Teachers


Albert Macchi

Joanie Schhwarz Photography

Al came to yoga in 1999. Over 10 years of practice, what started as a way to deal with physical ailments became a way of life. In April 2004, wanting to immerse himself in an uninterrupted practice, Al spent a month in the Sivananda Ashram at Paradise Island and earned his teaching certificate. His experience teaching during that month made him realize his desire to share Yoga.

Al sees yoga as a pathway to a strong, flexible body; a content, peaceful mind and a life in balance. He would especially like to introduce yoga to men as an outlet for stress. In his class, Al he emphasizes deep relaxation in the postures and a calm uncluttered focus (Simple Yoga), and often discusses the “Yoga Sutras” during class.

Additionally Al has experience teaching students with neurological issues and recently attended a professional training session called “Strategies for Yoga Teachers” sponsored by the National Multiple Sclerosis Society.

Anna Winkler, Director Shakti Yoga & living arts

Anna has been practicing and teaching yoga since 1989. She is certified through the Sivananda Yoga Organization, where she served as a volunteer staff member for more than 6 years. Anna also assisted in the Teacher Training courses and modelled for 2 yoga books during her time there: Yoga, Mind and Body and 101 Essential Tips: Yoga.

Anna has been practicing Ashtanga Yoga since 1997 and teaching since 2002. She has been taking the extensive Iyengar Yoga Teacher Training Program since 2007, at Studio Yoga in Madison  Anna has been teaching in the Maplewood area since 2001, and is the founder and director of Shakti Yoga & living arts (formererly the Yoga Room).

Anna's teaching style is both challenging and nurturing, with a focus on relaxed precision and graceful alignment. Her classes will leave you feeling tranquil, yet energized. 

 

Deb Kurilla

Deb has been teaching meditation since 1993 and yoga since 1999. She is a licensed Anusara Inspired Teacher.


Anusara Yoga is one of the fastest growing yoga systems in the world. Working towards the body’s natural and most optimal alignment, healing and well-being takes place, making this system highly therapeutic and suitable for all ages and abilities. When all parts of ourselves are in balance in relation to the whole, we feel good. When we feel good, life becomes sweeter and the way we participate in life becomes our offering to the world.


Deb's classes are fun and reflective, and illuminate the beauty, power and joy of yoga. Each class is imbued with the wisdom, love and grace of all her teachers and students.


Deb's teachers include John Friend, Sue Elkind and Naime Jezzeny, and Vishali Vargo. Her meditation teachers are Gurumayi Chidvidlasananda, Sally Kempton and the beloved Ammachi.

Elizabeth Gallo

Elizabeth started practicing yoga in college, but rededicated herself to her practice when she was pregnant with her first child. An experienced classroom teacher of English, creative writing and music, Elizabeth’s style is nurturing and fun, making yoga accessible to all.

She is a graduate of the Shakti Body Yoga Teacher Training Program and completed her prenatal certification with Kelli DeFlora of MotherBirth Yoga, in Montclair. Elizabeth lives in Maplewood with her husband and two daughters.

Erica Furman

Erica Schwarz Furman was first introduced to yoga at Sarah Lawrence College while studying Studio Arts and Art History. Yoga resurfaced in her life at a local gym after the birth of her second child and she has been practicing ever since.

Erica received her Yoga Certification through Claire Diab and the American Yoga Academy in 2004 and is registered with Yoga Alliance. Since then she has done teacher trainings at Karma Kids Yoga in NYC and Holistic Prenatal Yoga Teacher Training with Kelli DeFlora of Wise Woman Birthways.

