Yoga Instructors
RallySport's Mind/Body Program offers Yoga classes with some of the area's best teachers. Our goal is to provide authentic yoga opportunities in a comfortable environment. All our Yoga Teacher are Certified and committed to enhancing their teaching through continuing education. The Yoga Teachers at RallySport have experience with students from beginner to advanced, and have the experience to help you with any necessary modifications. Please take a moment before or after class to introduce yourself to your teacher and don't hesitate to ask for help during class.
If you have any questions, please contact the Program Coordinator, Gina Collins
Karuna (Caroline Ashley)
Bio:
Karuna has been a certified tea-cher with KRI since 2007. She is an Associate Teacher Trainer and is mentored by Gurmukh Khalsa. Karuna has served as administrator and co-facilitator for two Teacher-Training Programs in Boulder and one in Rishikesh, India. Karuna has brought her gifts of joy of spirit and heart to Boulder, where she lives and offers daily classes and workshops. She has created a dynamic spiritual community there. She also leads retreats in Costa Rica and India.
Gina Collins
Bio:
Since 1992, Gina has been actively involved in the Health and Fitness Industry. She has compiled countless hours of personal training and group fitness instruction over her 18 year history. Having learned long ago to embrace balanced growth as a professional, Gina employs an open heart and mind when connecting with her clients and students. Investing in years of these positive relationships has enabled Gina to construct calculated and successful programs tailored specifically for each personal training client. This cultured skill set is also evident in her approach to teaching Group Fitness and even more apparent on the happy faces walking out of each of her classes. She can always be heard firmly promoting a “listen to your body” philosophy while personally attending to the needs of each class.
Since 2008, Gina and her husband Tucker have been blessed to embrace another enormous challenge of balanced growth: the growth of family. As a wonderful Mom to Keller and Sylvie Joy, there has been a vigorous growth in her professional perspective that has truly benefitted from the demands of motherhood. Encouraging healthy lifestyle habits for the entire family while maintaining an educated approach to her career has given Gina an added set of experiences to draw from and share with her clients and classes. As parents that live and work in Boulder, Gina and Tucker enjoy the exhilarating community of healthy-minded people and always find time to benefit from available resources. Whether its 4 degrees and snowy or 80 and sunny, you can find the Collins Family having outdoor adventures and watching the kids grow up.
Gina’s qualified experiences as a Personal Trainer, Yoga Teacher, and Group Fitness Instructor have been bolstered through continuing education courses over the years, always keeping up with the latest in fitness knowledge. She brings a personal intensity and exciting smile to every member and client and an attitude that utilizes encouraging motivation methods to reach program goals. Gina incorporates yoga, Pilates, cardio, strength, and functional training in her programs and places special emphasis on posture, core strength, and flexibility
Outside of RallySport, Gina enjoys hiking, biking, snowboarding, backpacking, yoga, music, running the Bolder Boulder and the occasional half marathon.
Valerie DAmbrosio
Bio:
Founder of Hanuman Festival and local teacher, Valerie D’Ambrosio’s passion lies in teaching students through using and discovering the chakra system, understanding and honoring the different seasons while learning how to support themselves best. In blending Vinyasa, Anusara, Ashtanga and Kundalini in classes, she feels it is an opportunity for the practitioner to truly discover their own yoga while deepening their intuition. Valerie holds retreats throughout the year locally and globally. For more information go to her website OrganicTwist
Derise Diatta
Bio:
Originally from New York, Derise moved to Boulder in 2001. Prior to living in Colorado and embarking on motherhood, Derise traveled extensively in South East Asia. She studied Iyengar and Astanga yoga in Pune and Mysore , India. In 1997-98 she directed the yoga program at the Health Oasis Resort, a popular wellness center in Koh Samui, Thailand. Derise has taught yoga at some of the country's largest wellness centers including The Omega Institute, Kripalu Yoga Center and The Tree of Life Rejuvenation Center. She worked on staff as an assistant for the Kripalu 200 hour Bodywork Training in 1999 and 2000. In addition, she has worked closely with Don and Amba Stapleton, directors of Nosara Yoga Center in Costa Rica. She assisted their Interdisciplinary Teacher Training program in 2000 after taking the training the previous year. In addition to her teaching schedule, she is manager of the North Boulder CorePower yoga studio where she also leads their Power Yoga Teacher Training program.
