Amy took her first yoga class many moons ago as high school student, but began a regular practice a few years later as a way to balance her weightlifting and running routines. She quickly noticed that yoga was decreasing recovery time, preventing injury, and strengthening her core, but the most amazing impact was happening inside her mind. Yoga became her moving meditation and allowed her to make mindful decisions on and off the mat. In 2010, she received her yoga training from “earth mama” Stephanie Keach from Asheville Yoga Center as a way to deepen her practice, and not necessarily teach. After subbing a yin class in 2011, Amy caught the teaching bug and has been happily teaching since. Amy loves yin for its therapeutic benefit for the body and the mind, but also enjoys a vigorous creative vinyasa flow. A trained massage therapist, Amy uses her knowledge of the body to offer alignment suggestions and appropriate modifications. She hopes that her classes feel joyful and allow students to feel comfortable in their own skin.

Kevin first felt connected to a yoga practice in 2010 by regularly attending hatha yoga classes that increased calm and awareness of subtle energy in the body. Kevin completed the 200-hour teacher training at Carolina Yoga Company in 2022 and teaches vinyasa flow and yin yoga. His classes offer moments of stillness, exploration, and movement with an intention to help us cultivate loving openness to ourselves and others.

Kathryn Price started practicing yoga seriously a decade ago while seeking alternative healing methods for chronic pain. It has turned into a passion not only for asana, but also for yoga philosophy. She is a mother of three children, has a law degree, and is a minister. Kathryn is honored to share her growing knowledge of yoga with lifelong students like herself.

Victoria was introduced to yoga in 1999 and has been practicing ever since. While taking various instructors and styles of yoga she discovered Power Yoga. She was immediately drawn to the athleticism, strength, and grace of the practice. Plus she loved the way it made her feel! After having taught various fitness classes for over a decade, she received her 200-hour Power Vinyasa Yoga certification in 2009 in order to share her practice with others. Victoria believes that yoga shouldn’t be intimidating. Her approach to yoga is simple; don't take yourself too seriously, try something new, and have fun! Victoria has a Master's degree in exercise physiology.

With decades of experience in the helping professions, Joe-Paul brings warmth and humor to his yoga classes. A RYT-200 graduate of Carolina Yoga Company's teacher training, he began practicing yoga in his twenties. His desire to become a yoga teacher crested during the pandemic when he sought ways to find serenity and joy for himself, his family, and those around him.

Joe-Paul teaches both flow and yin classes, typically with themes to soothe the mind and spirit as well as the body. His classes, whether rigorous or gentle, are designed to help students find healing and presence, recognizing that each of us brings to the mat a unique experience and expression of body and mind. After a class with Joe-Paul, you will walk away feeling calm, confident, and inspired.

Alexis was introduced to yoga through her studies in exercise science and massage therapy and has been hooked ever since. During the pandemic, her yoga practice evolved and deepened when she used it for daily self-care and stress relief to balance the unique challenge of homeschooling her three children. This experience inspired her to take the 200-hour training at Carrboro Yoga Company. Because of her fast-paced life with her awesomely active kids, Alexis loves to teach slow flow classes with playful movement sequences connected to the breath. She hopes her students leave their mats feeling balanced in mind, body, and spirit, and carry that with them into their everyday lives.

Since her first ever (streamed online) yoga class in 2008, Si has tried different styles of yoga, both in person and virtually. Yoga has always been a grounding ritual for her, and a means to feel connected to herself and the community. She believes that in addition to being a great way to move the body, a yoga class can be time allotted to connect the body and mind in a practical way. Students can expect a mix of strong vinyasa-style movements with creative variations as well as grounding breathwork and mindful exercises. Si is a graduate of Carolina Yoga Company’s 200-hour training program.

Alaina connected with yoga for the first time while attending university in 2014. She was drawn to the practice as a way to carve out intentional space to disconnect from the responsibilities of every-day life and instead focus on reconnecting with the mind and body. Students in Alaina's classes will be given an opportunity to center themselves in the present and establish a mindful connection to their bodies through breath and movement. Alaina completed her 200-hour training through Carolina Yoga Company in 2020 and her 85-hour prenatal yoga teacher training through Whole Mama Yoga in 2022.