Erica teaches adults and children, gentle restorative classes, as well as more challenging ones. "Encouraging each student to know and appreciate their own body through yoga is one of my goals. I love to share the calm and sense of wholeness that the practice of yoga brings." Joanie Schhwarz Photography

Evelyn Lopez

Evelyn discovered yoga after after suffering a back injury in 1993. As her interest in yoga and her practice deepened, Evelyn found herself seeking to share yoga with friends and family by providing community classes for several years.  In 2001, she completed her Teacher Training and Certification in Prana Yoga with Robyn Ross and Dr. Jeffrey Migdow at the Open Center in NYC.  Evelyn’s interest in working with individuals with health challenges and her desire to bring wellness into her own practice brought her to study Restorative Yoga with Cheri Clampett and Arturo Peal at Integral Yoga Center in NYC.  In 2006, she completed 650 hours of training at Phoenix Rising Yoga Therapy Center and received certification as a Yoga Therapist and Practitioner.

Evelyn has been practicing yoga in a variety of styles during the last 16 years and she recently began teaching yoga in Maplewood.

 

Ires Wilbanks

Ires teaches hatha, prenatal and yoga for labor and delivery. She received her certifications from New York's Integral Yoga Institute, where she also has taught. Ires is passionate about the many aspects of yoga and how it can transform people's lives. A former television news producer, she began studying and practicing yoga in 2000 to help relieve stress and started teaching in 2005.

Her prenatal yoga classes are guided by her own childbirth experiences—she attributes the practice to helping her achieve a vaginal birth after caesarean, or VBAC—and she is committed to sharing her knowledge of how yoga can help women release fear and have a safe and peaceful birth. Ires practices Ashtanga yoga and studies with Anna Winkler and Deb Williams. She has also studied with Ashtanga teachers such as David Swenson, Kino MacGregor, and members of the Jois family including Sharath and Saraswathi. Her hatha classes draw upon her studies at Integral as well as the meditative intensity of her Ashtanga practice.

Judie Hurtado

Judie has been practicing various styles of yoga for over 13 years. She has been studying with many teachers, including Jennifer Kohl at Lotus Yoga in Montclair, where she is completing her 300-hour yoga teacher training program. She is also receiving her Kids Yoga Certification through Karma Kids.

Ms. Judie feels honored to introduce the ancient practice of yoga to children. She loves to bring her yoga practice on and off the mat and has even introduced yoga to her own young daughters, Sofia and Alessandra. Her other passions include providing Reiki sessions and writing about health, wellness and fitness. Namaste!

Laura San Fillipo

Laura San Fillipo began doing yoga as a business student at the University of Miami, seeking an activity in her life that could help bring peace & balance to her stressful schedule. Upon graduation, she decided that she wanted to embark upon a career that she felt passionate about, one that could bring joy to her life and hopefully to the lives of others. She quit her job in Real Estate to enroll in a month long immersion program at an ashram in Nevada City, California. There she was able not only to become certified in Hatha yoga, but to learn the lifestyle and philosophies of a true yogi. She now lives in Morristown, NJ and is pursuing both her career in photography and yoga. Laura still considers herself a work in progress, continually working on her own practice and constantly seeking to pass the joy of yoga on to others. She can be found teaching at Shakti as well as assisting Debbie Kaminsky in Newark Yoga Movement for children.

 

Lori Keating

Lori has flirted with yoga on and off for the past 17 years while competing in running and triathlons. Immediately after retiring from 20 years as an elementary school teacher, she decided it was time to hunker down and take her practice more seriously.

Lori has taken weekend studies at Kripalu with Kofi Busia and Schyler Grant as well as a variety of other one-day workshops. She recently completed her 200-hour YTT at Shakti Body under the tutelage of Deb Kurilla and Anna Winkler.

A dedicated Ashtangi, Lori enjoys a vigorous vinyasa class as well as a calming restorative. She enjoys challenging her students to go beyond what their minds believe impossible, keeping it light and playful at the same time. Lori feels honored to be able to help others grow in their life practice, on and off the mat.

Lori is extremely excited to have been certified in July 2010 with Karma Kids to teach yoga to young people!

Martha Peterson, C.H.S.E.


