Mary J.

Instructor

Lila Studio

Mary’s approach to practice is colored by her past studies in Ashtanga, Iyengar, Anusara, and Yoga Therapy, as well as her background as a professional dancer.  She first experienced yoga by jumping into a daily Astanga practice in 1980. She was swept away by the practice, which has been her physical and spiritual foundation ever since. Over the years she has studied in numerous styles and with many amazing yogis, including Rod Stryker, Pandit Rajmani Tigunait, Donna Farhi, Judith Lasater, Jenny Otto, Richard Miller, and Felicity Greene. She is deeply grateful to all of her teachers, and is especially honored to be a part of the Sri Vidya lineage of Para Yoga – a lineage that offers a path of continual growth and thriving.Mary has been teaching yoga since 1981. She first met her teacher, Rod Stryker, in 2004 and began studying with him in earnest in 2008. Since being initiated into Para Yoga, her meditation practice has been utterly transformed, and her asana practice has gained a whole new meaning. Mary holds a level II certification in Para Yoga, an E-RYT 500 certification through Yoga Alliance, and a certification in Yoga Therapy through Body Balance Yoga Therapy. Mary leads teacher trainings and workshops, as well as working with students individually and in group classes to support their healing, expansion, and empowerment.Mary also holds an MFA in dance, and spent over twenty years as a professional dancer, teacher and choreographer. Her dancing has deeply informed her yoga journey: dance was for her a spiritual investigation and commitment - an invitation to channel Divine energy and impulse; inevitably, it also offered multiple injuries - opportunities to experience healing through yoga.Mary performs as a singer in two bands and as a storyteller, and has taught movement, music and art to kids. She sees creative impulse, in all its many forms, as the source of our joy, and a path to discovering our authentic self. Yoga is a practice of engaging the outward self towards an inward focus, to seek and discover the essential seed of our creative impulse, buried deeply within. She is both delighted and humbled to share this work with her students.Mary lives in Salt Lake with her wonderful husband Jeff, and two amazing daughters, Kate and Maura.