Tamara Hockey
Tamara trained and taught at Yogawest in Bristol for 12 years and then ran Eastern Yoga studios for a further 3 years. Undeterred, when the studio closed down during the Covid pandameic, she made the transition to online Iyengar Yoga studio. After a lifetime of lethargy and ill health she felt completely transformed by the practice of Iyengar Yoga and is dedicated to passing on the benefits to her students regardless of their current state of fitness and flexibility. Students say they enjoy her clear and thorough approach and feel that they are always encouraged to work to their highest level. She aims to make her classes challenging and transformative and to give time to recover and absorb the benefits in a well earned savasana. Tamara is a certified Senior 1 Iyengar teacher (and an assessor and mentor for the IYA UK) and brings many years of experience teaching beginners, general, gentle, intermediate, pregnancy and assisting Lynda in the Therapy Class. Tamara travels to Pune regularly to study with the Iyengar family and had the great privilege of studying with BKS Iyengar himself, in general classes and one to one in the medical class. You can read about the experience in my blog tamarahockey2014.wordpress.com and tamarahockey.wordpress.com
Janet Hartley
Janet is a Senior Level Iyengar Yoga teacher, she has been practising for over forty years and teaching for more than twenty.
Janet has visited the Iyengar Institute in Pune a couple of times to study under the watchful eye of Geeta Iyengar and has advanced her training most recently with Richard Ward, Lynda Purvis and Gerry Chambers.
Janet aims to make her classes accessible to all regardless of age, experience or flexibility.Her students enjoy her calm manner and crystal clear instruction. Iyengar yoga has given her life focus, balance and joy. She hopes to impart some of these qualities to her students.
Naomi Maggs
Naomi lives in Bristol with her husband and two daughters. She started practicing Iyengar Yoga in 2009 when she was diagnosed with CFS/ME. Prior to that she was a runner - regularly doing 10ks and half marathons – but her illness meant that couldn't run to the end of the road without pain and exhaustion setting in. The way that yoga created energy, rather than burnt it up was quite overwhelming for her. It was quite clear that yoga wasn’t just “exercise” and she fell in love with it from the first class!
Now fully recovered from CFS/ME, She has completed 2 years of Introductory Iyengar Yoga training with Sheila Haswell. She is fully qualified to Introductory level 2. She hopes to be able to help people whether it is to tone up, lose weight, find peace of mind or to recover from illness or injury.
She also runs her own children’s music and singing company - JollyTots! Music and Singing Workshops - doing parent and child classes and birthday parties. Naomi enjoys the balance between the singing and the yoga!
Naomi says “I love how Iyengar Yoga is accessible to all; young or old. The Iyengar method, in particular, means that people of all flexibilities can come to class and may be offered more props to help with their alignment or for support in the pose. People think they can’t do yoga because they are not flexible, but yoga isn’t about that, it’s about building strength. If you have never tried yoga before, then I am looking forward to being your introduction to it!”
Andrea Ray
Andrea was introduced to Iyengar yoga back in Slovakia during a family yoga holiday in her early teenage years. Yoga practice has been part of her life ever since. She became a very dedicated yoga student in her early twenties when she moved to London. She trained with Alaric Newcombe and in 2008 became an Iyengar yoga teacher. She persevered with her teacher training and in 2013 qualified to Junior Intermediate Level 3.
Andrea has studied with many senior teachers in UK and India as well as with the Iyengar family in Pune. She is also greatly influenced by the time she spent learning from Mira Mehta in London.
Home practice has always been a big part of Andrea’s yoga life. And now that she has two young children, spending time on her own on a yoga mat is even more rewarding.
Zoe Reason
Zoë Reason began yoga in her twenties, loved it and got distracted, and finally, when she went on her first yoga holiday in 1996, began to see that routine and regularity is an essential part of the practice... She started teaching in 2004 (her introductory training was with Judith Jones in West Berkshire and then Brenda Booth in Kent for intermediate). Her principle teachers are Rajiv and Swati Chanchani (who are the first generation of teachers trained by BKS Iyengar) and she has been lucky enough to spend long periods of time learning from them and assisting in their classes at their centre in India, at the foothills of the Himalayas. She’s enormously grateful to have been able to study with the Iyengar family, both in India and Europe, on a number of occasions. She has just moved to Bristol and is delighted to be teaching at the very beautiful Eastern Yoga Centre. Zoë’s teaching is methodical, structured, precise. She’s interested in exploring how these shapes we call yog-asanas allow us to become truly intimate with what it means to be alive.
Jess Wallwork
Jess remembers looking at the photographs in Light on Yoga as a child. Being brought up in rural Dorset it was an unexpected good fortune when, after falling from tree climbing, her doctor (who happened to be Indian) drew yoga postures to help relieve pain and correct her spine. Jess began regular classes with the Iyengar Yoga Society at Edinburgh University, liking the focus on precision and alignment in the postures and the feeling of well-being. Since then yoga the Iyengar method has been an important aspect of her life, leading her to study at RIMYI in Pune, India. Jess feels that yoga keeps her healthy and balanced and hopes to pass the benefit of yoga to students. She is certified at Senior Level 1.
Jacob Rihosek
Jacob has been teaching Iyengar Yoga since 2008. He originally trained with Gerry Chambers and Lynda Purvis in Bristol and has travelled to India to study with the Iyengar family in Pune. Jacob's teaching is appreciated by his students for his straightforward, no nonsense style with occasional unexpected dry humour! Jacob hails from the Czech Republic but has lived in Bristol for over a decade.