Instructors
Drorit Rudin
Drorit started Agoura Power of Yoga because she loves yoga and all that it adds to one's life. It brings peace and harmony, clarity of mind as well as a physically fit body. Her class is geared toward new yogis as well as long time practicing yogis who will enjoy the challenge of power yoga and the music her class has to offer.
Drorit's training was an intensive one in Yoga Therapy by the incredible Gabriela Hansen in Ojai California. Through her training with Gabriela as well her life experience, she combines a very challenging music filled class with the traditional principles of hatha yoga focusing especially on the therapeutic aspects of the breath and the power of the mind.
It is very important to her that she helps guide both old and new into a deep meditation after a tough class that opens the body and prepares the mind to a place of nothingness. This is where the peace comes.
Tracy Sachs
Tracy’s classes are called “Bhakti Vinyasa Flow” – a yogic journey that incorporates a sweet blend of vinyasa flow, breath, sankalpa (intention/dedication/prayer), ancient wisdom, meditation, and sacred sound. Bhakti yoga is often called “yoga of the heart.” It is the spiritual path of devotion, love, service, gratitude and joy!
Since early adolescence, Tracy suffered from periods of debilitating depression and anxiety. For many years she resigned herself to the fact that these would be lifelong conditions. However, this notion was unexpectedly shattered when she began practicing yoga as an undergraduate at UCLA. It was not immediate, but slowly she began to feel different. Tracy’s whole perspective on life started to shift. The seed that was planted at UCLA began to grow and life led Tracy to India where she further explored yoga, and Indian culture and philosophy.
With a beautiful twist of fate, a few months after returning home from India, she stumbled upon Bhakti Yoga Shala, a bhakti based yoga studio in Santa Monica. She has since completed Yoga Teacher Training at the Shala with her teacher, Govindas, to whom she is eternally grateful.
Tracy’s own intention is to provide a nurturing and nourishing space to discover and honor the inner wisdom, creativity, and light that reside in each one of us. She desires nothing more than to share the abundant gifts of yoga. Her greatest hope is to inspire and empower others to make room for health, peace, joy, and grace to enter their lives. She is beyond grateful to serve others on their path to healing and truth.
Yoga is a celebration of life, Spirit, and connectedness! Let’s celebrate! Jai Ma!
Lara Whisman
Lara has been a student of yoga for 11 years and has been teaching private/group instruction for over 5 years. Her yoga journey began after enduring constant back pain due to severe Scoliosis. She took her first yoga class and discovered that there truly was freedom to be found from chronic conditions. After discovering this healing practice, she began to develop a new-found respect for and acceptance of the physical body she embodied and was free from pain for the first time.
The infinite joy and freedom discovered through this amazing practice and through inspiration from her wonderful teachers led her down the path to True Yoga's Teacher Training program in 2006... She continues her love of learning through self-study (svadhaya) and has attended many immersions and workshops with wonderful instructors such as Desiree Rumbaugh, Parusha Hickson, Lauren Peterson, Saul David Raye, Erich Schiffmann, Paul Grilley, Scott Blossom, Elise Miller, Sarah Powers and others. In December of 2007, she completed a teacher training with renowned back care and Scoliosis yoga instructor, Elise Miller. This additional training has allowed her to work in a therapeutic and safe manner with all students and; more specifically, those who have limited mobility, back injuries/misalignment, and scoliosis curvatures. Lara believes that yoga can be a truly healing and therapeutic practice for all, one that allows us to return to our blissful and peaceful natures. Invitation from Lara: "Come down to your knees and rest in child's pose ~ leave your cares on your mat and begin the journey...breathe in deeply...breathe out slowly...welcome to the practice and welcome home to YOU."
Ali Fish Kamen
Ali is a native Californian, raised in Westlake Village. She left the area after graduating from Agoura High School over 20 years ago and is finally returning. She spent the past 4 years owning an award winning yoga studio in Scottsdale, AZ called Zenergy Yoga. Ali is a veteran youth and adult fitness and yoga instructor with over 15 years of combined experience. Ali earned a Master’s degree in Public Health and has been a public health educator for the past decade.
Ali began her yoga practice at home for many years before finally experiencing yoga in a studio in 2002. After becoming a mom, Ali found yoga helped her keep her life as a wife and working mom in balance. Ali’s classes are a challenging, vinyasa flow style with a variety of 70's, 80's and current alternative music to keep her students inspired and energized.
She is grateful for the knowledge and wisdom gained from her Anusara teachers, Jordan and Martin Kirk.
Ali blends the alignment principles of Anusara yoga with her love for vinyasa classes. A former marathon runner, Ali has found that yoga has added balance and strength to her exercise regimen and calmness and clarity to her multi-tasking life.
