Teachers

Kamila Hasana Ahmad’s message is affirmative love and creating space. An avid student of the human experience, and self-proclaimed melomaniac, Kamila infuses her traditional foundation of education with her spiritual practices into her life’s work. She completed her YTT at Studio 34 in 2019. Kamila has a multidimensional spiritual knowledge that informs her practice and enables her to fill up her own well and lend a guiding word and hand to help others do the same. Knowing that spirituality is universal, therefore inherent, she is not confined by titles, positions or names. She lives by the motto: “Spirit recognizes Spirit.” Each flow is an adventure, a chance to make self-discovery and experience the victory in connection.

As a little kid, Morgan Andrews practiced holding his breath in the bathtub, did headstands on his mom’s couch, and developed meditative relaxation techniques to fall asleep without ever hearing the word “yoga”. Years later he took up yoga poses and eye exercises as part of a regimen for visual rehabilitation and eliminating chronic pain. When this this self-led daily practice changed his life, Morgan began a perpetual study of yoga, movement, and anatomy with numerous teachers, including Ana Forrest, Zhenja La Rosa, Nicole Bindler, and Darren Rhodes. He started teaching at Studio 34 in 2009 and attends at least two trainings per year to explore yoga both as a teacher and as a student. Morgan also has extensive experience with vegan nutrition, natural vision therapy, and anti-oppression work through Theatre of the Oppressed, having trained with Augusto Boal at TOPLAB and Jana Sanskriti in West Bengal. His work at Studio 34 is a mixture of all these disciplines, rooted in commitment to community and a vibrant sense of humor.

Megan began teaching yoga in 2014 with a grounded enthusiasm for the healing properties of yoga and meditation. She was certified in Yin Yoga in 2013 through Corina Benner, and began the formal study of yoga therapy with the Center for Integrative Yoga Studies immediately after completing her 250-hour foundational training with Wake Up Yoga in 2014. Her studies through CIYS with Marylsa Sullivan and Holle Black roots her teaching style in practices that are trauma-informed and foster emotional wellness. Megan’s teaching style is accessible for body and mind, infused with both reverence and humor. She guides students equally towards the practical, intuitive, and mystical parts of yoga. She is passionate about her work with the Love Your Brain organization, which offers yoga, meditation, and group discussion to those impacted by traumatic brain injury, including concussion. She studied with Pixie Lighthorse at Earth Medicine School in 2017. Megan believes yoga illuminates the presence in our bodies and spirit that is connected to all of nature. Through her work as an astrologer, she helps people view the larger patterns that weave those connections. She bows to the cosmic geometry of these practices. Megan believes our journey of self-discovery and healing is almost never a straight line, and that’s where humor, compassion, and lightness of spirit come in.

After a long relationship with dance, Anisha came to yoga in 2010 and reveled in its benefits – physical and mental. She dove into completing a 200 hour Ashtanga-Vinyasa based teacher training followed by an additional 200-hour Anusara/Alignment-based training in Philadelphia in 2014 and hasn’t looked back since.

Throughout different points of life, the practice of yoga on and off the mat has been a common denominator. The line between teacher and student blends in the classes she offers, as Anisha loves the shared experience of discovering new potential and understanding of one another. While teaching classes, Anisha hopes students leave with a new understanding of their own capacities and maybe a laugh throughout the process! She is so thankful for the yoga community in Philadelphia, as well as, at Studio 34 for fostering the ability to make yoga accessible for every person.

Sarah Craig (pronouns: they/them) is a Black nonbinary queer femme brought to yoga as means of restorative love, support and discovery for the self and the community. Sarah grew into their practice since 2013, learning from amazing inclusive practitioners like Jessamyn Stanley and Dana Falsetti. Sarah completed their YTT at Studio34 in 2019. Sarah encourages collective healing and community through their yoga practice. Sarah values rest and recuperation, constantly interrogating what accessibility is and for whom. Sarah aspires to bring yoga to marginalized communities to cultivate space for rest, strength for resistance, and knowledge of accessibility tools and methods for a suitable practice for any body. Follow @yogawithsarahcraig on Instagram for their classes + events!

Doren Day began studying Tai Chi in 1983 and became a certified teacher four years later. Through the years Tai Chi and Qi Gong have been a source of relaxation, strength, grounding and balance for her and she is inspired to share this resource with others. Her focus in teaching is on the quality of movement- smooth, mindful, upright, etc. Trained in the Yang-style Short Form, her class includes instruction in the moves of the form as well as simple exercises that can be practiced to enhance one’s awareness of balanced and healthy movement. Each class ends with a relaxing meditation. Doren is also a Licensed Acupuncturist and Zero Balancing bodyworker.

Ayanna experienced the healing benefits of yoga shortly after she divinely started her practice during a personal period of grief, stress, and transition. Since then, yoga has been her passion, her joy, and her go-to healing modality. In her personal practice, Ayanna enjoys Gentle Vinyasa, Yoga Nidra and studying yoga therapy. She completed her YTT in 2018 at Studio 34, and is grateful for the full-circle opportunity to now teach there. As a teacher, Ayanna includes the elements of her personal practice, and hopes to help her students cultivate inner awareness, inner calmness.

