Stacy McDonald (spiritual name Mahan Jiwan) began practicing yoga in 2008 and received her RYT-200 Hatha certification and her 200 hour Kundalini (KRI) certification in 2015.
Her interest in yoga’s effects on the brain recently led her to graduate Magna Cum Laude with a degree in Integrative Psychology.
Her infectious enthusiasm and dedication to fostering self-care instill a sense of vitality and nourishment in each of her classes.
Alex Rodriguez has enjoyed a devoted yoga practice since 2006 and finally took the leap into yoga teacher training in 2019. She believes in the power of breath, mindful movement and simply chilling out and enjoying life. Alex focuses on the restorative and relaxing side of the yoga spectrum, believing that slowing down is key to finding inner peace. She’s also a Thai Massage Bodyworker and loves creating herbal beauty products.
Christina Kaneshige is a former high school science teacher in the Bronx who first discovered vinyasa yoga while balancing two jobs and struggling to survive the frenzy of life in NYC. She found that her yoga practice brought rare stillness in her daily insanity, and from then on, yoga served as both exercise and therapy. Christina escaped to Denver with her husband and daughter in 2017, and completed her 200-hour YTT at Kindness Studio in 2018. She has also obtained her 85-hour prenatal yoga teacher certification through Kristen Boyle’s Coming Into Being training, Matthew Sanford’s Opening Yoga Level I/II training in adaptive yoga, and Devon Sweeney’s The Art of Surrender Yin Yoga teacher training.
Christina believes that yoga should be accessible, safe, empowering, and embracing of every body that comes to their mat. Her style of teaching reflects this by emphasizing alignment in poses and transitions as well as accessing poses with the use of props and other modifications. Christina serves as a guide for her students and what their bodies need, so she informs her instruction based on injury and related contraindications (as well as general areas of needs). Her purpose is to give her students an experience that will only help, not hurt, them in their daily lives and she is very mindful of this as she plans her sequences and shares her dharma throughout class.
Kate Kelly completed her 200 hr Classical Hatha Yoga certification in 2012 with Harmony Yoga. She enjoys teaching Gentle Hatha Yoga in a small group, neighborhood setting where every student feels welcome. Her teaching style is to design classes where students leave with that “yoga goodness” feeling — renewed, refreshed, peaceful. After growing up and attending college in Illinois, Kate has been a resident of Park Hill for over 15 years. She has a career in the Consumer Products Goods industry, is a mother to 3 tween / teens that attend neighborhood schools, and has been married to her husband Ben for 20 years. In addition to yoga, Kate enjoys skiing, cheering on her kids in various sports, and therapeutic “walk and talks” with best girlfriends in the neighborhood.
Laurel Klafehn was born in Denver and has lived here for most of her life, with the exception of some time in Stockton, CA and throughout Central and South America. Laurel received her RYT 200 Hour training in Cahuita, Costa Rica with Yoga with a View in 2015, where she learned and stretched with 8 other bad ass women for four weeks. Her flows are playful but focused, and her restorative practices are juicy and thoughtful. She enjoys curating soundtracks with old school soul and contemporary R&B to inspire organic movements and marinating relaxation. At this point in her practice and in her teaching, Laurel understands yoga as a liberatory practice, and as a space to move in ways that feel good, while also cultivating togetherness and interdependence with those around us. She believes in welcoming people with every type of body and every type of background to the yoga mat. Laurel is proud and humbled to be part of the Elevate & East Denver communities, where we put this practice into movement & action. She hopes you’ll join her for Sunday Night “Slow Jams” Flow to Restore.
I’m Michelle Smith. I was born & raised in Quito, Ecuador, a product of a bilingual household.
My goal is to create a safe place, to inspire my students to listen and connect with their bodies through intention, meditation, pranayama and asana. With a good musical selection, of course!
Noelle Eichholtz was first introduced to yoga through a community center class during mother-daughter bonding time back in 1996. From the first pranyama she was hooked. Introduced to classical style yoga taught from a classically trained yogini from India the theme has continued. From taking classes at community centers, gyms, videos at home in her living room, outside in a park, and on to yoga studios, her love of the deep profound essence of yoga has brought her to share her love and passion for the practice. Her main focus on styles that bring the student into quiet stillness and calms the chaos of the mind. By merging the physical body and the spirit essence of ourselves and bringing them into balance Noelle hopes to bring about a peaceful acceptance of our true nature. In 2013 she graduated from Samadhi Center for yoga and meditation with her 200 hr teacher training and is currently working expanding on her Yoga Nidra and Yin teacher trainings and teaching children to encourage the world to bring calm to the chaos.
