JB Teachers

Francesca Cervero

Francesca Cervero teaches yoga privately, as well as group classes, in corporate settings and yoga studios throughout New York City. She received her 200 Hour Teaching Certification with Jennifer Brilliant and Cyndi Lee at OM Yoga and is in the process of completing her 500 Hour Certification there as well. Additionally, she is certified to teach Restorative Yoga by Judith Lasater, Pre-Natal Yoga by Janice Clarfield, and has studied Yoga Therapy with Zack Kurland. One of her greatest teachers was a serious hip injury she endured for two years. During that time she began an in-depth study of Feldenkrais and developed relationships with wonderful osteopaths, cranio-sacral therapists, and pilates teachers. This allows her to bring extensive body knowledge, and a sense of nurturing and groundedness to her teaching. Her mission is to help her students set goals and overcome challenges with the positive energy they find in the connection of mind and body.

Heather Griffith

Heather Griffith moved to New York City in order to study dance. Several years later she received her BA/MA from Hunter College in Dance and Anthropology. Always interested in exploring both the body and mind of individuals, Heather was drawn to the practice of yoga. At Om Yoga Center she completed the teacher training program taught by Jennifer Brilliant and Frank Mauro. She has also been certified in Prenatal Yoga with Janice Clearfield, and Restorative Yoga with Judith Lasater. Heather is immensely thankful to all her teachers, including Deb Flashenberg, who have been present through her journey from student to teacher. Currently, Heather is working toward her Doctorate of Physical Therapy.

Mare Hieronimus

Mare Hieronimus is a Brooklyn-based teacher, interdisciplinary dance artist and performer. Her background includes years of study as a contemporary dancer and Yoga practitioner, as well as ongoing studies in developmental movement, Skinner Releasing Technique, Laban Movement Analysis and Bartenieff Fundamentals, Feldenkrais/Awareness through Movement and the Alexander Technique. She holds an MFA in dance from Sarah Lawrence College and has completed two Yoga teacher training certifications. Mare is a Certified Movement Analyst. Committed to the practice of movement as a healing art form, her classes embrace all of the somatic modalities that she continues to practice and study.

Lisa Kazmer

Lisa Kazmer (RYT) received her yoga teaching certification from Om Yoga Center in New York City, Prenatal certificate through Janice Clarfield, and holds her BFA in Modern Dance Performance from The University of The Arts in Philadelphia. In addition to teaching and practicing yoga, she currently choreographs and dances with …And Dancers (anddancers.com) a collective modern dance company based in NYC. Filled with creative visualizations and detailed imagery Lisa’s class draws from her extensive experience in movement to offer insight and an informed perspective to yoga instruction. Intention of practice, humor, breath and attention to the inner landscapes are always elements to be explored in her classes. Through this she seeks to develop in her students better body awareness & confidence, mental & physical strength and flexibility of the mind & body. She believes that yoga has the capacity to benefit any being with an open mind and specializes in adapting the yoga asanas to work with any body

Susan Kraft

Susan has been practicing a wide variety of yoga styles for more than ten years. As a life long New Yorker, she has been particularly grateful to discover, through yoga, the body’s innate ability to quiet the mind. With certifications in Core Strength Vinyasa and Om yoga, Susan’s teachers have included Elena Brower, Sadie Nardini, Christie Clark, Frank Mauro and Carla Stangenberg. Her teaching is also informed by a lifetime of creative and therapeutic movement practices that are woven into inventive sequencing and clear simple alignment instructions. She hopes to help her students build the awareness they need to keep their bodies safe and happy, whether at their desks, the gym, the dance studio, or on the subway. Susan is also the Coordinator of the Dance Oral History Project at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.

Juliana Locklin

Juliana Locklin
former dancer holds a certificate
from Integral Yoga Institute to teach
Yoga for Beginners.
Certified Ayurvedic Nutritionist from Bioticare.
Personal Trainer certificate from
ACE (American Council on Exercise).
Movement and anatomy has been
an intrinsic part of her life from
an early age.

Anna Brown Massey

Anna guides her students to trust their inner experience and present breath whether courageously practicing asana, giving birth, or facing themselves. As a dancer, Anna was originally drawn to yoga’s physical benefits, but delighted in the discovery of the transformative power of mindfulness, alignment, and breath.

Anna graduated summa cum laude with a B.S. in Dance Performance from Skidmore College, where she first committed to a yoga practice. She received her yoga teaching certification from New York City’s OM Yoga Center, followed by prenatal yoga teaching certification with Janice Clarfield. In addition to teaching vinyasa, prenatal, and postpartum yoga, Anna is a Birth Doula and a dance artist.

Cassie Mey

Cassie Mey has developed 3 lifelong practices- dance, yoga, and Buddhist meditation. She received her BA in Dance from Mills College, (Oakland, CA), and she completed the OM Yoga teacher training in June 2006. Since then she has taught yoga at Mark Morris Dance Center, South Asian Youth in Action (NYC Public schools program), American Leisure Private Gym, and to private clients.

Cassie currently teaches at Kusala Yoga in Greenpoint and is dancing with Molissa Fenley, (whom she has worked with since 2003- performing in the US and abroad). She is also the Director of Activism at the Interdependence Project (an East Village meditation group), and she is working on her own performance/installation projects. Cassie enjoys teaching a gentle vinyasa flow that proposes curiously attuning physical and inner awareness to the present moment/um of the breath.

