Ashtanga Yoga

My Sanskrit teacher Zoë taught Ashtanga Yoga and Sanskrit for more than 20 years in New York and Sanskrit online. Her website also contains many chants and interesting articles as well as blogs.

Since she finished her Ph.D. in Sanskrit, she is teaching at the Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles and also continues to teach Sanskrit online via the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies.

I came across Zoë through her book, which I found fascinating, but also intimidating. When she started her online courses in 2018, I was very happy to join in. Since then, I have also started to take private classes with her online, to deepen my (slow) understanding of Sanskrit and as a supervisor for my baby steps in passing Sanskrit on.

In the Private classes, we also from time to time deviate to the topic of Ashtanga Yoga. So if I mention her here, it is mainly in her capacity as my Sanskrit teacher, but she also has given me valid advice concerning the asana practice. 

My first Ashtanga teacher was Ursula Cox, starting with private lessons in January 2008 at Balance Yoga in Frankfurt.

I can still remember that my first question to her was, whether at 49 years of age I was too old for Ashtanga – well, 12 years later, what can I say…

These days, Ursula is teaching in Virginia, North Carolina, USA.

The six months of regular Mysore classes with Chris Braun in Bornheim were an important step in my development to become a teacher. On the one hand, I started a regular Mysore practice with him, and on the other hand, at his place, I met Olivia Martinez, who not only inspired me to significantly intensify my practice, but also nudged me in the direction of considering to teach. Chris continues to teach in Frankfurt.

Gibran Gonzalez is probably the teacher who  helped me over the longest period in time, beginning in 2010  at the Private Yoga Institute in Frankfurt. He was very patient with me, and I have learnt a lot from him.

When I had my last contact with him in the Corona summer of 2020, he was in Spain, on his way back to his home country of Mexico.
Gibran has a 2nd level authorization by Sharath. He continues to work as a travelling teacher and has no website of his own. You can reach him via shivranji (at) gmail.com.

I met Rachel Grey at a retreat at Samahita on Koh Samui. She gave two workshops at my studio and was one of the guest teachers at the Private Yoga Institute in Frankfurt for one or two years.

These days, Rachel is teaching in Chiang Mai in Thailand. She has an interesting channel on Youtube “Yoga with Rachel Grey”.

In 2003, Paul Dallaghan and his ex-wife founded Yoga Thailand, now Samahita Retreat, on Koh Samui. I got to know and respect him at one of his well-known 4-week teacher trainings that I took with him and his team in 2010.

I am especially grateful to Paul in that he introduced me to the pranayama in the tradition of Sri O.P. Tiwari. The continued education in this style of Pranayama has brought me back to Samahita almost every year since 2010.

Paul is currently finishing his doctoral thesis on the topic of pranayama at  Emory University in Atlanta. He is one of the few who manage to combine the academic world and the world of yoga. This is a common trait with my Sanskrit teacher Zoë Slatoff – and it is perhaps no coincidence that both met for the first time in the middle of the Nineties at their respective first teacher training.

Paul has been certified by Patthabi Jois.

The website of Germany’s probably best known Ashtangi, Ronald Steiner, has a trove of interesting information, on the exact practice of the first three series of Ashtanga Yoga, yoga therapy and also on yoga philosophy.

Ronald  also regularly teaches workshops in Frankfurt at the Private Yoga Institute, and over the years I have also participated in a number of them, also on yoga therapy.

Petri teaches yoga (at least in my experience) primarily through the touch and through his charisma. One can feel that he also worked as a Finnish folk healer.

His two books on Ashtanga Yoga that he wrote in close coordination with Patthabi Jois and Sharath Jois are amongst my favourite books.

I met Petri for the first time at Balance Yoga in Frankfurt and visited other workshops with him with Chris Braun, later at the Private Yoga Institute and a few times also in Sweden.

I would also like to mention Petri’s wife Wambui, with whom he has two sons. In the meantime, Wambui is also teaching side by side with Petri.

David Swenson’s teacher training was the first one that I attended – more out of coincidence, already 10 months after beginning to practice. At the end of the training, I promised myself to never ever start teaching… Well, a little bit more than two years later (having attended two more workshops with him) I also took part in his teacher training for the Intermediate series (“The next step”), at minus 20 centrigrade in Edinburgh, Great Britain, again too early to teach something that I myself had not integrated in my own practice. Nevertheless, many adjustments that I offer in the Intermediate Series have been taught to me by him.

I still remember his answer to a question that I asked in quite a big workshop in Paris: “Do you have some advice on how in a led class one can bind the legs faster behind the head in Supta Kurmasana?” His answer was perfect: “Do you think that this will make you a better person?”

