Casa London Magazine #5 // August - October 2017 | Page 23

they recently teamed up with Pelee Island Winery to do a wine and yoga night complete with live music, wine, and yoga

wanted to collaborate and do a couple of workshops together.

After a few successful workshops the pair soon found themselves discussing founding a school together! They ran a few day retreats, frantically wrote their curriculum, and got their approvals within a week. After such an electric start to the school, they have continued to grow and expand and are now coming up on their third year in business!

They have been very active in trying to build partnerships with other businesses and within the community. For example, they recently teamed up with Pelee Island Winery to do a wine and yoga night complete with live music, wine, and yoga. (Sounds like a pretty good party to us!)

Michelle and Valerie are both believers in experiential learning and encourage their students to find their own twist of yoga.

Michelle: We are real sticklers for the proper foundation and philosophies of yoga and know that everyone comes to yoga for their own reasons. The personality of each individual will take on

the traditions and practices of yoga and offer it up as something that is their own.

That’s what we do with our students, we build on their interpretation of yoga.

Experiential learning

They both love what they do, they talk about their work with an infectious joy and energy.

Valerie: A lot of people have said to me that they don’t think they can be a teacher because they can’t do all the really complicated poses. But I really think it is about what is in your heart and your prowess, because to be the teacher is all about just communicating and just having compassion for the people you are teaching and regarding it as a gift.

Whilst they obviously focus on making sure their students are well versed in the fundamentals of yoga and alignment inside postures, they want everyone to feel that with practice, they can make yoga feel their own and truly express themselves through it.

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