The Shala
We
opened Eastside Yoga Shala & Bodywork in January 2005 to share traditional
yoga and healing modalities with the community in downtown Pahoa, Hawaii. We founded
the shala on the Ashtanga Yoga teachings of Sri K. Pattabhi Jois, as well as on
the techniques of Therapeutic Bodywork.
The
shala also serves the Pahoa community with offerings of Iyengar yoga, martial
arts and belly dancing, as well as workshops, special events and presentations
in yoga, chanting, philosophy, dance, and music.
We
created the shala to provide a space for self-transformation through education,
practice, and collective evolution.
Pahoa is
the center of Puna, Hawaii's Eastside, where Hawaiian traditions are honored alongside
a lush green landscape and black sand beaches where healing, organic farming,
and the creative arts thrive.
We bow in gratitude to
the beauty and the bounty of this sacred island where Goddess Pele reigns in Her
cosmic display of molten fire, earth, and sea.
-Colee
and Armando
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Colee
Garr
Colee
has been a student of yoga for 12 years. Colee's primary Ashtanga Yoga
teachers are Nancy Gilgoff and Noah Williams. After assisting Nancy in Maui and
receiving her blessing, Colee came to the Big Island in August 2003 to teach the
Ashtanga Yoga Program at the University of Hawaii, Hilo.
Colee and Armando opened EastSide Yoga Shala in December 2004. She co-directs
the shala and runs the Ashtanga Yoga - Mysore Morning Program. Colee is
completely stoked to share the Mysore program with her teacher Noah, hosting him
a couple times a year.
Colee has an extensive background
in anatomy, physiology, dance, music, and health and wellness management. She
has been teaching yoga for 11 years. Born in Montana, she traveled extensively,
teaching yoga in Montana, Oregon, Washington, Holland, Maui, the Big Island and
Argentina. She traveled to India in 2004 with Armando, where they spent five months
studying, practicing and exploring.
Colee was
introduced to yoga in 1996 and is grateful to her teachers Rhanda Chehab, Nancy
Gilgoff, Aadil Palkivala, Rajiv Chanchani, Andrew Eppler, Nicki Doane, Eddie Modestini,
Noah Williams and Sri K. Pattabhi Jois.Colee is inspired and committed to sharing
Ashtanga yoga. With daily practice she continues on the path of yoga. Colee
looks forward to returning to India this year to continue her studies under Sri
K. Pattabhi Jois.
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Armando
Rivas 
Armando
is co-director of Eastside Yoga Shala and Bodywork. He was introduced to yoga
while attending Boulder College of Massage Therapy in 1999. The following
year he moved to Maui where he studied Ashtanga Yoga with Nancy Gilgoff, as well
as with Nicki Doane & Eddie Modestini.
In addition
to one thousand hours of training at Boulder Massage, he also performed three
hundred hours in the clinic and in the field with the US Olympic Rowing Team,
The Loveland Animal Sanctuary, Boulder County Aids Project and the CU Boulder
Track Team. Armando has cultivated a private practice since 2000 and is licensed
and insured (#5897) in the state of Hawaii. Armando is committed to facilitating
radiant health through Neuromuscular Therapy, Alignment Based Bodywork, and Ashtanga
Yoga. He also specializes in sports massage, muscular skeletal injuries,
and rehabilitation therapy.
In 2004 he and Colee
embarked upon a five-month trip to India, exploring its rich culture as well as
a variety of yoga modalities. Armando is dedicated to the daily practice
of Ashtanga Yoga and continues to study under the guidance of Noah and Kimberly
Williams.
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Megan
Megan
Cannon has been an Iyengar practitioner for 10 years and has been teaching
for 7. She completed a 2-year apprenticeship with Yoga Northwest’s director
Ingela Abbot and has studied with many senior teachers including Felicity Green,
Richard Schactel, Joan White, John Schumacher and Dean Learner. She continues
to study with Aeja Mobely from Honolulu’s Silent Dance Center as she prepares
for the national Iyengar assessment this fall. Megan has been accepted to study
with the Iyengars in Pune summer of 08. She believes that when we align our muscles
and bones properly we create length and strength in our physical bodies, which
in turn creates space in our mental and emotional bodies bringing freedom, harmony,
clarity and optimal health. Megan is also a certified Waldorf School teacher currently
teaching in Paradise Park.
Megan is off to India!!
Will see you in August!
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Christine
Christine
is a certified Massage Therapist, Healer, yoga Teacher, adn Tantrid Educator.
She teaches and counsels in the field of sacred sexuality and "Awakening
to the Ecstatic Self." She brings personal experience and her intuitive nature
in creating a safe expansive experiential learning and healing experience. Her
passion is for helping others ot open and recaim ecstatic stats as a healthy and
sacred expression of self. SHe leads workshops, Tantric Puja's and offers private
sessions for individuals and couples.
Tantra: with
Margot Anand, Charles and Caroling Muir, Allen Lowen, Bodi Avinasha, Paul Lowe
and so many more!
Yoga: Meridian Yoga, Interdisciplinary Yoga, Kripalu Yoga
Bodywork:
Amma Therapy (meridian massage) NMT, Trigger Point Work and Therapeutic Massage
She
has hundreds of hours of continuing education with many celebrated teachers and
masters.
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Cheryl
Bronilla
Cheryl,
a dedicated student and teacher of the yoga process, has been practicing hatha
yoga for over a decade. She has been passing on this gift for the past five years,
since finishing an intensive three-year study with April Underwood and being certified
in Transformative Yoga. She is dedicated to making a space where people of all
body types and backgrounds can explore and develop their individual practice.
She strives to help her students see yoga as a lifestyle and an art form. Through
yoga, or the practice of achieving "union in love with the Supreme,"
Cheryl is inspired to hellp restore the natural position of the living beings.
She incorporates dance, qi gong and meditation into her classes to help students
of all levels unleash and guide the natural free flow of energy within their bodies.
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Nanda
Navarro
Aloha!
I am a bodyworker and yoga teacher. My journey on the Path of Yoga started out
of a yearning to find a connection to a deeper place within myself. In that search
I found Hatha Yoga and started exploring. After that door opened, another soon
followed. Swasthya Yoga found me! I fell in love with this practice and have been
practicing it for the past 17 years. Swasthya Yoga is a codification of Pre-Classical
Yoga, brought from India to Brazil by Master Yoga Teacher DeRose.
Intuitively
drawn to bodywork and expresssive movement, I became a certified massage therapist
in 1997, and began practicing Contact Improvisation in 2000.
In
2001, I became certified in Swasthya Yoga and more recently started practicing
Acro Yoga. I met the founders of Acro Yoga in 2005 here on the big island and
became hooked the first time flying. In 2006, I completed the Advanced Practitioner's
Training and have been teaching it under the name 'Contact yoga' for the past
year.
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Veronica
Veronica McCall began
studying yoga in Kailua, Hi is 1991 under Louisa Digrazia. She received
her teachers certification in 2000 at the yoga centre of Indian in Varanasi, India.
Since the birth of her son in 2001 her pratice has evolved into a playful,
integrated, vinyasa flow style which focuses on the opening the heart and stilling
the thoughts of the mind (mind chatter) through strength, flexability and an awareness
of the breath. Having just received her masters in oriental medicine, her
practice has deeped with her knowledge of the meridians through the body. Acupuncture
has allowed Veronica to understand more and more the root of imbalance and the
means of restoring this balance. "Through movement, awareness of breath
and meditation we can see more clearly our true purpose: to be pleasing to God."
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