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Anisa

Nobel Ang

Nobel Ang first stumbled upon yoga when he walked into a power yoga class at the University of Florida in January 2005. Intrigued by the very challenging and intense, yet gentle and refreshing nature of yoga practice, he picked up a copy of B.K.S. Iyengar's Light on Yoga and began practicing postures from it, in a quest to understand for himself the nature of this paradoxical yet fascinating practice. Before he knew it, practicing asanas had become an important yet natural part of his daily life -- much like taking a shower. He has since taken classes and workshops with various teachers in both the Iyengar and Ashtanga traditions. He is presently pursuing studies with Eddie Modestini and Nicki Doane of Maui, Hawaii.

Nobel is also a PhD candidate in philosophy at the University of Florida. He is trying to integrate the lessons he is learning from his yoga practice into his daily efforts to meet the demands of dissertation writing and other rigors of academic life. He feels very fortunate to be able to practice and share yoga with others. He believes that the physical strength and flexibility gained through consistent yoga practice helps us to feel more comfortable in our own skins, which, in turn, helps us to move beyond the boundaries of our own skins to connect with others.

David Bole

DAVID N. BOLE, Ph.D., A.P. is director of the Traditional Acupuncture Center, a holistic health care facility offering a multi-dimensional approach to health and healing. He has been providing the finest health care services to the residents of North Central Florida for over 25 years. He earned his Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Psychology from the University of Florida and completed two additional postdoctoral degrees in acupuncture from the College of Traditional Chinese Acupuncture in Oxford, England. Dr. Bole has studied acupuncture, herbal medicine, meditation and Tai Chi Chuan in the U.S., Europe, China, and Japan. He is currently licensed in Florida as an Acupuncture Physician (A.P.), and has been awarded both a Diplomate in Acupuncture (Dipl.Ac.) and a Diplomate in Chinese Herbology (Dipl.C.H.) from the National Commission for the Certification of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine. Dr. Bole specializes in a painless, gentle and very effective non-invasive style of Five Element Japanese Meridian Therapy called Toyohari.

In addition, he completed the traditional three year and three month retreat in the Karma Kagyu lineage of Tibetan Buddhism. He studied meditation under the direction of the renowned retreat master Khenpo Karthar Rinpoche. Lama David currently serves as the resident teacher for the Gainesville Karma Thegsum Choling (KTC), a branch of the Karma Triyana Dharmachakra Monastery (KTD) in Woodstock, N.Y., the North American seat of H.H. the 17th Gyalwa Karmapa. For more information about this center and H.H. Karmapa, go to www.kagyu.org. He teaches Asian medicine, meditation, Buddhist philosophy, stress management, and Tai Chi Chuan. As a Westerner trained in these ancient arts, he is able to bridge the gap between Eastern and Western philosophical approaches to health and healing. He teaches classes and workshops around the country designed to enhance awareness and health to students of all ages.

Maria Coady

Maria Coady is a registered yoga teacher with the Yoga Alliance and Kripalu certified. She has studied in the Bikram, Ashtanga, and Kripalu traditions. Currently, Maria is a scholar of Yoga Philosophy with Dr. Georg Feuerstein. She received a doctorate degree in Social, Bilingual, and Multicultural Foundations of Education from the University of Colorado, Boulder, in 2001, and is interested in yoga as a pedagogy for transformation.

Andrea Eveland

Andrea Eveland discovered yoga over 10 years ago through the bliss that arose from uniting breath with movement in her modern dance practice. Over the years she has received over 400 hours of training in yoga, philosophy, meditation, and anatomy through Master Yoga Academy (San Diego, CA) under Rama Berch. She also has experience in Yoga Therapy. Andrea believes in a balanced daily practice of hard- and soft-form yoga and blends principles of her formal training in Svaroopa with new-found enthusiasm for Ashtanga in her teaching. She is currently working towards her Ph.D. in Plant Physiology and Molecular Genetics at the University of Florida and aspires to one day aid crop improvement programs towards sustainable food production.