Read an Arizona review of Ali's classes in Scottsdale
Alison Bristow
Alison Bristow has been a Yoga practitioner for over a decade and a spiritual seeker all her life. Her practice began in the sweaty rooms of a Bikram Yoga studio in New York City where she had the first glimpses of how the benefits of yoga extend far beyond the mat. She draws from a variety of Yoga traditions including Iyengar, Anusara, Ashtanga, and Vinyasa. Integrating breath awareness and a mindful asana practice, Alison sees Yoga as a gateway leading each student to a tangible experience of the divinity within. In her classes, she incorporates subtle metaphors that encourage students to take the deeper lessons of their practice beyond the studio door and apply them in everyday life.
Holly Umann
Holly Umann teaches a style of Hatha Yoga Vinyasa with a blessing of energized peace, and personal rejuvenation to bring the balance of your mind, body, and spirit into a position of attainment.
Through the honor of expert guidance of Paul Grilley and Scott Blossom, she has attained the understanding of the Anatomy of Yoga East-West Physiology. In an effort to always acquire a more in depth balance, and learning, Holly has mastered the Advanced Studies and Freedom Style Yoga with the instruction of Erich Schiffmann (world renown teacher, and author), and has studied The History of Yoga with Paul Muller-Ortega. Her love for Yoga and the personal path it opens to others gave her the calling to become an instructor. She continued in her pursuit of learning, in an effort to bring the transformation of Yoga to others, by training in Iyengar Yoga with Lisa Walford (Studies of Iyengar Yoga in India). Holly continued to further her instruction studies with Heather Tiddens at the Santa Barbara Yoga Center in the Yoga Teacher Training Program Practicum.
Holly comes to you with an open heart, mind, and an amazing energy. Namaste!
Zach Wagner
Zach’s classes are geared for any student desiring a deep level of physical and mental well-being, while promoting strength, flexibility and relaxation. He creates a safe and inviting environment where the beginning student will feel free to discover their ability, and the advanced yoga practitioner or serious athlete can realize their full potential.
A serious skateboarder since the age of eleven, Zach began his yoga practice in order to improve his physical balance and mental focus. He soon found that yoga had not only transformed his body, but his mind and spirit as well. He began his teacher training at the San Francisco Integral Yoga Institute, living and studying at the ashram. Later, he studied under Swami Asokanda at the Quinta De Calma Yoga Center near Faro, Portugal, expanding his knowledge of yoga philosophy, anatomy and physiology.
Zach teaches a variety of Hatha levels and vinyasa flow, providing students with personal attention and encouragement. He can modify each asana to fit individual needs and skill levels, and also provides instruction in pranayama (breathing practices), deep relaxation and meditation. In each session, Zach attempts to promote the physical, mental, emotional and spiritual health of his students, allowing each of them to come in touch with deeper and more subtle aspects of their being.
Lisa Carmichael
Lisa Carmichael is a Registered Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapist, through the School of Micheal Shea, Continuum practitioner, meditation teacher and movement specialist. She has been in private practice in Agoura Hills since 1996, and offers her gifts and skills as a support for healing. She has mentored with Marianne Karou, creator of Dance Alive for 13 years, and continues (for over 15 years) her
practical studies with Emilie Conrad, the founder of Continuum. By applying Biodynamic Craniosacral skills with movement principles, Lisa focuses on consciously opening the body/mind system to receive the true nourishment of deep relaxation, allowing the release of stress, trauma and rigidity.
Craniosacral Therapy gently unwinds the nervous system’s compression patterns into flow and ease. When living from hyper vigilance we are just trying to “manage” ourselves, from feeling exhausted and uninspired. With a desire and practice, we can move beyond our apparent limitations into an endless reservoir of trust and
true strength rooted in presence. The blessing is: we always have our personal breath, and that is where we start to bring ourselves out of our complexities into the beautiful simplicity of life!
In Lisa's classes you will experience a creative flow of guidance with the intention of entering into deep states of relaxation in order to
heal, rejuvenate and come back into balance. This class is easy, the only effort is attending with the desire to relax. All of this is
accompanied with ambient sounds, and sweetness of silence.
Jessica Anderson
Jessica Anderson, ERYT, found her personal practice of yoga in 1996 and has been a teacher since 2000. Certifications received from Sarah Powers and a 300 hour general and advanced teacher training from The Yoga Tree in her native city Seattle, Washington began her continued commitment as a student of yoga . In 2005, Jessica Co-Directed the first 200 hour yoga alliance registered teacher training held in the Conejo Valley.
As a student, Jessica's practice is rooted in the traditional Buddhist teachings of mindfulness and meditation as well as Patanjali's Ashtanga yoga. Her lifelong investigation of direct experience through svadhaya (self study) is the main support for her path but she continues to draws inspiration from master teachers, a minimum of four retreats a year and her sangha (yoga community). In 2005, Jessica became a second level Reiki energy practitioner to enhance her understanding of the subtle body. To balance the spiritual teachings of the East and develop an understanding of the human mind, she is currently a full-time student of Psychology .
Like a dance, Jessica's group classes blend physical alignment, core strength and mindfulness in a fluid rhythm using breath and intention as the underlying current for the practice. Through metta (loving kindness) and sharing her love of poetry, she encourages and empowers students? inner wisdom to guide them towards the gradual realization of their own inherent nature of body/heart/mind!
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