Marisa Sako

Marisa Sako, RYT, completed her vinyasa yoga teacher training with Dana Flynn and Jasmine Tarkeshi at Laughing Lotus in 2006. She was lucky enough to be matched up with mentor, Heather Heineman, whose anatomy teachings brought out Marisa’s inner yoga geek and inspired her to continue her studies with Neuromuscular Therapist Susan Hefner and Yoga Anatomy teacher Leslie Kaminoff. Marisa has held onto the creative style of sequencing that Laughing Lotus passed on to her, but she has been influenced by other teachers and styles and has slowed it down resulting in a more finely-detailed flow with lengthened breath-cycles. She relishes that moment in a five-breath Warrior III when the first bead of sweat drips off the tip of the nose and splashes on the mat, as well as that moment when, because she has given the body twenty-three different points of alignment to absorb at once, the mind has no choice but to become quiet. It is this effect that amazes her each day as she practices and teaches. She is grateful to all her teachers, but of all of them, she is most grateful to her first teacher, her mom, who was teaching her to stand on her hands shortly after having learned how to stand on her feet.

Sarah Seely

In addition to many other things, Sarah Seely is a dancer, choreographer, teacher, and lover of yoga. She received her Prana Yoga teacher training through the New York Open Center with Dr. Jeff Migdow and Priti Robyn Ross and has been teaching yoga, Pilates mat classes, dance technique, dance and theater improvisation, and other movement related classes for over 8 years. Sarah holds a BA in Dance from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County and a MFA in Dance with a concentration in Kinesiology from Smith College in Northampton, MA. Drawing upon her extensive background in yoga, dance, and other therapeutic somatic practices, Sarah’s classes focus on breath as support for movement, stretching, strengthening, and aligning the body. Sarah teaches yoga and movement as the body’s language and as with any language, the intent is to be clear and articulate. This articulation is then brought to the yoga practice to assist the union of body, mind, and spirit with awareness, self nurture, an open heart, and great appreciation.

Deven Sisler

Deven Sisler is a certified AcroYoga®, CircusYoga®, and vinyasa yoga teacher specializing in children & family yoga classes. She has been teaching extra-curricular programs for over twelve years. She received her BA for her self-designed major in Theatre, Creative Writing & Fine Art from Connecticut College and additional training at the Dell’Arte School of Physical Theater and the London International School of Performing Arts. She has studied Body-Mind Centering with Amy Matthews & Roxlyn Moret. Deven received her certificate for Thai Yoga from Jenn Yarro with the New England Thai Yoga School.

Her family classes (BabyFingers, Mommy & Me, Family Yoga) allow families to explore an unconventional educational paradigm: instead of parents actively teaching, they model learning themselves through play and song setting a strong foundation for trust, communication and playfulness, while also patterning a love of exploratory learning.
www.devensisler.com

Laura Staton

Laura is the co-founder and author of Baby Om, Yoga for Mothers and Babies, and has been teaching yoga, focusing on the pre-natal and post partum body for over a decade. Laura’s Iyengar influenced classes are anatomically precise and draw from her history of movement exploration as a modern dancer, choreographer, and her current work as a hospital based Occupational Therapist. She is a graduate of The Juilliard School, holds an MS from NYU Steinhardt School of Education and has studied yoga since 1989 with teachers including Kevin Gardner, Mary Dunn and currently Lara Brunn among others.

Lauren Tepper

Lauren Tepper has been practicing yoga for 15 years, and teaching since 2000. She first studied Iyengar yoga with Mary Reilly, and then discovered the Vinyasa style. She is a fanatical student of yoga philosophy and anatomy, and currently deepens her practice with master teachers including Genny Kapuler, Jennifer Brilliant, and Jonathan Fitzgordon. In addition to teaching yoga to adults and children, Lauren is a dance instructor, freelance writer, certified personal trainer, spiritual circle facilitator, and environmental educator. In 2003 Lauren earned her M.F.A. from the University of North Carolina, where she also taught dance and yoga. She is certified with the American Council on Exercise, and she holds a B.S. in environmental science (1992) from Cornell University. Lauren is also a trained Circlework facilitator through the Institute for Circlework. She leads spiritual circles uniting ritual, movement, meditation, artistic creation, self-reflection, and celebration of life’s natural cycles and seasons.

Annie Wong

Annie Wong first discovered yoga as a teenager growing up in New York City. Yoga came to the forefront of her life after being diagnosed with stomach cancer in 2005. As she healed herself through holistic lifestyle changes and found more joy in her life, Annie became determined to share health and happiness with others.

Around the same time, Annie found her heart’s true resonance in the teachings of Kelly Morris, a senior Jivamukti Yoga instructor. In 2008, she completed her first teacher training in the Conquering Lion Yoga style. She also holds a certification in Prenatal Yoga and recently completed her training in Tibetan Heart Yoga. In addition to her yoga studies, Annie is also a certified Health Counselor and works with clients on food and lifestyle choices.

Annie has dedicated her life to helping others learn about and experience the benefits of mind-body connection. She hopes to inspire students to joyfully pursue the ultimate purpose of yoga to transform the body, heart and mind.