Bruno Ferreira

Bruno Ferreira was formally introduced to yoga poses in 1995 by a teacher of the brasilian Swasthya Yoga. After obtaining a good base in asana practice, he learned some of the other limbs of yoga including meditation, pranayama, and chanting . He continues to practice and organize group gatherings for all of the yoga branches that he has experienced. Also, Bruno has learned invaluable lessons with a monk of the Ananda Marga organization in Portugal, his home country. His interests are in the various forms of yoga, yoga philosophy, body awareness exercises, vegetarian cooking, the Alexander Technique, and an everpresent passion for massage.

Ann Gill

Ann Gill is a certified Kripalu Yoga instructor and has been teaching beginning Hatha Yoga classes in Gainesville since 1986. In 2005 she completed the Southern Institute for Yoga Instructors two year Iyengar influenced Yoga program which certified Ann as a 1000 hour teacher registered with Yoga Alliance. Ann has been practicing Hatha Yoga for 25 years and teaches gentle yoga and alignment based Hatha Yoga classes at Sanctuary Yoga and Meditation. Ann is a student of BKS Iyengar. She has recently been studying with Sara Meeks and has taken and assisted in Sara's courses at Sanctuary on Safe Skeletal Health through yoga.

Ann's interest in therapeutic yoga for all ages and body/mind conditions follows her philosophy of yoga that awareness of body and mind are the keys to more conscious living and that Yoga is an immediately available pathway to health and wellness for all.

As BKS Iyengar has stated in his most recent book, Light on Live; "Health begins with firmness in body, deepens to emotional stability, then leads to intellectual clarity, wisdom and finally, the unveiling of the soul."

Since 1984 in Gainesville, Ann has operated a private practice of intergrated healing therapies; now located at Sanctuary Yoga and Meditation. She offers private yoga sessions, Massage Therapy and Polarity bodywork with combination body/mind awareness work and personal growth sessions. Ann is licensed in Massage Therapy, Clinical Social Work, and Occupational Therapy and is a certified Polarity Practitioner. Call her at 352-378-9723 for more information, for a free phone consultation about your health concern or to make an appointment.

Kim Holton

Kim Holton is a registered teacher with the Yoga Alliance and the International Kundalini Yoga Teachers Association. She began teaching in 2002 and has trained with numerous nationally recognized yoga teachers in the traditions of Kundalini, Iyengar, Sivananda, Vinyasa, and Ashtanga. Kim also holds a Masters in Zoology and currently teaches biology at Santa Fe Community College. To each class, Kim brings the intention of providing an experience that allows students to connect with their selves, drop deeply into their bodies, and use the physical as a portal into the spiritual and subtle realms.

Health is Wealth. Peace of Mind is Happiness. Yoga shows the Way.
-Swami Vishnu-devananda

Samantha Jones

Samantha Jones (now Jones-DeCarmine) has been teaching yoga in Gainesville, Florida for over six years. She was introduced to yoga at the age of 12 when she visited a class with her mother, and the practice never left her. Now 31, Samantha comes to Sanctuary yoga with a Sivananda teaching ceritfication from one of the original Sivananda Ashrams in Val Morin, Canada, and a broad study of many Hatha yoga disciplines, including Ashtanga, Kundalini, Bikram, and Jiva Mukti. Her Sivananda classes are taught as her masters taught her, with emphasis on Pranayama, Kirtan, and Asana alignment; her Hatha classes are inspired by 10 years of study with Kamala Specht. Samantha organized and attended the first Gainesville workshop with Doug Swenson. At the age of 26 her yoga experience enabled her to become a featured dancer, despite the lack of any previous dance experience, at the Santa Fe Community College Dance Department. Samantha is now using her practice and experience to guide and support her through a healthy pregnancy.