Ellese Nickles (DPT, RYT-200) was first introduced to yoga as a complement to her dance training. Although she was initially drawn to the physicality of mindful movement, she was interested in delving into the spiritual and philosophical aspects of yoga and meditation. She completed initial teacher training at Satchidananda Ashram in 2008. This transformative experience provided the foundation of Ellese’s teaching methods. Ellese completed her doctorate in physical therapy at UNC and uses her expertise in anatomy and neuromusculoskeletal issues to further guide her practice and teaching. Ellese’s classes emphasize intentional movement with focus on breath and alignment. Each practice ends with a guided deep relaxation to calm the nervous system, clear the mind, and connect you more deeply to your heart.

As an athlete, endurance sports coach, and continuing student of yoga, Sage Rountree understands the trickiness of balancing training (or life!) and a yoga practice. Sage's classes emphasize intention and efficiency—using the right form and the right breath for the task at hand. There's plenty of attention to core, the hips, and using the body, breath, and mind to focus. An Experienced Registered Yoga Teacher with the Yoga Alliance at the highest level (E-RYT 500), Sage has over sixteen years' experience teaching yoga to students of all levels and backgrounds, including several UNC teams and Coach Roy Williams, her student for over a decade.

Co-owner of the studio, director of our teacher trainings, and the author of nine books including The Athlete's Guide to Yoga, Everyday Yoga, Lifelong Yoga, and The Professional Yoga Teacher's Handbook, Sage has also written for Yoga Journal, Runner's World, Lava Magazine, and USA Triathlon Magazine. Visit Sage's website.

Since 2005, Brianna has felt blessed to share her yoga practice with her students and learn from many inspiring teachers. Brianna has run over 10 marathons and a couple 50Ks. Yoga keeps her joints lubricated and her bones and muscles strong. Yoga and mindfulness have grounded her through long runs, career life, pregnancy, and motherhood. She can’t imagine life without yoga practice. Supporting other women and families who are finding inner strength along their journey into parenthood has become one of her passions, and she enjoys witnessing and sharing in that experience. Brianna also coaches individualized fitness classes for kids.

Brianna strives to make yoga classes accessible and challenging to students at any fitness level. Students create a positive relationship where body, mind, and breath can create harmony and peace within. She leads active, flowing vinyasa-style classes with liberal doses of traditions ranging from Ashtanga to Kundalini. Brianna loves teaching yoga because it allows her to help others improve their physical, physiological, and psychological health.

Diana has been teaching fitness classes ever since Jane Fonda was first wearing leggings in the eighties! But when she began practicing yoga twenty years ago she discovered that it was far more than a workout, and in fact has been a powerful transformational force in her life. Diana has explored many branches of the yoga tree with remarkable teachers and attended our own CYC 200-hour teacher training. Her classes invite intention to both the fundamentals and nuances of alignment, encourage curiosity about your practice and compassion towards your whole self. Diana's yoga guidance is often enlivened by humor, metaphor, and the knowledge that yoga can be a lifelong gift of learning and exploration.

Tom Sowders has been teaching yoga since 2018 with interest in Ashtanga, Hatha, and Yin styles. For Tom, yoga is about bringing full awareness to the body and the moment. The meditative flow of yoga happens to offer physical benefits in terms of strength and flexibility, but Tom views—and offers—the challenges of yoga as pleasure in themselves. In this way, yoga becomes one of the magical things in life that are both highly pleasurable and good for you! Tom encourages curiosity, exploration, and attention to oneself as well as self-love. The North Star in his classes is balance that starts on the mat but does not end there.

Stanley (RYT-200) has been practicing yoga for close to twenty years and just finished his teacher training in May of 2022. For him, yoga started out as a way to gain flexibility and stay in shape and has evolved into a way of life, fully believing in the eight limbs of the yoga practice. Stanley’s mission as a yoga teacher begins by knowing that everything that is in him is also in his students. He strives to be a teacher that honors his own life journey: pain, scarring, joys and successes. In authentically teaching to his own journey, he will then be teaching to the journey of all yogis.

Hannah Darcy (C-IAYT) is a Durham, N.C.-based yoga therapist and teacher by way of New York City who believes that yoga should be a practice of exploring the body, mind and spirit. Her intent is to make each class a lighthearted yet thoughtful and safe space for students to explore the practice of yoga and how it fits into their lives. Her classes are accessible to all, offering a blend of challenging vinyasa flow sequences and therapeutic modalities, while encouraging the use of props to advance the practice. Hannah is Yoga Alliance RYT-500 certified through Pure Yoga in New York City and C-IAYT certified yoga therapist through Prema Yoga Institute.