Jaimie Epstein
Bio:
"Paths are many, truth is one" goes the saying - and those paths usually zig and zag, take all kinds of scenic detours and make unscheduled stops along the way. Jaimie's yoga journey began about 20 years ago, and definitely zigged and zagged with the demands of being an editor at The New York Times and being a competitive cyclist. But she eventually left those worlds behind to follow her heart's path, which is Yoga.
An 800-hour certified Jivamukti Yoga teacher, Jaimie taught at the Jivamukti center in New York before moving to Boulder last year. Jivamukti is a dynamic vinyasa-style practice underpinned by five tenets – ahimsa, bhakti, meditation, nada and scripture. Jaimie’s goal as a teacher is to create a multidimensional experience that expands consciousness, that allows her students to connect more deeply to everyone and everything around them, that, well, allows them to experience Yoga.
For Jaimie, one of the best parts of being a teacher is being a forever student. She hopes to come always as an empty cup before her courageous and innovative teachers Sharon Gannon and David Life and to do honor to their teachings.
Diane Friedman
Bio:
Before she can remember, Diane was nicknamed “prana” by her father, but she waited until 2002 to discover the path of yoga. Drawn to the challenge of the practice, in 2002 she found herself in a Bikram yoga class nearly every day. After two years of 26 postures, Diane started to ‘flow’ with the CorePower style of yoga that introduced breath, intuition, and levity into the practice. She also began to practice Iyengar Yoga, finding the attention to detail a beautiful compliment to the grace of the vinyasa flow.
In the spring of 2007, Diane completed the CorePower Yoga Teacher Training and began teaching soon after. Inspired by a desire to deepen her own practice and enrich her teaching, Diane has embarked on a 500-Hour Teacher Training Adventure with Tias and Surya Little (www.prajnayoga.net) and is a student at the Rolf Institute for Structural Integration in Boulder, CO (www.rolf.org). Diane teaches mindful vinyasa flow with an emphasis on anatomical detail and an ever-deepening connection between mind, body, and breath.
“My intention is to deepen students’ awareness of their physical and emotional bodies in an effort to widen their experience of the beautiful and awe-inspiring quality of this life. I hope students learn something new. I hope they are inspired and intrigued by the practice.
Deborah Fryer
Bio:
Deborah Fryer, PhD, began practicing yoga in 1994 and teaching in 2001. She has studied with Richard Freeman, John Friend, Barbara Benagh, David Swenson, Shiva Rea, Seane Corn, Tias Little, Baron Baptiste and Gurmukh. Students describe Deborah as a playful, strong, flexible and inspiring teacher. Off the mat, she is an award-winning documentary filmmaker and writer.
Martha Griffin
Bio:
Martha has been teaching yoga since 1994. She has studied with many yoga teachers over the years, but Richard Freeman and Ashtanga have been her primary influences. Recently, she has been inspired by Shiva Rea and the Prana Flow style of yoga. In Martha's classes, you can expect to warm up with variations of Sun Salutations and then move through a well balanced practice of standing poses, forward bends, twists, back bends and sometimes optional inversions. She feels that yoga is a great compliment to aerobic activities that we enjoy in our active Boulder lifestyles; yoga really helps with flexibility and core strength. Martha graduated from University of Colorado in 1980 and lives in Boulder with her husband and son.