Ellie Laughlin

Ellie Laughlin received her first series of Iyengar classes as a gift. Yoga was the gift that kept on giving and continues to give! She began attending multiple classes a week and studying the philosophy, history, health benefits of yoga. Since her introduction to Iyengar, she has studied other styles including Anusara, Restorative, Kundalini, Bikram, and Vinyasa flow with teachers such as Jordan and Martin Kirk, Jeff Martens, and Kat Myers. Ellie loves calling upon her background in dance while combining dynamic movement with inspirational music in her classes. She is particularly interested in yoga for womens health issues and teaches pre-natal yoga here at Sanctuary as a Registered Yoga Teacher with the Yoga Alliance. Ellie holds a masters degree in the history of art and architecture. When she is not doing yoga, she loves traveling the world to study different cultures and their architecture.

Dafne Laurie

As one of the most powerful healing influences in her life, Dafna approaches both the practice and the teaching of yoga with curiosity, deep appreciation and trust. Having practiced yoga for over a decade in Virginia and New York City, Dafna received her Yoga Alliance Teacher Certification in 2005 from a unique program that offered in-depth training in both the Ashtanga and Iyengar traditions.

She discovered yoga in 1992 when she met her (now) husband who had started practicing yoga in college before they met. He was her first teacher. She is humbled and inspired by the great wisdom of the tradition and practice of yoga and continues to be amazed by the richness, healing and creativity it brings into her life.

Her practice and teaching is influenced by many teachers and styles including Ashtanga Vinyasa, Iyengar, Anusara and Yin Yoga.

She is honored to offer what she has learned (and continues to learn) of this great tradition. She enjoys the unique way in which each person learns, practices and understands yoga and is constantly learning from her students.

Dafna received her BA in Religious Studies with a focus in Hinduism, India and devotion through dance while at school at the University of Virginia. She lived in India for a semester, studying the classical dance Kathak.

Dafna is currently completing a Masters in Acupuncture at the Academy for Five Element Acupuncture in Gainesville.

Meaghan McKenna

Meaghan McKenna first discovered yoga in 1996 in Boston, beginning with a study of bhakti yoga. Within the Gauidya-Vasinava tradition, she studied Bhagavad Gita, Sri Isopanisad, and other Vedic texts, spending one year living in an ashrama--absorbed in kirtan, mantra meditation, and studying the foundations of Ayurveda and yogic lifestyle. In 2000 she was formally initiated with harinama diska and received the spiritual name Nitai Priya, and five years later was given the standard gayatri mantras.

A 1998 pilgriamage to India introduced Meaghan to asana practice, after having met a student of B.K.S. Iyengar who was offering yoga classes. This asana practice continued and grew into a daily Ashtanga practice in Boston and has since flowed and developed into teaching and practicing the "rasa" or "flavor" of Vinyasa. Meaghan is certified RYT with the Yoga Alliance and has completed trainings with Shiva Rea, Ana Forrest, and Baron Baptiste.

Meaghan just moved to Gainesville from New York. When not practicing or teaching yoga, she enjoys travelling--especially to India--as well as running, coooking, painting and drawing, and exploring Gainesville with her two children, ages 5 and 2 years. Meaghan is also a writer and most recently contributed to the anthology, "The Kid Turned Out Fine."

Sara Meeks

Sara Meeks, PT, MS, GCS, KYT a physical therapist for 43+ years and a certified Kripalu Yoga Teacher since 1984, has spent the past 23 years focusing on the unique management challenges of persons with low bone mass.

An award-winning national and international presenter, and diagnosed with osteoporosis herself, Sara brings a unique energy to her mission of safety in movement. As Sara says, when you teach and learn movement with added focus on the bones (movement from the “inside out"), your practice will change profoundly.

