Liz Buehler Walker (Co-Owner of Yoga High)
liz@yogahighnyc.com
Liz originally hails from Atlanta, Georgia and completed her Vinyasa Yoga teacher training in 2001 at the legendary East Village Yoga center Bhava Yoga with Peter Rizzo. The passion for Yoga and serving others at Bhava was contagious, and since 2001 Liz has been teaching group and private classes in Brooklyn and Manhattan and loving every minute of it.
In addition to extensive work and study with Peter Rizzo, she has studied with well-known Yoga teachers and many "not so well-known" teachers whom she appreciates and values just as much. She continues to study pranayama and meditation techniques with Alan Finger of the ISHTA lineage.
Liz’s background in modern dance feeds directly into her affinity for Vinyasa Yoga. After completing her dance training at the Ailey School, Liz co-founded Gritty Cherries, Inc, a non-profit dance production company where she continues to serve as Managing Director. Her passion for movement, both energetic and physical, motivates Liz in her teaching. She teaches classes that are deep and dynamic, and she loves the human element that is ever present in teaching and running a Yoga studio. Liz is extremely grateful that she and Mel are able to work in a beautiful space filled with kind people each day. |
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Mel Russo (Co-Owner of Yoga High)
mel@yogahighnyc.com
Originally from NYC, Mel began her love affair with Yoga in 1995 while living in Los Angeles and working as a casting director. She started with a 6 day a week Anusara practice where she first felt the Yoga high that made her so happy. Throughout the years she found more of a connection with the style of Hatha Vinyasa and the teachings of Max Strom.
After moving back to NYC in 2000, she received her certification through the Yoga Alliance in 2004. Mel finds knowledge and inspiration from so many wonderful teachers and continues to study and train under the guidance of Max Strom. It was (and still is) through his ethics, compassion, brilliance and pure goodness that Mel feels she really became the teacher she is now. In 2008 Mel began studying meditation and pranayama with Alan Finger of the ISHTA lineage.
While teaching she loves using music, humor and positive encouragement to help students connect with their intention and feels strongly that being "good at yoga" does not mean being able to do an advanced pose.
Mel dreamed of opening up her own yoga studio for years and feels like the luckiest person in the world to have found Liz to share the dream with and to have found a community of students who make every moment worth it.
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Ani Weinstein
Ani learned her first sun salutations from her mother at age five. Yoga emerged as an integral part of her life twenty years later, and her commitment and joy in practicing and teaching continues to grow. Finding resonance with OM Yoga Center’s Buddhist perspective and flowing, creative practice, she completed the Road to OM teacher training in 2006. Ani is also a dancer and has performed and created work in NYC for the past eight years. She brings her love of movement and ideas into her yoga teaching, searching for creative connections between poses, concepts and people.
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Ari Halbert
My first memories of yoga are from childhood, practicing asana alongside my dad, and watching him sit for long periods every morning to meditate. Although trying to manipulate my body into different shapes amused me, the idea of being able to perceive such intangible things as energy movement or psychic impressions went against the grain of my logic at that time. But the concept was a seed that was planted in me–one that began to bloom over a decade later when I gained an affinity for books on Western Esotericism, and found myself learning yoga postures yet again, but this time under the tutelage of many great LA and New York based yogis.
In my classes I strive to help students explore the inner realms though the forms and expressions of the physical body. I enjoy the intellectual stimulation of exploring the intricacies of precise alignment, and at the same time crave the immense sense of freedom that comes when letting those thoughts go to flow organically from movement to movement. It is my opinion that through the grace of the movements of the physical body, one can imbue the same sense of grace and peace within. As above, so below; as without, so within.
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Julie Torsiello
As a teacher and student of yoga, Julie brings her lust for life with her into every class… and pretty much wherever she goes. You will rarely see her without a smile. Hailing from just across the Hudson River, Julie is an original Jersey Girl. After years of traveling the world and acting on Soaps, Julie found a little slice of Zen back in NYC and in her Yoga practice. She received her yoga training with the ever wonderful and enlightening Jonathan Fields and Lauren Hanna of Sonic Yoga here in the city. They encouraged her to cultivate a balanced practice of both the physical and subtle body. At the end of the day Julie loves doing something healthy both in mind and body, feeling good inside and out and more importantly passing it on.