Marla Meenakshi and Ron Reid from Toronto have in the past offered  a workshop in Paris once per year at the studio of Linda and Gerald. They are not “traditional” Ashtanga teachers,  but still I have learnt a lot from them about the finer aspects of the individual asanas. Marla has also worked as a Shiatsu practitioner, and one can feel that clearly in her touch.

David Keil has been a student of John Scott for many years. He is also a well-trained physiotherapist and as such has a clear focus on anatomy.

His website is a trove for good tips and teaching videos (also concerning the topic of “safe adjustments”, highly recommendable). He is also author of the excellent book “Functional Anatomy of Yoga“.

He  teaches in Miami, Florida, USA, around the United States and in Europe.

I met him also at the teacher training of John Scott and Lucy Crawford Scott.

I saw Anne first as a co-practitioner at a workshop with Sharath in Helsinki. Then she taught for a short while as a guest teacher at the Private Yoga Institute.

Anne Nuotio in my experience is a precise, strict and direct teacher with a lot of experience. At some early point, she stopped me from doing the 2^nd series, because she did not think that I was ready for it. She certainly was right – actually, I still don’t feel ready for it 10 years later.

Scott Johnson is also a student of John Scott. He has been teaching in London for many years, and is increasingly teaching throughout England as well as internationally. He  also offers a lot of interesting material, in blogs as well as in podcasts.

Together with Greg Nardi and other teachers, mainly from the United Kingdom, he has founded Amaya, an ashtanga association based on ethical principles.  It also serves as an international place for continued education.

Over the years I have participated in Scott’s Mysore classes in London a few times.

Hamish Hendry  teaches in London – in a totally normal flat. You start your practice in one room, and when a place becomes available in the living room, you move there. For the finishing sequence, you return to the guest room.

Hamish is an immensely experienced and at the same time very modest teacher – unfortunately,, I have had only once the chance to practice with him so far.

Hamish has also written a beautiful little booklet about yoga philosophy, and he is the editor of the magazine Pushpam (well – since the last edition came out in 2015, it would probably be more precise to say “has been the editor”).

Clayton Horton is an American, but he has been living in Asia for a long time. He has been practicing for more than 30 years, and teaching for almost 25 years. He is one of the few practitioners certified by Sharath.

Clayton Horton is also one of the international teachers who in the past came regularly to the Private Yoga Institute. There I participated in several workshops with him. At least back then, he would never travel without his guitar.

Kathy Cooper has been practicing Ashtanga Yoga since 1976 – her main teachers are Nancy Gilgoff and David Williams (who in 1974 brought Patthabi and Manju Jois to the United States). She splits her time between Sri Lanka and the United States – and, if possible, she also teaches in Europe when traveling back and forth.

I met her at a workshop at the Private Yoga Institute in Frankfurt.

Matthew Sweeney was the first international teacher with whom I attended a workshop – in May 2008 in Frankfurt.  I haven’t had any more contact with him since then. Nevertheless, I have not forgotten his answer to my totally naïve question 5 months after beginning my Ashtanga practice: „Matthew, do you have some advice, what I can do to improve my practice?“ „Well, Matthias, practice – and all will be coming.“

Matthew is no Ashtangi in the strict sense of the word. He has also developed some personal sequences, for instance the moon sequence, for the practice during the moon days. 

From this one contact I found him refreshing, and honest: ”I would never have thought that one can make a living by teaching yoga internationally.“

These days, he is teaching in Bali.

After the death of Pattabhi Jois in 2009, R. Sharath Jois (1971 – 2024) was regarded by many as the lineage holder, or the official successor to Pattabhi Jois.

He ran his own yoga center, the Sharath Yoga Centre, in a suburb of Mysuru (formerly known as Mysore), which was regularly visited by many Ashtanga practitioners (and teachers) from around the world. Sharath also taught internationally.

His grandfather, Pattabhi Jois, had taught Sharath all six series of Ashtanga Yoga. Additionally, Sharath assisted him for decades, both at KPJAYI in Mysuru (formerly Mysore) and internationally.

I practiced with Sharath only once, in Helsinki, at a week-long workshop in August 2009, just a few months after Pattabhi Jois’s death.

Sharath passed away during a teaching tour in the United States, while on a hike, likely due to a heart attack. His untimely death (he was only 53 years old) is mourned by the Ashtanga community worldwide. He is survived by his wife and two children.

Sea of Yoga is Gudrun Seyler’s studio. I met Gudrun via Greg’s workshops at my place.

She has been practicing Ashtanga Yoga since 2011. She did her teacher training with a student of Beate Guttandin. Her interest encompasses also yoga philosophy and Sanskrit.

Grisha Steffin is a student of Richard Freeman – and because of this, I had the pleasure of meeting Richard once in Berlin, outside of Grisha’s former shala, despite nearly 100 participants.

Grisha recently moved his shala to the Prenzlauer Berg.