Pamela Lippe
Bio:
Pamela holds certification in Integrative Yoga Therapy. For over 20 years, she has been a dedicated yoga practitioner and teaching for 15 years. Her training stems from Hatha and Kripalu traditions. Pamela has studied with Joseph LePage, Eric Schiffman, Angela Farmer, and Elysabeth Williamson. Her inspiration comes from observing life in all its forms and bringing play, self-discovery, curiosity and kind observation from our inner and outer world onto the mat. She integrates daily life and somatic imagery to connect each student uniquely to his/her own innate wisdom. Her teaching ranges from guided Vinyasa Flow and Partner Yoga to Restorative and Yin yoga. Her students include all levels of physical ability, especially those who are recovering from illness or injuries. Pamela encourages awareness and staying present to “what is” and letting go of habitual patterns of the body and mind. As both a dancer and Massage Therapist, Pamela brings nourishing embodiment to her teachings.
Cindy Lusk
Bio:
Cindy Lusk, PhD., has been practicing yoga since 1985, studying extensively with John Friend, Douglas Brooks, and Rickard Freeman. She has been teaching since 1994 in Boulder and nationally, and is a certified Anusara Teacher. Cindy’s teaching is precise and joyful, with an emphasis on aligning body, mind, and spirit. Her students feel supported and report that her teaching has transformed their experience of yoga and of their lives.
Jonathan Markowitz
Bio:
I have studied wisdom literature since adolescence, which led to my studies of philosophy and literature in college. The time I spent managing a metaphysical bookstore continued to expose me to the religious literature of the world. My practice of Aikido (a martial art based on reconciling violence with harmony) is just one facet of physical/spiritual work that led me to study various yogic traditions. In my studies I have found that each unique form of asana is complimentary, leading my teaching style to encompass the exploration of different modalities allowing the student to constantly observe and reflect upon the permanence of their own bodies, beliefs and practices.
Karen Nicholson-Cobble
Bio:
Karen has been practicing yoga for over twenty five years, and received her teacher training through Core Power Yoga in Boulder.
She moved here 10 years ago, trading the east coast ocean for the mountains. She has experienced many different styles of yoga including Hatha, Ashtanga, Iyengar Phoenix Rising and Anusara. “ Yoga has always been my mind, body, spirit connection. I am made whole through yoga. I love the challenge of taking yoga off the mat to my life outside of the studio. ”She is honored by every student who steps onto the mat in her classes, and hopes to work with them as they find acceptance of themselves and a connection to their spirit.
When not in the studio, Karen loves being with her family: husband Dane and boy/girl twins Forrest and Zoe, creative gourmet cooking with friends, hiking in the beautiful surroundings of Boulder, playing with her cat, and settling down with a good book.
Sandi Rusconi
Bio:
Sandi moved from Southern California to Boulder in 1994 where she was introduced to Ashtanga teachers, and years later, Anusara teachers who greatly influenced her yoga practice and current teaching methodology. Since taking her first hatha yoga class over 15 years ago, Sandi has been dedicated to the practice and philosophy of yoga which led her to complete the Anusara teacher training in 2008.
Sandi enjoys sharing her knowledge and inspires students to embrace yoga as a foundation for health. Through emphasizing alignment principles, she links poses with a flow that is challenging and fun. In both her adult and children's classes, students enjoy the use of her creative metaphors and stories that help convey the teachings in a memorable way.
Sandi is a dedicated wife and mother of two children who she adores. Her interests include hiking, writing, and photography.
Shane Scaglione
Bio:
Shane practiced yoga since 1998, maintaining a daily yoga practice since 2003. He studied the Ashtanga Vinyasa system with Pattabhi Jois in Mysore, India. He has lived 2 years in India over 6 winters doing intensive studies of Ashtanga yoga. He has studied extensively with Richard Freeman and Rolf Naujokat.
Trista Hollerbach
Bio:
Trista enjoys the challenge of Yoga---emotionally, intellectually, physically, and spiritually. Her intention as a teacher is to help people connect to these dimensions of existence so they can come to know their true Self and live a life in accordance with that Self.Trista has MA in psychology, is a certified addiction counselor level III, and is a clinical sexologist. She is certified in Hatha yoga, and Kundalini yoga as taught by Yogi Bhajan.