound current of the gong and is now studying other formal breath work modalities.

Amy Culicerto, RYT 200
Offering primarily vinyasa flow yoga, Amy provides additional focus on alignment and modifications to help students develop their own authentic practice. Her true goal is to create a comfortable atmosphere where students feel they can begin to explore beyond
the physical towards a path of more awareness. Always a student of yoga, she has continued her studies with such influential teachers as Shiva Rea, Paul Grilley, Seane Corn, Cyndi Lee, Beryl Bender Birch, Rod Stryker, Sharon Gannon and David Life. Amy completed
her 200-hour yoga training at Gaea Yoga Center in Charleston, SC, and is a registered teacher with theYoga Alliance.

Bonny Griffin, RYT 500
Bonny has been teaching yoga since 1997 and is a graduate of the 500 hour Kripalu Teacher Training from the Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health in Lennox, MA. She is currently expanding her studies with Yoganand Michael Carroll and his Pranakriya Teacher Training. Bonny (being a Cancer) is family oriented and encourages taking yoga off the mat and into the home and family life. She loves teaching yoga to kids and teens, and her special interests are partner yoga, yoga nidra and meditation. She includes Angela Phillips, Christy Brock, Rodney Yee, Esther Myers, Angela Farmer, Sudhir Jonathan Foust, and Toa Porchon-Lynch as influential teachers in her life. 

Kelly Fortmann
Kelly found yoga as a retreat from teaching pilates. She found a challenge in her physical practice that led her to continue and brought her to experience the deeper teachings of yoga. The mat offered a place to journey inward, to confront difficulty, to accept change, and most of all to have fun.

Kelly moved to Germany in February 2007. She immediately found a grounding comfort in her yoga practice in the unfamiliar environment of Europe. The steadiness of practicing brought peace and patience within and all around her. The comfort led to ease and the opportunity to teach.

Kelly studied early with YogaFit and took what she learned to create challenging and nurturing classes. She taught a variety of classes including Power Yoga, Vinyasa Flow and Slow Flow. After a short 16 months of living abroad Kelly and her husband moved back to Virginia Beach. She has begun to study with Shiva Rea and hopes to complete her 200 RYT in 2009. Before leaving Europe, Kelly studied with Annie Carpenter at AIRYoga in Zurich as well as Christine May. She completed a Prenatal Yoga teacher training at Body Balance in Williamsburg with Becky Crigger and recently completed Shiva's Honoring Shakti: Pre & Post Natal Teacher Training.

Kelly is a student of Flow and does her best to bring this practice in each part of her life on and off the mat. Her objective as a yoga teacher is to help her students feel their best. She strives to guide, mentor and support her students and is looking forward to continuing her yoga studies, teaching yoga and meeting new students.

Sophia
Considered the master teacher, Sophia spreads her unconditional love and joy with all who enter the studio. Her favorite posture is savasana and she spends much time practicing this pose.