Saskia Rand was one of the co-practitioners at the Private Yoga Institute – and before that also at the Balance Institute and with Chris Braun. She has been living in Berlin since 2018, where she offers private classes for individuals and groups. She has regularly practiced with Sharath in Mysuru (Mysore), and a few years ago received his authorization to teach the Primary and Intermediate Series.

Sonia Kirchner, the owner and director of Pure Yoga, is also an acquaintance from the time in the Mysore classes at the Private Yoga Institute. She has studied intensively with Dr. Ronald Steiner, and she teaches Ashtanga Yoga Innovation in his style.

Chris Braun, the owner and director of Ashtanga Raum Frankfurt in Bornheim, has been practicing and teaching Ashtanga since 2005, longer than any other resident teacher in Frankfurt.

I took Mysore classes with him from middle of 2009 to early 2010 and also participated  in a few workshops. At his place, I met Olivia Martinez – and she was the reason for then changing to the Private Yoga Institute, where she started to teach the Mysore programme.

For a long time, the Private Yoga Institute was my home base for my (almost) daily Mysore practice. Jutta Gonder founded it in 2009, and over the years has been bringing many authorized Ashtanga teachers as guest teachers as well as for workshops to Frankfurt.

I am also grateful to Jutta that I could make my first experiences in teaching in the Mysore style at her studio. Also my participation in two of her teacher trainings were a lot of fun and helped me develop my teaching skills further.

Inke Shenar has been practicing Ashtanga since 2000. She is a Level 1 authorized by Sharath Jois, and she has also done the teacher training with John Scott. She is the author of two books, one as an introduction to Ashtanga Yoga (in my opinion the best that exists in German) and one about yoga during pregnancy.

She is also teaching pranayama in the tradition of Sri O.P. Tiwari.

Inke Shenar and I have never met in person – I only once visited a workshop with Ron Steiner at her studio.

Antje Gruber is the owner of Jivamukti München. We had only a short contact by telephone, when I was checking out different air refreshers for my shala. During the conversation, she mentioned that her studio is also offering Mysore classes, and she immediately agreed with me linking her studio on my website.

The main teacher for the Mysore classes is Manfred Gauper, originally from Austria. He also is one of John Scott’s students, and he mentions Chuck Miller and Maty Ezraty (who passed away in 2019) as his two other important teachers.

Kristine Sandkühler-Mensch, the owner and director of Simply Ashtanga, has been practicing  yoga since 2001 and Ashtanga Yoga since 2008. Initially, she taught in Florida, USA, and now for many years close to Stuttgart.

Kristine was the first host for Greg Nardi here in Germany. She and I met through the contact to Greg – and we are also in a regular exchange.

Jeannine Heller, the owner and director of the Daily Ashtanga studio, has been practicing Ashtanga since 2007. She opened her studio in 2017. She teaches according to the AYInnovation method, developed by Ronald Steiner based on Ashtanga Yoga.

Ashtanga Yoga London has been run for many years by Hamish Henry – he has been practicing since 1995 In 2001 he received certification by Patthabi Jois, which makes him the most experienced teacher in London.

The Helsinki Ashtanga Yoga School was founded in 1997 by Juha Javanainen and Petri Räisänen. Today it has 5 studios in Helsinki. Juha and Petri have retired from „daily“ business.

I participated in Mysore classes there in 2009 in July and in December, with a lot of joy. Funny, how the brain works: I can still remember how a teacher there brought for the first time for me both feet behind my back in Supta Kurmasana, and how I was so frightened that I screamed out loud. The teacher thought that he had injured me, and also became frightened – but it had only been out of surprise how easy that had been.

Vanessa Brouillet is operating three yoga studios in Aix-en-Provence, Marseille and Paris, where she is offering different yoga styles, workshops and other events. The Ashtanga classes are usually led classes. She and other teachers  offer a week of Mysore from time to time.

Vanessa and I  met in 2009 at a workshop with Sharath in Helsinki and have stayed in touch more or less intensively since then.

Kia Naddermier, the owner and main teacher, teaches Mysore, Pranayama and workshops, also internationally. She has been practicing Ashtanga for more than 25 years and is a student of John Scott (for Ashtanga) and Sri O.P. Tiwari (for pranayama).

R. Sharath Jois has established his own yoga center, the Sharath Yoga Centrein  2018 in a suburb of Mysuru (used to be called Mysore) It  welcomes all practitioners of Ashtanga who have practiced for at least two to three months with a teacher authorized by Sharath.

The Kaivalyadhama Institute was founded  in 1924 by Swami Kuvalayananda, with the goal to investigate yoga  from a scientific point of view. Today it is one of the leading institutes for education and research on yoga, and has a huge collection of old manuscripts.

One of the directors is Sri O.P. Tiwari, a leading expert on pranayama.

