YOGA HOUSECALLS
Mary Aranas has practiced Yoga since 1996, and has studied in styles from Iyengar to Ashtanga and much between. Mary completed her Yoga Alliance 500-hour certification in ISHTA Yoga in 2002, at Be Yoga, and has taught full-time since, extensively in private practice and in group classes of all levels from Vinyasa to Restorative. Born in Taipei and growing up in Canada, Mary is a New York City actress, wife, mother, and Christian healing prayer minister. She comes from a dance and martial arts background, and supports a strong practice. However, students most often mention a healing quality in her voice and touch. Weekly with her students, Mary likes to explore a yogic theme for life and practice, woven through Asana, Pranayama, Mantra, Yantra, and meditation. Favorite theme cycles include the seven Chakras, the eight limbs of Yoga, and excerpted verses from the Yoga Sutras. In 2007-08 Mary began training in AcroYoga®, a discipline combining Partner Yoga, Thai Massage, and Acrobatics. She received her AcroYoga® certification in Santa Barbara in August 2008.
Mary is pleased to present to you her teacher team for Yoga Housecalls, a teacher referral service that matches Yoga students with their personal Yoga teacher. Please browse, and contact me to connect.
*ISHTA=“Individual” in Sanskrit: “The Integrated Science of Hatha, Tantra, and Ayurveda” founded by Mani and Alan Finger. www.ishtayoga.com
Marie-Ange Aimon, RYT
Marie-Ange Aimon discovered yoga in 1998 while living in Hong Kong when she was looking for a way to de-stress and take her mind away from her day job in a financial corporation & her body from her physical activities of hiking, running & Pilates.
After 10 years in corporate training, life events & her passion for the practice led her to complete the 500-hour teacher certification at YogaWorks in New York. She is inspired by the teachings from the likes of Alan Finger, Srivatsa Ramaswami, Mark Whitwell, and is thankful for the opportunity to continue studies through the wealth of amazing teachers living in or coming to New York City.
She believes that each student is unique, and therefore one’s practice should also be unique. As a teacher, her role is to introduce students to the different aspects of Yoga (Asana, Pranayama, Meditation, Chanting…) and guide them through finding a safe practice while preparing them to take responsibility for their own practice and ultimately “fly on their own”. She is a student of Ayurveda, the “Science of Longevity”, adding suggestions on Yogic lifestyle choices to on-the-mat practice.
Marie-Ange offers a well-rounded practice with attention to physical alignment while focusing the breath and the mind as the key to finding harmony and bliss on and off the mat.
She currently teaches at YogaWorks, Destination Maternity, and privately - she is particularly dedicated to working with beginner students, mothers-to-be and those with specific needs.
Steven Cheng, RYT
Steven Cheng completed his certification in Dharma Mittra Yoga in July 2005 and has been teaching privately and group classes since the beginning of 2006. His primary career is in the fashion industry, and teaching yoga balances the two opposites of his life. Yoga translates as union, and his is the living and breathing fusion of the opposites.
You can find Steven at The New York Health and Racquet Club, Boom Fitness, both in NYC, and Club Aqua at The Beacon in Jersey City.
Steven's personal style is free-form vinyasa with pieces of Dharma Mittra's signatures. Lessons are usually dynamic and energetic with lots of heat building. However, his broad experience will lend itself easily to design a quiet and slow-moving practice as requested.
Yoga, in the classical sense, aims to encourage the yogi's body to blossom and transform with time and practice. Although alignment is the foundation to any yoga practice, perfection is not the absolute goal of Steven's teaching. A healthy form and a radiant spirit is what he exudes and what he ultimately promotes. Therefore, he works toward proper form, while having lots of fun and achieving a greater sense of well-being along the way. You will often hear him say that his role is to act as a guide, offering possibilities, but the journey is that of the practicing yogi's. The final destination is a personal one.