Amanda DeLeo became deeply committed to yoga and physical fitness after a cycling accident left her with a metal plate in her elbow. As she grew stronger and more aware of the effects that yoga and training had her mind, body, and spirit, she felt compelled to take a teacher training which she completed at Studio 34 Yoga. That training changed the course of her life, it opened up for her the reality of a higher power which in turn brought her to recovery from drugs and alcohol. After spending 6 years pursuing a career in Web development, she recently quit her desk job to dedicate her life to personal training and teaching yoga as a way to help others who are struggling with addiction or body dysmorphia.

Georgiana’s life radically shifted after she began practicing yoga at Studio 34. She noticed a newfound energetic freedom within her soul, and signed up for the studio’s 2018 Yoga Teacher Training with the intention of deepening her personal practice. As time passed and Georgiana’s passion for yoga intensified, so did her desire to share the physical, mental, and spiritual benefits of the discipline. Since then, she has offered a transformative practice of courageous love to children and adults in her Philadelphia community. Georgiana encourages students to connect to their divine power and universal wisdom through self-love and awareness.

Monica first began practicing yoga in 2008 at Studio 34. Also a Licensed Acupuncturist, she loves helping people become more embodied, more connected to their own inner wisdom. With a playful, gentle style, Monica creates an environment of comfort and calm in which students feel safe to deepen their breath and explore their experience.

After using the alignment and anatomy instructions she learned from alignment-based yoga (formerly known as Anusara yoga) to heal a knee injury, Monica is passionate about helping others understand healthy alignment from the inside-out by building an awareness of how each pose can be adapted to find comfort and stability.

jean-jacques is a Haitian-born artist, father, and teacher living in Philadelphia. He started painting in his father’s studio, before he could walk, and later studied at the University of the Arts and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. jean-jacques found yoga while at art school in 2001, and has delighted in consistent practice and study since. he has studied and trained in Ashtanga, Vinyasa flow, Thai Massage, AcroYoga, Anusara, and Yogahour. In both art making and embodied practices, he honors the power and potential of rituals, inspired creativity, and human connection to foster freedom. jean-jacques has taught in prisons, public schools, yoga studios, and festivals both nationally and internationally. He currently co-leads the teacher training program at Studio 34 in West Philly. jean-jacques is the co-creator of a yoga clothing clothing line with Philadelphia Printworks called “The Embodied Collection.” It was created to honor and inspire the efforts of people of color in creating wellness. The line is rooted in the words of Audre Lorde, “Caring for myself is not self-indulgent. Caring for myself is an act of survival.”

Jenn Hart’s first experience with yoga was at Studio 34 while pregnant with her first child. It was a prenatal yoga class and it was recommended to her from a classmate. Jenn was in graduate school, newly married, working full time and going to school full time, and navigating several chronic health challenges. After one hour of practice, she went back to her grind of work, school and married life but noticed huge differences in her mental space after just one hour of practice. She’s been hooked ever since! She experienced several health benefits and noticed that yoga helped her manage her stress. Yoga has also helped her be a better mom. She completed her yoga teacher training in 2018 and is certified in 12 Steps of Yoga for Recovery. She also teaches trauma informed yoga. When she’s not practicing yoga, she’s busy with her wellness practice, spending time with friends and family, or studying religions, cultures and herbalism. She loves her classes to include music, vinyasa and deep ujjayi!

Naima remembers being drawn to yoga ever since she first heard about it. She became more interested in yoga after realizing how much havoc her artistic career was wreaking on her body. Long days and nights spent hunched over a piece of paper, or looking into a computer screen left her feeling achy, stiff and irritable. Yoga became a way for her to feel more energized, and opened in her body, as well as a way to feel spiritually connected. Her relationship with the practice grew as she used yoga to help cope with stress, anxiety and intense emotions. Naima is constantly amazed by the healing properties of yoga on physical, mental and emotional levels. She believes that our bodies are wiser than our brains, that each sensation is a message and if we just listen, we can begin to cultivate a deeper relationship with ourselves and everything we touch. To Naima, yoga is a practice of empowerment, showing us that we already have everything we need; it is simply a matter of believing in ourselves and this deep love running through all life. Yoga allows for the discovery of just how mysterious and magical life truly is. Naima is certified through Studio 34’s alignment based vinyasa teacher training. Her classes focus on mindfulness, and a balance between work, play and rest.

Nicole began practicing yoga over 13 years ago as a way of bonding with her mom. Little did she imagine how profound an experience it would become, renewing her perspective on life, love, career and everything in between. Yoga makes Nicole feel good – physically, mentally and spiritually – and now she wishes to create a space for her students to feel the same. Receiving her 200-hour RYT certification in 2014 from Studio 34, Nicole has studied a spectrum of yoga styles including Vinyasa, Hatha, Baptiste, and Anusara. Still inspired by her first yoga teacher, Johnny Gillespie, Nicole’s vinyasa-based classes place special emphasis on the link between breath, movement and alignment. In 2017, Nicole broadened her passion for the body-mind-spirit connection by completing her training to become a License Massage Therapist, LMT. In her newly found massage practice, Nicole weaves various massage techniques together, creating a specialized session for every individual.

