About Us
We have been located in the heart of Sellwood since 2004, just around the corner from Grand Central Bakery at the corner of 13th and Nehalem. At the top of the stairs you will find a warm, inviting space ideal for yoga classes and workshops.
We offer a full range of classes from beginning to advanced, taught by well-trained, experienced instructors. We also provide an array of classes for special audiences, including gentle yoga, yoga for the female spirit, mindful breathing and yoga for the larger woman. All of our classes are challenging (each in its own way), relaxing and fun. Come see for yourself.
Our Teachers
Vilma Zaleskaite, co-director. Get in touch with Vilma
Vilma's yoga heritage stretches back four generations in her Lithuanian family (three of her four sisters are now also yoga teachers). She has been teaching in Vilnius (Lithuania) and Portland (Oregon) since 2000, and occasionally contributes yoga articles to the Lithuanian magazine Sveika Moteris (Healthy Woman). Vilma, who holds a RYT 500 certificate, began her yoga in the Iyengar style and today counts Angela Farmer, Victor Van Kooten, Mary Paffard and Rodney Yee among her most formative influences. Her distinctive spirit and meditative style often provoke her students to complain that she leaves them "too relaxed to get up and leave."
Bill Walters, co-director. Get in touch with Bill
Bill has been teaching in the Portland area and elsewhere since 1994. He practices and teaches in the Iyengar tradition and has benefited over the years from studying with many fine teachers. He especially appreciates that for the past 15 years he has enjoyed the guidance and friendship of his principal teacher, Rodney Yee.
Judy Jewell
Judy took her first yoga class in the basement of the Baltimore public library in 1973. She revived her dormant practice in 1993, and began teaching in 2002. Judy's teaching is primarily influenced by the Iyengar and Anusara styles. She has also studied Pattabhi Jois Ashtanga yoga. Her regulars appreciate her clear, adventurous approach.
Mary Ann Robinson
Mary Ann has been working with Bill Walters for nine years, during which time she has also studied with senior teachers such as Rodney Yee, John Friend, Mary Paffard and Judith Lasater. More recently, she completed a rigorous, 650-hour yoga teacher training with Mary, and is a Registered Yoga Teacher (RYT500) with Yoga Alliance. She teaches sections of the Easy Does It, Larger Woman and Level 1 classes. Her calm, clear presence is a wonderful asset to the studio.
Karen Gilkison
Karen's first yoga experience was with Lilias Folan on PBS in the 1970's. Beginning in 1995, to deepen her practice and study of yoga, she began to explore a variety of different yoga styles, including Iyengar, Anusara, Ashtanga, Bihar, and Yin. She completed teacher training with Shari Friedrichsen in 2003, and in addition to Shari, she is currently most influenced by the work of Angela Farmer and Victor Van Kooten, as well as Mary Paffard. Karen expresses her goal in teaching as, "to convey a sense of meditative presence, subtle aliveness and compassion in the practice."
Ana Leroy
Ana took her first yoga class in 2001 at a cozy community studio in Washington, D.C., entirely unsuspecting that several years later she would be teaching there herself. More recently, inspired by one of her Iyengar teachers in Mexico City, Ana began a four year training program with Dona Holleman in Soiano del Lago, Italy, a commitment that has taken back to Italy twice a year since 2007. In her teaching she seeks to guide students to work with intent and to begin to allow postures to flow more freely from the inner body. With expectant mothers, she encourages listening to their own bodies and attending to the growing life within. Ana is Yoga-Alliance certified and the mother of a baby boy Sebastian.
Nancy Williams
Nancy began practicing yoga 25 years ago. She has trained with many first rate instructors from a variety of lineages, especially the Iyengar and Anusara approaches. She counts Rodney Yee, Mary Paffard and Sarahjoy Marsh among her most influential teachers. In 2002, she began teaching, inspired by her passion for yoga outreach to students in prisons and drug and alcohol rehab centers. She believes in the power of yoga to build ease, confidence and curiosity in body, heart and mind and aims to teach from a place of knowledge, humility and humor.