Paul Keoni Chun, ERYT
Paul Keoni Chun enjoys parallel careers teaching yoga and working as an actor. He was born and raised in Honolulu, HI. He graduated from Stanford University with a B.A. in Human Biology. He has studied gymnastics, dance, and yoga with deep passion during much of his teenage and adult life. Over the last 12 years, he has had the great pleasure of passing on these three movement arts by teaching them to students of all abilities and ages (2 to 80+). He is an Experienced Registered Yoga Teacher with Yoga Alliance. He received a 200 hour Vinyasa Yoga Teaching Certificate from Sonic Yoga, NYC and a 20 hour Relax and Renew Restorative Yoga certificate with Judith Lasater. Currently, he teaches yoga to adult students at varying levels and stages in life at New York Health and Racquet Clubs, Manhattan Plaza Health Club, Club H, River Place Sports Club, and Ballet Arts. He has learned and incorporated yoga sequences in his teaching to help people with scoliosis. In addition, he works currently with teenagers with various special needs, ranging from Autism to A.D.H.D. to Cerebral Palsy. He credits yoga for helping him to heal from physical injuries endured while dancing and doing gymnastics and for helping him to open up the channels of energy and awareness deep in his core to make his acting work come alive! Keoni is deeply indebted to the wisdom of the yoga philosophy for guiding him to take right action in every aspect of life.
Anna Dioguardi, RYT
Anna Dioguardi's classes infuse breath with movement in an invigorating and transforming way. Anna believes that the vibration of sound and the movement of Yoga asanas can invite miracles into all of our lives. Trained at the 500 hour level at YogaWorks, Anna has also taken advanced level studies with Beryl Bender Birch at The Hard and the Soft Yoga Institute. She includes nada (sound) yoga and bhakti (devotion) yoga in her classes. She continues her own study under the guidance of Alan Finger, Jean Koerner and Beryl Bender Birch and also continues to deepen her learning from her Spinone puppy dog, Luna! While studying with her, Anna will give you the permission to be who you are, the alignment principles to practice safely and effectively and the inspiration and joy for yoga to keep you coming back for more.
Anna's strengths are vigorous vinyasa, restorative and any person who needs a lot of TLC. She is patient and likes to give the client room to breathe and explore. She is willing to put in some time to research special needs for the client.
Alexander Gish, RYT
Alexander Gish
My career as a yoga teacher actually began in Dance. In 1999, I received my MFA in Dance from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, where I was first introduced to somatic forms of movement, studying Pilates with Kathy Grant, and Anatomy and Kinesiology with Andre Bernard, both pioneers in their respective fields. Upon graduating, I immediately began teaching in the Dance Department at NYU. My performing career has included working with numerous New York based dance companies, among them, Mark Dendy Dance and Theater, Keigwin/Co., Brian Brooks Moving Company, and The Metropolitan Opera Ballet. Since 1999, I have taught at several universities and festivals throughout the US including Montclair State University, Washington University in St. Louis, The American Dance Festival, Santa Barbara Summerdance, The University of Colorado, Boulder, Towson State University, and The George Washington University. From 2003-2005, I taught full time at The University of Maryland, College Park.
During 8 years of professional dancing and teaching, yoga is how I managed my own injuries and stayed fit for the rigors of performing. Asana frequently appeared in my dance technique classes. As I became more acquainted with the deeper areas of yoga beyond just asana (including pranayama and yogic philosophy), I realized that I had found a way of enriching all aspects of myself, body, mind and spirit. This was immediately more interesting to me than dance! In May of 2005, I moved back to NYC and began teaching yoga full time. I currently teach at YogaWorks, Practice Yoga, Club H Fitness, and privately.
I am a Yoga Alliance recognized Registered Yoga Instructor through Be Yoga in New York. Combined with my study of Thai Yoga Massage with Jonas Westring, and continued anatomical studies with Tom Myers, I offer my students an eclectic and integrated way to transform all aspects of the self.
