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NICK MANCI My training comes from my own practice with yogasana, spiritual text and meditation starting in 1998. I strongly believe my dharma in this life is to liberate myself, discern my nature and show others how I've experienced this.
Yoga, to me, has been a way to find the true nature of my being. Through yogasana I help others find this through their body by feeling and trusting that they are as steady as they can be, with breath, while changing in a direction that they're consciously choosing at any given moment.
The people who are drawn to my class seem to be those who like a practical approach to learning and want a real challenge. Some have said it takes thick skin to be my student. I'll hold your hand once, maybe twice but after that you have to step up. I talk to my students the way I talk to my close friends...straight to the point, nuts & bolts, baby! I make sure you get what you came to get. I may joke with you, tease you and even laugh at you when you're getting too serious.

MICHELE MEDEIROS I began practicing in 1998 when some devastating events led me to believe I needed to find peace with-in myself. I had accumulated a large amount of anger and resentment over the previous years that I needed to let go of. That was when I decided to try this yoga thing out. I tried several types of classes: Bikram, Vinyasa, Flow and Ashtanga. I still remember the first time I stepped onto the mat and began the dance of breath and movement. I was amazed how wonderful I felt from the inside out: I was hooked. Practicing regularly eventually opened the door to meditation and that is when it all came together for me. I then decided to further my practice with the intent to tell everyone I came in contact with as to what I had experienced through my yoga practice. I began attending workshops and decided to take a teacher training with David Swenson. I embarked on a journey and never came back. It was during this period that I began teaching Ashtanga yoga at my friend's studio in Melbourne FL. Yoga has completely changed the way I see myself and the world around me. It takes great discipline to come to the mat, remain present and then be asked to breath and move in synchronicity. Leading others through their practice is an honor and provides great joy for me. To see and feel how yoga impacts so many different people, in so many different ways is, in a word, magical. I have been known to be a "tough cookie" by many of my students, but they always come back for more. Ultimately, I try to inspire my students to stay rooted onto the mat like trees are rooted in the earth. Practicing this on and off the mat is a challenge. I read this quote once that I have kept with me: "To be a powerful woman you don't have to be aggressive or forceful. Like a tree, you have to find your roots and then you can bend in the wind." Yoga has brought me to my roots.

Hanna Lelke Sports of many kinds have pervaded through all stages of my life: ballet, gymnastics, skiing, soccer, track & field, cycling, surfing and climbing. I love the way they fuel my energy! But my awareness of the extraordinarily key elements of prana and breath was elusive for quite a while. I believe two things about growth: life’s events aren’t strictly serial and every event happens with potential for expansion. To that end, I speak of a point in life when I found my 20-year-old self desperate for introspective gems, except I felt clueless. Living in Philadelphia at that point, I dedicated myself to a new practice, Bikram yoga, which had semblances of familiar sports. I had found something on the right track, something beginning to quench my need for answers.
I carried onward with my asanas, which for some time seemed more of a sport than anything spiritual. I made slated times and places where I practiced daily, or sometimes much less frequently. Just as Darwinian evolution proceeds without the consciousness of the individual organism, my own evolution began unconsciously. Then events began to unfold. Beautiful people with unique expressive gifts toward teaching yoga began to surround me. I experienced many styles: Iyengar, Vinyasa, Hatha, and Ashtanga. Their cumulative effects began to permeate my consciousness. During the last seven years in Amherst, Cape Cod, Boston, and finally in Portland, I peeled away so many layers using this universal practice of yoga. Breath, meditation and movement done in synchronism gradually transformed my yoga from a sport into a lifestyle that infuses, literally, every aspect of my life…and there is no limit to this inner transformation.
I am three quarters near completion of a Doctor of Chiropractic program here in Portland. In addition to OBY, I make time to teach yoga for climbers at the Circuit Bouldering Gym as well as yoga for fellow students at the chiropractic college. I like to be playful about the important things in life, an ongoing practice to shed the seriousness that needlessly holds the breath inside. One thing is for sure: my soul is meant to share my knowledge and expertise through teaching. I better work damn hard to lead by example!