Martha  is the tri-state area’s first Certified Hanna Somatics Educator, having finished a  three year training at the Somatic Systems Institute in Northampton, MA. She gives private sessions and holds group Somatics classes in her office at Shakti.

Martha helps her clients learn to eliminate patterns of chronic pain and muscular dysfunction, such as scoliosis, TMJ, back, neck and shoulder pain, sciatica and fibromyalgia.

As a former professional dancer and dance educator, Martha's knowledge of the body, posture and body mechanics enhances her work as  a teacher of Hanna Somatics. Martha works to facilitate this by teaching her clients to develop a more accurate sense of their own bodies and by helping them to recondition their muscle control.  She believes that healthy body mechanics and awareness of one's movement is key to maintaining flexibility and freedom from pain.


Paige Continentino


Paige is a certified transformational life coach and meditation instructor with 16 years of experience practicing mediation. She teaches children and adults in private lessons and leads weekly family meditations.

Paige is currently training in Donna Eden’s Energy Medicine Program and incorporates simple energy exercises in her classes and lessons to facilitate quieting the mind and balancing the body’s energies.

 

Terri Teasdale

Terri has been practicing yoga on and off for over 10 years; however, her love for yoga intensified during her pre- and post-natal yoga experience at Shakti in 2008 and has continued to grow ever since. What started as a way to relax, turned into a way to manage high blood pressure and connect with her baby during her prenatal experience, and developed into a regular part of her life.

Terri is a proud graduate of the ShaktiBody Yoga Teacher Training program, where she completed her 200 hour certification in March of 2011.

Terri teaches in a comfortable and accessible way for all and strives to connect with each of her students. Her goal is to help people find peace both on and off the mat and to help them achieve something that perhaps they didn’t expect.

 

Tom Waldman

Tom started his yoga practice after suffering a back injury skiing in 2002. Within months, he began to receive not only the physical benefits of yoga practice, but the mental and spiritual benefits as well.  An avid cyclist, skier and physical training enthusiast, Tom is particularly drawn to yoga because of how different it is from ordinary athletics and physical culture.

As his interest in yoga and his practice deepened, Tom found himself seeking to share yoga with friends and family. In January 2006, Tom attended the Sivananda Teacher Training Course in Garopaba, Brazil and obtained his teaching certificate. Through teaching yoga to beginners, emphasizing proper breathing and relaxation along with physical exercise, Tom hopes to share with others the benefits that he has enjoyed.

 

Trish O'Gorman

Trish is a teacher of Kundalini Yoga, the yoga of awareness. Trish’s husband David first found Kundalini and introduced it to an unwilling Trish, but after that first class she was hooked on the freedom and inner peace it gave her.

Trish trained as a teacher in New York at Kundalini Yoga East and considers the training to be one of the most profound experiences of her life. It was a journey of self discovery and self mastery.

As an RN, Trish is greatly interested in health and wellness and the effects of Kundalini Yoga on the physical body, the mind and the soul body/spirit. In Kundalini Yoga the most important thing is experience. Joanie Schhwarz Photography

 

Virginia Lamb


Virginia started practicing yoga in the early ‘80s, she attended pre and post natal yoga classes when she had her children. She began studying meditation to foster creativity in her visual art in 2002. Her personal yoga practice became more intense after moving to the USA in 2004. She completed a yoga immersion with Debbie Kurilla at Body of Light in 2007.

Yoga helped her through serious health issues in 2009. Upon regaining full health she trained as a yoga teacher wtih ShaktiBody with Anna and Debbie, graduating in March 2011.

Virginia creates a calm, meditative practice without losing the enthusiasm and energy of the more challenging poses. As an artist Virginia incorporates creativity and her vision of beauty into her classes.


Substitute Teachers


Aimee Mower Lally


Aimee has been on her mat for over a decade. In this time her practice has become a guide for her life. Through yoga she has found many different teachers, all to whom she gives thanks. Aimee completed a 500 hour teachers training certification, along with trainings from Richard Freeman, Peter Rizzo, and Rodney Yee.