The Kaivalyadhama Institute  workshops and trainings for Indians as well as for foreigners. It  also operates branches in Japan, the US and China.

Strictly speaking, it does not belong on this link page, as it does not offer Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga. But it is one of the leading authorities on yoga in general – and the „home“ for the pranayama tradition that I offer.

Annette Hartwig and Daniel Schudt founded Yoga Bija in 2010 in Portugal, as a center for retreats, workshops and as a nice place for a yoga holiday. 

Annette has been practicing since 1997 and she has been teaching for almost the same amount of time. Her main teacher is Dena Kingsberg.

I  met Annette at a workshop with Dena and Jack in Purple Valley in 2011 where Annette was assisting them,.

At Balance Yoga, about 20 minutes by car outside of Göteborg, I visited a number of workshops – with Kino MacGregor, Petri Räisänen and Tim Feldmann.

Unfortunately, due to the Corona pandemic, the beautiful studio had to close during the summer of 2020. Annika Lundberg is, under the logo Balansyoga Annika Lundberg, establishing a new presence, probably in cooperation with an existing studio.

YogaDevi has two locations in Stockholm and one in Järfälla. 2 1/2 years into the Covid pandemic, they seem to be the only one in Stockholm to offer early morning Mysore. The owner, AnnSophie Sjöblom, is very kind and welcoming. Her adjustments are both gentle and helpful.

She works with several international teachers – as Petri Räisänen had just given a workshop at one of her shalas, his energy was very present. 

Andrea Panzer is authorised by Sharath to teach the 1st and 2nd Series. She used to teach in Memmingen.These days she  offers Mysore Intensives, yoga retreats and other workshops in Andalusia, Spain, together with her partner Govinda, a musician.

I know Andrea only from an email exchange and because I have her information material on display in the studio. Two yoginis who regularly join me for constellation work are her students.

Andrea is one of the most experienced German Ashtanga teachers.

Grassroot Yoga was founded by my Ashtanga teacher Greg Nardi together with Amanda Palermo. Due to the corona pandemic, Grassroot Yoga currently offers mainly online Mysore classes, workshops and courses following the principles of Amāyu.

Amanda was introduced to Ashtanga Yoga in 1995, and she has been practicing continously since about 20 years. Since 2016, she has been teaching together with Greg.

Greg has been practicing Yoga since 1996 and teaching for more than 20 years, in the US and internationally. He is a 500 hr E-RYT with yoga alliance. He studied extensively with Sri K. Patthabi Jois and Sharath Jois. Recently, he returned his level-2 authorization at KPJAYI and is now focussing on building a practitioner-centered teacher education programme at Amāyu.

Miami Life Centre was founded in 2006, by Kino MacGregor, Tim Feldmann, Greg Nardi and others.

I have visited some workshops there both with Kino and Tim as well as with Tim on his own.

For me personally, the Outerbanks are one of the nicest areas in the US. They area 180 mile long chain of islands along the coast of North CarolinIn the most northern part, there is a very beautiful yoga studio, owned and operated by Michelle Dorer since 2005. Michelle is a student of Tim Miller.

Fortunately, David Garrigues used to offer workshops there, and I spent wonderful days there.

Samahita was founded in 2003 by Paul Dallaghan and his former wife. It is on the one hand known for the international yoga teacher trainings (the one that I participated in in 2010 had participants from 28 different countries), as well as for workshops offered there by Paul, Sri O.P. Tiwari and international teachers. In addition, one can just go there for a “yoga vacation” – or enjoy their wellness programme.

David Williams is a key figure for the entire Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga, since without him it might possibly never have made its way to the Western world. On his search for “real yoga, in 1972, he  saw Manju Jois practicing Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga on the beach in Pondicherri, Tamil Nadhu, India by coincidence. Manju refused to teach him and sent him to his father in Mysore. Well – you know the rest, if you read that far on my website 🙂.

David was born in 1949 and he has almost completely  stopped teaching. He has written an autobiography and designed a poster with all the postures of the Ashtanga Yoga system, which can both be bought from him. Once the current editions are sold out, that is it, he wrote to me. And if one lives in Germany, one has to have the poster sent to a neighbouring country, because it is one inch too long for the German mail service.

Under the title of Ashtanga Dispatch, Peg Mulqueen and her daughter Meghan Powell are offering workshops, blogs and in the meantime also loads of podcasts – initially by ashtanga teachers who are well known internationally, in the meantime (they at no. 51 by July 2020) also on more general issues.

Peg and I met twice, when she was studying with David Garrigues in 2014.

Eddie Stern is one of the most prominent Ashtanga yogis in the US and worldwide. He teaches in the US and internationally. In addition, he regularly turns up on TV, organizes workshops and in 2019 published a small, but very fine book on yoga in general and its effects: “One simple thing – A new look at the Science of Yoga and how it can transform your Life.”