Maddalena Maresca, RYT
Maddalena Maresca has been practicing yoga for 20 years. Her first Hatha Yoga teacher from Peru introduced her to the Sivananda school. Most recently she has completed the Yoga Works 500 Hour Certification under the guidance of Jenny Aurthur, Yogiraj Alan Finger, Jean Koerner and Jodie Rufty and also studies with Mary Dunn (Iyengar Institute). She is most influenced by the intelligence and alignment of Iyengar yoga and the breath and flow of Ashtanga. Her students typify her classes as: "the most effective class I have taken", student, 92 St. Y; "caring, patient, with lots of love", student, YogaWorks; "inspiring", student, NY Sports Club. Her passions include theater (she is the co-founder of The Green Sea Theatre Company. Recent work received critical acclaim in "The Village Voice" and "am New York") and coaching (personal and leadership coaching with The Coaches Training Institute and International Coach Federation). Maddalena is inspired by self-expression and spirituality and how to infuse this joy and freedom into all areas of one's life.
Will Nagel, RYT
Will Nagel Growing up in the 1970’s with a free-spirited folk singer mom, Will never strayed far from the performing arts or Yoga. He has been a musician, worked for years in artistic management and music and dance publicity, been a string orchestra teacher, chamber musician, private cello instructor, cook, translator, and event manager. A common theme has been teaching and communicating. In addition to Yoga, Will teaches ESL and American Cultural Language at Parsons, The New School for Design.
Will received a Master of Music in Cello Performance degree at Brooklyn College under the mentorship of cellist Marion Feldman, and studied Music History and German language in Berlin. As an undergraduate, he studied ethnomusicology and cello with fieldwork and research in India, where he has since returned again and again, to deepen his studies with his Yoga gurus and mentors.
As a teenager Will studied Yoga Nidra and Meditation with Swami Dharmakeerti Saraswati, in the tradition of her guru Swami Satyananda Saraswati. She helped Will to find his path at the age of 20 to the feet of his guru, Yogi Ram Surat Kumar. She continues to be a mentor, guide and friend.
Will teaches at the Dharma Yoga Center in New York, where he received his RYT 200 Teacher Training in Feb. 2007, and now assists in teacher training. Will has also joined the faculty at Om Factory in New York. Will’s teaching style focuses on Energy and Awareness and keeping a smile in the effort. He loves sharing his passion for the inner and outer strength he has discovered lies within us when we explore ourselves in Yoga. Will loves to be upside down and is a devoted student of Sri Dharma Mittra with whom he keeps up “his chops” in Dharma's rocking two-hour noon Master Classes.
Havilah Stewart Mann, RYT
Havilah Stewart Mann has practiced yoga for over ten years and is a 500 Hour certified yoga teacher. In addition to being a yoga teacher, Havilah is also a CPA and a marathon runner. Her mixed background helps her design classes that develop balance, strength, flexibility, clarity of mind and presence through thoughtful questioning, gentle encouragement and challenging movement. Havilah believes that yoga is the science of self awareness. While we cannot always control our environment, we can affect how we interact with it. Yoga helps us to become the observer, first of our breath, then of our body, and then of our thoughts. It is our connection with the present that cultivates clarity and calm in both mind and body.
Watch for Bio & Photo for:
Irina Ovsiannikov, RYT
Yoga Your Way ~ your time, your place, your guru. Your personal needs, your pace.
The original guru-student relationship was one-on-one, a direct transmission of Yoga. I proudly present Team Yoga Housecalls, a group of dedicated yoga teachers partnering with me to provide you a customized practice for your unique needs, in your home. My Team Housecalls learns together, supports each other and supplies vacation subs when needed. Give yourself the gift of a personal teacher with a backup team. Or give a deserving friend or colleague a 4-pack to start them off on their yoga practice of a lifetime!
YOGA HOUSECALLS ~ TEACHER TEAM
Teacher:
Mary Aranas
RYT 500 ISHTA certified 2002;
AcroYoga® 2008
Teacher/Owner
Mary Aranas
Yoga Housecalls
Availability:
Weekdays, by appointment