Kathy Revelle developed an immediate attraction to yoga thirteen years ago, when she picked up her first yoga book from the library. Over the years she kept up her own practice of yoga until naturally, accompanied by her desire to teach, she was lead to a 200hr yoga teacher training through Yoga on Main in Manayunk. She completed her 200hr YTT in February 2011. This training opened her up to yoga on a much deeper level, adding a stronger sense of spirituality to her practice and leaving her yearning for more. In a quest to indulge her passion, she immediately enrolled in a 500hr YTT which she completed in August 2012. Both trainings were in Inner Fire Yoga, a Hatha based, artful balance of postures, yoga philosophy, mantra & meditation, as well as a deep focus on Ayurveda, the natural health system of India. Kathy’s classes are designed to awaken your own inner fire while tuning in to your sense of calm & relaxation. Her classes promote balance, increase flexibility and build strength within the mind, body & the spirit. As a native of Philly, she is ecstatic to share her love for yoga & the joy it brings throughout her local community.

Pronouns ::  fae/femme/faer

Frances Rose came to yoga, coaxed by a teacher friend in 2005, just before a car accident changed faer life & body forever.  While faer practice has grown from the traditions of many teachers in multiple cities, fae feels uniquely grateful for the innumerable ways that Studio 34, and it’s amazing community, have served faer life & times. Fae strives to frame yoga as a practice of tranifold forms of union, and a journey of re-connection & spirit.  Rich in living metaphor, fae shares an Earth-supported yoga practice, that seeks to connect the inner wisdoms of individuals, communities & planet. Faer classes tend to embody a fierce but gentle, bovine drive, with an emphasis on engagement, and the radiance of our flowering hearts. Cultivating openness in one’s being through support of self is also a perennial theme. Practicing :: Loving, healing, and growing, and helping others do the same.

In 2013, Amanda started practicing yoga because of a back injury and stayed for the way it has helped her heal from trauma and stress. As an anxious person, Amanda continues to find peace and rest within her practice and has discovered that home, for her, is where she lays her mat. Amanda completed her 200RYT training at Studio 34 in 2014, the same studio where she took her first yoga class. Forever a student, Amanda hopes to share her love for yoga as she continues to grow and learn.

Anssumane Sillá began his dancing career at the tender age of 11. He has since danced professionally for over 18 years with the National Ballet of Guinea Bissau. His career has lead him to perform for Dignitaries, Ambassadors and Presidents from around the world. Anssumane has performed in Mali, Senegal, The Gambia, South Africa and Libya. He has garnered numerous awards for excellence in dance performance and teaching. He is very excited to teach the traditional and contemporary dance style (Bijagos, Balanta, Fula, and Manjaco) from Guinea Bissau and for people to enjoy themselves while having an amazing workout and learning a facet of culture from his county.

Hann found radical healing in the practice of yoga around the year 2014. They knew they wanted to share this practice with others after taking a deeper dive through a college yoga course. This course opened their eyes to the depth and power of yoga and was a catalyst in their yogic and spiritual journey. They began practicing at Studio 34 in 2018 and immediately felt at home in the community. Hann has a passion for mentoring children and teens and took their first teacher training in kid’s yoga in the beginning 2019. They joined the Studio 34 team first as work exchange, then as a teacher trainee in Studio 34’s 200-hour training and are so grateful for the opportunity to hold space for other queer folks in the queer and trans class. Their personal practice has offered them reclamation of their body, mind and soul. Hann feels honored to offer the gifts and knowledge that were bestowed on them to all who are interested in sharing this practice. Through their guidance Hann cultivates reverence for the earth, mind, body and spirit. By encouraging folks to feel curious about each sensation they hope to empower them to come to a deeper understanding of self, body and awareness.

Nicole Taylor fell in love with teaching yoga in 2008 and never looked back! She is a 500-hour certified yoga and meditation teacher, and a NAMA-certified Ayurvedic Health Counselor. Nicole’s purpose is to embody and create sacred spaces for joy, healing, and transformation. She teaches through the lens of Ayurveda and yoga in the Himalayan Tradition. Her class provides an internalizing experience with an emphasis on bringing stability to the body, drawing awareness to the breath, quieting the mind, and experiencing the higher self.

Kari uses breath as the central rhythm from which all movement stems, encouraging each student to find their unique flow. Kari pauses at each key pose allowing time to explore proper alignment, a deeper stretch, and more subtle sensations. Kari began practicing yoga at Studio 34 to work on posture, never guessing that it would change their whole way of thinking, feeling, and perceiving the world. The simple act of moving their awareness out of their mind onto the bones, muscles, breath, and deeper inside made them experience life in so many new ways. Finding a deep sense of stable happiness, Kari knows that every practice will produce a smile. Kari was moved to help others find the treasures inside themselves and pursued teacher training at Studio 34. Kari looks forward to all the places this journey will take them.