NICK MANCI	My training comes from my own practice with yogasana, spiritual text and meditation starting in 1998. I strongly believe my dharma in this life is to liberate myself, discern my nature and show others how I've experienced this. Yoga, to me, has been a way to find the true nature of my being. Through yogasana I help others find this through their body by feeling and trusting that they are as steady as they can be, with breath, while changing in a direction that they're consciously choosing at any given moment. The people who are drawn to my class seem to be those who like a practical approach to learning and want a real challenge. Some have said it takes thick skin to be my student. I'll hold your hand once, maybe twice but after that you have to step up. I talk to my students the way I talk to my close friends...straight to the point, nuts & bolts, baby! I make sure you get what you came to get. I may joke with you, tease you and even laugh at you when you're getting too serious.
MICHELE MEDEIROS	I began practicing in 1998 when some devastating events led me to believe I needed to find peace with-in myself. I had accumulated a large amount of anger and resentment over the previous years that I needed to let go of. That was when I decided to try this yoga thing out. I tried several types of classes: Bikram, Vinyasa, Flow and Ashtanga. I still remember the first time I stepped onto the mat and began the dance of breath and movement. I was amazed how wonderful I felt from the inside out: I was hooked. Practicing regularly eventually opened the door to meditation and that is when it all came together for me. I then decided to further my practice with the intent to tell everyone I came in contact with as to what I had experienced through my yoga practice. I began attending workshops and decided to take a teacher training with David Swenson. I embarked on a journey and never came back. It was during this period that I began teaching Ashtanga yoga at my friend's studio in Melbourne FL. Yoga has completely changed the way I see myself and the world around me. It takes great discipline to come to the mat, remain present and then be asked to breath and move in synchronicity. Leading others through their practice is an honor and provides great joy for me. To see and feel how yoga impacts so many different people, in so many different ways is, in a word, magical. I have been known to be a "tough cookie" by many of my students, but they always come back for more. Ultimately, I try to inspire my students to stay rooted onto the mat like trees are rooted in the earth. Practicing this on and off the mat is a challenge. I read this quote once that I have kept with me: "To be a powerful woman you don't have to be aggressive or forceful. Like a tree, you have to find your roots and then you can bend in the wind." Yoga has brought me to my roots.
Hanna Lelke	Sports of many kinds have pervaded through all stages of my life: ballet, gymnastics, skiing, soccer, track & field, cycling, surfing and climbing. I love the way they fuel my energy! But my awareness of the extraordinarily key elements of prana and breath was elusive for quite a while. I believe two things about growth: life’s events aren’t strictly serial and every event happens with potential for expansion. To that end, I speak of a point in life when I found my 20-year-old self desperate for introspective gems, except I felt clueless. Living in Philadelphia at that point, I dedicated myself to a new practice, Bikram yoga, which had semblances of familiar sports. I had found something on the right track, something beginning to quench my need for answers. I carried onward with my asanas, which for some time seemed more of a sport than anything spiritual. I made slated times and places where I practiced daily, or sometimes much less frequently. Just as Darwinian evolution proceeds without the consciousness of the individual organism, my own evolution began unconsciously. Then events began to unfold. Beautiful people with unique expressive gifts toward teaching yoga began to surround me. I experienced many styles: Iyengar, Vinyasa, Hatha, and Ashtanga. Their cumulative effects began to permeate my consciousness. During the last seven years in Amherst, Cape Cod, Boston, and finally in Portland, I peeled away so many layers using this universal practice of yoga. Breath, meditation and movement done in synchronism gradually transformed my yoga from a sport into a lifestyle that infuses, literally, every aspect of my life…and there is no limit to this inner transformation. I am three quarters near completion of a Doctor of Chiropractic program here in Portland. In addition to OBY, I make time to teach yoga for climbers at the Circuit Bouldering Gym as well as yoga for fellow students at the chiropractic college. I like to be playful about the important things in life, an ongoing practice to shed the seriousness that needlessly holds the breath inside. One thing is for sure: my soul is meant to share my knowledge and expertise through teaching. I better work damn hard to lead by example!