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Michael McGinley
When the economic downturn curtailed my 20-year career as a creative in publishing, I decided to leave the corporate world for good and pursue a career in Yoga and wellness. In 2009 I earned my teaching certification at Sonic Yoga. Since that time I have been fortunate to be mentored by Mel and Liz and continue my Yoga education with them here at Yoga High.
In addition to yoga, I also have a keen interest in nutrition, clean food and healthy living. I’m currently enrolled at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition. My dream is to combine my passions and pursue a career in the holistic health field. I enjoy teaching an energetic class linking breath with movement to a fun playlist
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Patricia Milder
Patricia started practicing yoga to help rehab a couple of major knee injuries in high school and college. Like a lot of people, the practice was purely physical for her at first, but eventually she discovered how much deeper it could be. Her classes are always challenging, but they feel good – the emphasis is on fluid movement, intelligent alignment, stability, and grace. She trained through a year long private mentorship and apprenticeship with Charles and Lisa Matkin in Garrison, New York, and she holds a 500hour certification from Yoga Alliance. She teaches Yoga Philosophy and History in the Matkin Yoga Teacher Training, and lectures on Ayurveda and other topics at the Yoga High 200hour Teacher Training. She is a 500hour teacher training mentor at Yoga High, where she coaches yoga teachers in some of the more subtle elements of teaching meditation and pranayama. Patricia is also an art and performance writer and she holds an MFA in Art Criticism and Writing from the School of Visual Arts. She’s continually inspired by teaching yoga, which she sees as the challenge of translating experience into explanation.
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Ruth Tranter
Ruth’s initial curiosity towards yoga began as an exploration for something that brought her closer to her true self, and she has found that in yoga. The practice has shown her how to bring clarity and focus into her life through the magical connection of mind, body and spirit. Ruth is honored to share that magic with others through teaching. Ruth finds inspiration from the very simple beauties in life and weaves these into her classes through each breath and each movement. Ruth is thankful to all of her teachers and students whose inspiration and support help move her to deeper levels of knowledge and passion. Yoga is contagious inspiration…
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Sara Hubbs
Sara took her first Vinyasa Yoga class in her native Arizona and immediately knew there was something to it. After years of playing competitive sports (and wear and tear on the body), she was in search of something to unite her desire to move with a sense of camaraderie and community. She not only found what she was looking for, but also soon discovered the range of experience Yoga offered, from the playful to the spiritual. As she gradually made her way out East in pursuit of a career as a visual artist, she dabbled at various studios, until landing at Yoga High, where she was introduced to her practice and her community. Since then Yoga seems to be filling her life, as she finally realized that Yoga isn’t something she has to ‘figure out.’ Sara graduated from Yoga High’s very first 200-hour teacher training with the guidance and inspiration of Mel and Liz, and she is so grateful to them for bringing out her desire to teach.
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Sara Little
Yoga found Sara years ago, while working in Italy: a very enlightened friend introduced her to Warrior II on a Tuscan beach, and that undeniable connection between the physical practice of yoga and learning to live peacefully with yourself became apparent. She returned to the U.S. to finish her degrees in Journalism and Italian at Syracuse University (go Orange!), eventually finding herself in a regular yoga practice. She finally settled in the Lower East Side (you might see her walking Bella, a very large German shepherd around the ‘hood) and became certified to teach through YogaWorks under wonderful senior teachers Chrissy Carter and Jodie Rufty. A lifelong athlete, Sara’s teaching style is heavily influenced by the meditative, fluid movements of Ashtanga yoga. Her vision is to make yoga accessible and enjoyable, and is committed to teaching by the words of Judith Lasater: “Practice can be understood as a willingness to return to the reality of this very moment, to observe with dispassion and clarity exactly what is—right now.”
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