Miranda Monkhorst

Miranda's passion is to help folks reconnect to their natural ability to find ease within. Her inborn love for mystery, her early training in medical research and the experience of observing her own body's ability to repair itself after an injury trauma launched her into what is still a joyous investigation of the nature of the body. Miranda is an Advanced Practitioner and Instructor of Ortho-Bionomy®, a gentle manual therapy that relieves pain by stimulating a person's reflexes for self-correction. She was introduced to the chinese internal martial arts in 1997 as one of the roots of Ortho-Bionomy. She finds that Chi Gung brightens her mind, energizes her body and deepens her sense of her own energy. In the last ten years, Miranda has practiced and taught in Gainesville, Pittsburg, Chapel Hill and LA. She is a student of Master Wei Lun Huang.

Melissa Montilla

Melissa is the owner and director of Sanctuary Yoga in Gainesville, FL. She discovered Ashtanga yoga in 1992 at a dance festival and continues to study Ashtanga with many inspiring teachers including, David Swenson, Doug Swenson, and David Williams in the United States as well as Sri K. Pattabhi Jois, Sharath and Saraswathi Rangaswamy in Mysore, India. She also enjoys broadening her practice and teaching perspective by exploring anatomy, alignment, and stylistic difference with the provocative teachings of Sarah Powers and other teachers inspired by a diversity of traditions. Melissa holds a BFA in Dance from Florida State University, with a strong focus on anatomy, kinesiology, and movement education. She has taught Ashtanga, Hatha, and Vinyasa based classes and workshops throughout Florida since 2001, and believes that good alignment, consistency, and joy are the keys to a long and fulfilling life of practice. Melissa especially enjoys sharing Yoga as a tool for physical and emotional freedom for yogis of all abilities.

Susan Perko

Susan Perko has a degree in music from University of Minnesota and is a licensed massage therapist. Currently, she is pursuing certification in Anusara yoga. Her teaching combines detailed attention to alignment with heart felt intention. She happily lives in Melrose with her husband Robin, and their two boys.

Marilyn Summer

Marilyn Summer, M.A. French and Rehabilitation Counseling has been teaching yoga for 30 years and practicing since 1975. She is certified from the Kripalu Center and from the Amrit Yoga Institute. She is also a graduate of Phoenix Rising yoga therapy, levels 1 and 2. Marilyn lived on Kauai for 14 years connecting with the Hawaiian culture and people. She has taught a variety of ages and abilities in both Hawaii and Florida giving workshops and private classes as well as her ongoing classes. Her private classes are now available at Sanctuary!

Private Session 1: Energy Flow Yoga
Experience the flow of energy within you on and off the mat. Enter into a deep connection with Source and let it guide you in the session, your daily practice and in your life. Start with breathing, stretching, warm-ups, a sequence of postures and then let the ones you need emerge in the session and open doorways to emotional clearing, physical release of blocks, intuitive understanding, life direction, and integration of body-mind-heart-and spirit.
1 1/2 hours of guided yoga including breathing(pranayama), warm-ups/stretching, asanas suited to your needs, energy expansion and spontaneous flow into the next step of your individual physical/emotional/mental/spiritual awakening.

Private Session 2: Partners Yoga
Create new openings in your body/mind and in your life!
Partners Yoga is a joyful way to stretch open and expand with the assistance of another person. Areas that were tight or blocked release in part due to the energy connection and deeper stretch that occurs. In a safe environment, focus on your personal needs and asanas that will maximize all the benefits yoga has to offer. This private session is offered for one person or a couple, family member or friend of choice.

A series of 3 private sessions is recommended, but not required. To make an appointment please call Sanctuary 352-336-5656 or e-mail info@yogagainesville.com.

Christine Wiese

Christine Wiese has been practicing and studying the Ashtanga vinyasa style of yoga since her first introduction to it in 2001. She has been blessed to study with some wonderful teachers and travels regularly to continue her studies with them. She loves sharing this dynamic style of yoga and believes that Ashtanga yoga can be accessible to anyone. She enjoys working with students in the traditional style to slowly build a practice starting from wherever you are.