Aimee's classes combine a focus on breath and alignment with a dynamic and rigorous flow to create a Vinyasa style yoga that challenges and heals. It is with great joy and gratitude that Aimee shares the light of yoga with others.

Carrie Day

Carrie is a Certified Clinical Somatic Educator in the tradition of Thomas Hanna. She completed the three year certification program at Somatic System Institute in Northampton, MA. She has been studying and practicing dance, yoga, and movement awareness techniques for the past 25 years. She received a BFA in modern dance performance from the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, and then moved to New York to pursue a professional dance career.

Working in physically demanding fields, Carrie began recognizing painful muscular patterns in her body, and wondered how to relieve and even reverse these patterns. In 2004, she discovered Clinical Somatic Education and became fascinated with the blend of body awareness, education, and depth of science required for study. She continues to take anatomy and science classes to add to her depth of understanding. Carrie hopes to help people realize their own potential to be self-correcting, and encourages an excitement in taking responsibility for our own health and lives.

For more information, check out www.daysomatics.com.

Gena Rho-Smith

Gena began practicing yoga in 1998 after a performing with the Trisha Brown Dance Company. She studied Ashtanga yoga with Raji Thron and completed his Yoga Synthesis teacher training.

Gena has been a Thai Yoga Bodywork Practitioner since 2005. She learned the art of Thai Bodywork from Jonas Westring and has assisted him in training others. In February, she traveled to Chiang Mai, Thailand to study Anusara Yoga with Jonas.

Gena enjoys the moving meditation inherent in a vinyasa practice, rigorous alignment principles and riding the energy wave of yoga and Thai Yoga Bodywork.

Kathleen Good

Introduced to yoga as a child, Kathleen rediscovered yoga 13 years ago after a serious challenge to her health.  In 2008 she gave up the legal world to dedicate herself to the study and practice of Kundalini Yoga. 

Kathleen trained and received her certification from Kundalini Yoga East in New York City in 2010.  She is committed to sharing the gift of yoga to maintain physical health and peace of mind.

 

Shira Pelleg

Shira has been practicing Yoga since 1999. She started her journey into Yoga as part of her training as a dancer while living in San Fransisco. She still remembers how she came out of her first class feeling like she was floating on air.

Originally from Israel, Shira trained and performed with the Israeli “Tema Dance Company” and the “Sandceil Dance Theatre Ensemble”. She is trained in Aerial Dance, Acrobalance (which is connected to Acro Yoga) and Physical Theatre, and received her Vinyasa Yoga Teaching Certification from the Om Yoga Center in New York City. She is also certified as a Prenatal Yoga teacher through Om. Shira has been teaching Dance, Contact Improvisation and Acrobalance since 2001 and Yoga to both adults and children since 2008.

Shira believes Yoga can make your body and mind strong and agile. It is a platform for everything you would wish to do and accomplish.

Susan Pendleton

After briefly dipping into yoga once or twice but not quite "getting it," Susan started taking yoga classes regularly about 12 years ago. She was hooked when she realized that yoga was relieving her chronic neck and back pain. For years, it was purely a satisfying physical practice for pain and stress management. Classes at Shakti awakened her interest in the mental and spiritual aspects of yoga and a thirst for a deeper experience.

 

In Spring 2011, Susan completed her first 200 hours of teacher training with ShaktiBody, something she had wanted to do for some time. She is very grateful to her teachers, Debbie and Anna, to her family, and to her fellow student teachers at Shakti for their support in this accomplishment.

 

In her classes, Susan strives to create a calm and loving atmosphere that encourages self-discovery of the multi-faceted connections of mind, body, and spirit through Hatha yoga.

 

   

 

 
 

1861 Springfield Ave     Maplewood, NJ  07040     973-763-2288     info@shaktinj.com