Teachers

Jody Kurilla
Jody started off her Yogic studies not in the Far East, but the East Coast. She began her yogic quest around 1990 at Jivamukti in NYC. There she met the teachers that would be the spark in starting Jody on her path to teaching, Uma McNeil and Leslie Kaminoff, both whom are inspired by the tradition of T.K.V. Desikachar. When she moved to Portland in 1998, she studied with Diane Wilson, and with Diane, Jody took her first teacher training course. Since 2002, thanks to Matt Huish, she has been very inspired by Shadow Yoga taught by Shandor Remete. In January 2006 she studied at the Krishnamacharya Yoga Mandiram in Chennai, India founded by T.K.V Desikachar.

Jody is known to put students at ease with her wry sense of humor and acceptance of all skill levels and body types, and encourages folks to use all the yoga tools available to them, not only the physical (asana) part of yoga, but chanting, breath work and meditation. She teaches Friday seminars, Teaching Methodology, Anatomy 2 and on-going classes. Jody is the co-director of the Yoga Shala.

Chase Bossart
Chase Bossart is a student of Mr. TKV Desikachar and a KHYF Certified Teacher Trainer. Chase holds a M.A. in Religious Studies from UC Santa Barbara where he wrote his thesis on Patanjali's Yogasutra, and he is on the faculty at Loyola Marymount University’s Yoga Therapy Rx Program. Chase currently resides and teaches in San Francisco as part of the Healing Yoga Foundation – www.HealingYoga.org.

Kate Fine
Unlike many of my fellow teachers and practitioners I was not athletic as a child or young adult, did not dance (two left feet doesn’t even to begin to describe my skill level in this area!), and don’t have a martial art to my name. Somehow, however, yoga had always seemed intriguing.

I finally started to explore yoga at my health club in my late forties, looking for some type of physical activity that did not involve bouncing about to loud, annoying music, and for some relief from chronic pain. For years I fiddled around “doing” yoga off-and-on. I studied with Matt Huish after moving to Portland, and, with his expert guidance, began to practice more consistently and develop a personal practice which continues to sustain me in all dimensions of life. I began teacher training a few months before my fiftieth birthday, which included apprenticeship with Jody Kurilla; and have been blessed with the opportunity to teach at the Yoga Shala this year.

Workshops with visiting teachers, including Shandor Remete, Srivatsa Ramaswami, Sonia Nelson, and others, continue to enrich my growth as a practitioner and teacher. It is my hope to share the many blessings of yoga with others, encouraging and empowering them to step beyond their perceived limitations.

My yoga teaching endeavors combine with my life as a busy “householder”: speech pathologist working with young children, enthusiastic if rather novice gardener, “mom” of 2-plus cats, to keep me busy and off the streets. I am profoundly grateful to all my teachers, especially to Matt, Jody, and Bhushunda the Long-Lived Crow.

Wendy Hambridge
Wendy Hambidge is a certified Body-Mind Centering® Practitioner/ Somatic Movement Therapist who is an assistant in the Embodied Anatomy and Yoga program with BMC founder Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen. Her love to move drives her to continuously investigate the body and its potential, whether it be dance, yoga, snowboarding, windsurfing, or hiking. She is deeply curious and loves nature.

This year marks Wendy’s 37th year of practicing the Transcendental Meditation Technique and TM Sidhi Program. In 1983 she received her MFA in choreography and performance from Case Western University. She actively created dance art from 1983-2001. In 1990 Wendy was introduced to Body-Mind Centering® and became a Body-Mind Centering® Practitioner in 2006. In 2008 she was certified in Infant Development Movement Education.

Wendy believes in the inherent intelligence of the body, its ability to know itself and to heal. Body-Mind Centering® is an integrated approach to transformative experience through movement re-education and hands on repatterning. Developed by Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen, it is an experiential study based on embodiment and application of anatomical, physiological, psychophysical and developmental principles, utilizing movement touch, voice and mind.

Leslie Kaminoff
Leslie Kaminoff is a yoga educator inspired by the tradition of T.K.V. Desikachar. He is an Internationally recognized specialist with thirty years’ experience in the fields of yoga, breath anatomy and bodywork. He has led workshops for many of the leading yoga associations, schools and training programs in America. He has also helped organize international yoga conferences while serving as Vice-President of Unity in Yoga, and has actively participated in the ongoing national debate regarding regulation and certification standards for yoga educators.

Leslie currently teaches in New York City and Great Barrington, Massachusetts. He is the founder of the yoga blog, “e-Sutra,” and “The Breathing Project,” an educational non-profit in New York City dedicated to the teaching of individualized, breath-centered yoga. Leslie teaches The Breathing Project's unique year-long course in yoga anatomy, and is the co-author, with Amy Matthews, of the bestselling book, “Yoga Anatomy” published by Human Kinetics.

Sonia Nelson
(coming soon)

Nandini Ranganathan
I began practicing yoga as a child in Madras, India, with my mother, Lakshmi Ranganathan, a yoga teacher and therapist. I took classes throughout my childhood (sometimes voluntarily) with several of her colleagues, all early students of Sri T.K.V.Desikachar. My interest in yoga deepened when I studied for a few years (in the 1980s) with Sri. T.K.V. Desikachar who has had an inestimable influence upon my study of yoga. His teachings form the foundation of my practice today. Since coming to the US in 1990, I have continued to pursue my yoga studies independently sustaining my practice through many conversations with my mother and occasional visits to teachers in India. Since 2005 I have been studying at the Yoga Shala in Portland, recently completing a teacher training program there. I have been extremely fortunate to have so many dedicated teachers who continue to guide my efforts toward a deeper understanding of this profound philosophy. From all of my teachers, I have gained a deep respect and appreciation for the teachings of Sri. T. Krishnamacharya whose words inspire my study and practice of yoga.

Lita Batho (adjunct)
Lita began practicing yoga in 1994, and has been teaching in Portland since 2000. Since first meeting Zhander Ramete in 2002, her focus has shifted from Astanga and Vinyasa yoga to the Shadow Yoga School, and she is glad to be a part of the Shadow Yoga program at the North Williams Yoga Shala.

Previously, Lita lived and practiced in Seattle, Washington for several years. Her interests led her to live and work at the Omega Institute in Rhinebeck New York intermittently for 2 years, where she received her first teaching certification, but more importantly had an opportunity to study with many international teachers and practice with a unique group of fellow practitioners. She subsequently completed an extensive teacher training with Kathleen Hunt in Seattle (1999) at Samadhi Yoga, which encompassed study of asana, classic texts, physiology, and Sanskrit. Lita is currently committed to a sequence of training with Zhander Ramete and Emma Balnaves.

Lita’s daily practice and continuing study supports her intention of maintaining the integrity of the practice and assisting students to find the most appropriate activities for their lives and selves. She loves to teach and is grateful for the good fortune of having wise and experienced teachers and the ability to spend her days engaged with her students and yoga practice.

Char Rice (adjunct)
Char has been studying yoga since 1999 and teaching since 2002. She completed teacher training programs with Theresa Elliott at The Yoga Tree in Seattle and with Matt Huish at The Yoga Shala of Portland. She continues her yoga studies with Zhander Remete, the founder of Shadow Yoga.

Char teaches a vinyasa style class that encourages a deeper understanding of the self through the Hatha yoga practice. She approaches teaching in a gentle yet challenging way, focusing on building equanimity of the mind, balance in the body in a meditative environment. Char understands that we are all students in this life and she teaches from a place of compassion, meeting each student wherever they are on their path.