There are a number of Yoga teachers who have sprouted from the Kula with unique backgrounds and skills.

Katherine Banbury

Katherine is a seasoned Yoga teacher, visionary leader and devoted student who has been exploring and sharing her passion for over 25 years. She has been committed to living her Yoga by leading and practicing in community here in the Twin Cities since 1994.   She has facilitated classes, workshops, leadership trainings and retreats for Yoga teachers and students both in the U.S. and abroad.

Her practice and teaching was first influenced by her sabbatical at Kripalu Yoga Center in the early 90s when it was still an ashram; and continued to be nurtured and deepened by many Raja Yoga teachers and experiences at Kripalu.

SInce 1999 Katherine has explored and taught from the nondualist tradition guided by teachers Richard Miller, Georg Feuerstein and Russill Paul. (She is undergoing a four year Yoga Nidra certification with Richard Miller and is part of Russill Paul's Yoga Mystery School). 

INDIA

Most recently, Katherine traveled to India for a spiritual pilgrimage with her Mantra Yoga/interspirituality teacher Russill Paul.  There she lived at a Hindu/Catholic ashram from where she participated as a pilgrim in the sacred rituals of the ancient temples of South India.  The pilgrimage concluded with a ten day silent retreat and a final journey to Ramana Maharshi's ashram. (Ramana was one of the most significant teachers to emerge from India during the first half of this century). The group trecked up the great Arunachala Hill and meditated in the very caves that Ramana lived in.

Somatic Asana Practice

In the early 80s, Katherine began her study and teaching of the asana of Yoga and movement studies in Colorado.  Studying with Barbara Huttner and Ron Fletcher, Joe Pilates earliest master student. 

To support the ongoing physical practice of asana, Katherine has studied and taught from many of the somatic teachers and practices since 1999 with Bonnie Bainbridge-Cohen, Suzanne River, Marcia Monroe, Donna Farhi and Kevin Kortan.

Radical Yoga

After teaching in the Twin Cities for a few years, Katherine became aware of the need for a radical return to the roots of Yoga's purpose - a return to practicing in community with specific strategic teachings, in relationship with one's teacher, along side the nurturing support and relationship of one's fellow practitioners of a Kula.

Teaching in community is Katherine's way of counteracting the consumerism that has hijacked Yoga practice in recent times, and has served the purpose of keeping her leadership focused, grounded and able to act on the true interconnected nature of life.

Practical Mysticism

Katherine's classes explore the living understanding of Yoga as an evolving, dynamic mystical experience. She excels in the ability to interpret and practice the ancient teachings of Yoga and thereby translate this wisdom into practical and accessible inquiries for her student's exploration. Each of her classes follow a particular theme from the 5,000 year history and philosophy of Yoga, integrated with somatic, experiential anatomy and the evolutionary blueprints of movement, which inspire and support the structure of a pose, or the answer to a spiritual inquiry, to unfold organically from direct experience rather than from the outside in, via the conditioned conceptual mind.

Nikki Baker

Nikki has been a student of dance, somatic movement, and Yoga for over 30 years. With the loving guidance of her Yoga teacher Katherine Banbury, Nikki began teaching Yoga in the spring of 1998. Her teaching is informed by a number of like-minded teachers such as Christopher Baxter, one of the founders of the Kripalu Yoga Center, Donna Farhi a Yoga teacher who works with the evolutionary patterns of Yoga and with whom Nikki completed a teacher training, and Marcia Monroe, an Iyengar Yoga teacher and Body-Mind Centering teacher based in New York.

In May of 2002, Nikki completed certification in Kripalu Danskinetics which allows her to further share her love for movement and music.

Recently Nikki has studied with Thich Nhat Hanh's master students at Omega Insitute in upstate New York.

Nikki is a gentle and compassionate Yoga teacher who invites her students to listen deeply and trust in the inherent wisdom of their bodies. She particularly invites them to explore their essential breath and allow its inate wisdom to inform their practice both on and off the mat.

Nikki's intention, through commitment to the sacred practice of Yoga, is that we may all begin to know peace and to be that peace in the world.

Mary Tellers

Mary has over 15 years of personal yoga study and practice. For 10 of those years, she has studied with Katherine Banbury delving in body/mind centering and experiential anatomy work. Lately, her study with Katherine includes Patanjali's Yoga Sutra.

She has taught gentle yoga classes at Little Earth Indian Center, Running Wolf Fitness Center, University of St. Thomas, and Dunrovin Retreat Center in Stillwater.

She earned her certification in Lakshmi Voelker's Chair Yoga: The Sitting Mountain Series at the Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health in Lenox, Massachusetts in 2007. Mary is available for one-on-one sessions of chair or gentle yoga as well as teaching chair yoga for group classes or demonstrations.

This year Mary earned her Kruipalu Yoga teacher certification.

Mary has been active in exploring the wellness/human development field for 20 years. She currently works full-time as a Wellness Associate at Lakewinds Natural Foods in Minnetonka, MN. Previous wellness work includes: hypnotist and nutrition instructor at weight loss clinic, body/mind therapist and nutrition consultant at Pathways Holistic Health Crisis Resource Center. She holds a Master of Arts degree in Human Development from St. Mary's University of Minnesota and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Foods and Nutrition from the College of St. Catherine.