TEACHERS

Director Kevin Kimple (e-mail dancingyogi@hotmail.com) is one of the few Ashtanga Yoga instructors in Oregon personally Authorized to teach by Sri K. Pattabhi Jois. Kevin graduated with Honors and a BA in Dance from U.C. Berkeley in 1993.
He spent the next six years living in New York City and touring extensively throughout the U.S.A. and Europe with the Martha Graham Ensemble, MOMIX, Bella Lewitzky and other notable dance troupes.

In 1996 Kevin began studying yoga with David Life and Sharon Gannon of Jivamukti. He left dance touring in 1999 and moved to Boulder, Colorado to deepen his yoga studies under the tutelage of Ashtanga Master Richard Freeman. He studied with Richard for several years, including 5 months of teacher training intensives, and also taught at Richard’s school The Yoga Workshop.

In December 2000 Kevin received a Black Belt in the ancient Chinese martial art Shao-Lin Kung Fu, after intensive studies under Senior Masters David and Sharon Soard (7th Degree Black Belts).

Unable to meet the demands of two full-time disciplines, Kevin moved to Mysore, India in 2002 to concentrate on his yoga practice under the watchful eyes of Sri K. Pattabhi Jois, the fountainhead of contemporary Ashtanga Yoga. He lived in India for 3 years studying yoga, Sanskrit, philosophy, music and gardening. He also owned and managed a B&B designed especially to accommodate the influx of other foreign students coming to Mysore to study.

Kevin returned to the U.S.A. in early 2006 to be near his family and opened the Eugene School of Yoga in Eugene, Oregon.

Kevin’s previous teaching credits include U.C. Berkeley, Univ. of Nevada, Brooklyn College Prep. Center for the Arts and many private studios throughout the U.S.A. He also spent a year in Scotland as Head Instructor at the Yoga Centre in Edinburgh.

Sarah Wells recently returned from her third trip to Mysore, India where she studied under Sri K. Pattabhi Jois, Sharath Ragaswamy and Saraswati at the Ashtanga Yoga Research Institute. Sarah has been a student of yoga for over five years, and she continues domestically under the direction of Manju Jois, Dr. Jaya Shree and Kevin Kimple.

Sarah has a background in Ballet, Modern and Middle Eastern dance. She has taught and performed independently and with several companies in Colorado.
She also dedicated over a decade to the study of herbal medicine and various healing modalities and was fortunate to receive direct teaching from Herbalists Micheal Moore and Brigette Mars. Sarah holds several Clinical herbalist Certifications and has taught herbal medicine to private clients, at community college, health food stores and herb schools.

Sarah has been teaching yoga at ESOY for over a year and recently started teaching at Eugene's YMCA. Her teaching style has been described as "Strict, yet Sweet" and she strives to create a feeling of safety in her classes by looking first at what is right, then looking at how a posture can be improved, over time. She is available for private instruction. Please contact her at sirenabotanica@yahoo.com for further information.
Sarah is also a mother who enjoys reading, bicycling, picking berries, cooking Indian food and planning her next trip to Mysore.

Kate is originally from Chicago. Her first yoga class was by her high school swim coach in P.E. She has two daughters, Hannah and Nora whom she considers her best teachers. She has assisted at home births since 1995 and considers it a great honor to witness the mystery of birth. "Birthing has taught me about the limitless capabilities of the human experience and about the power of love."

Kate's favorite asana is Urdhva Mukha Pachimattanasana. "I love the complexity of opposition involved in this asana. The full forward fold coupled with the upward extension of the legs and lengthening of the torso and back. I also like playing with the subtleties of balance - drawing in to extend out. I like rolling as far forward on the sit bones and lingering as long as possible at the balance point just before tipping forward and losing my balance. Her least favorite asana is Chakrasana, "I have yet to forge a friendship with this asana."

Kate has been described as "an intuitive and effective yoga adjuster." She also facilitates the Wednesday night silent sit and explains the purpose of  silent sitting. "Sitting silently or meditating allows for the unfolding of endless layers of awareness. When I take time to sit, letting go of the distractions of everyday life and focusing my awareness inward, I find myself on a path of self discovery.Over time this increased state of awareness cultivated through the practice of sitting has begun to permeate every aspect of my life. My daily sitting practice has helped me find and refine my understanding of what is true."

"I really cannot talk about my yoga background without mentioning my step-mom, Kirsten. She is really the reason I started and continued practicing yoga. I am forever grateful to her for testing out her new teaching skills on me. My earliest memory of doing yoga is of Kirsten showing me how to position the feet in Utthita Trikonasa, triangle pose. I must have been about twelve. Soon afterwards she started bringing me to the Iyengar studio with her, where the very serious instructor would impatiently yell at us to do things like draw the kidneys up the back. I don't think I even knew I had kidneys! And I definitely did not think they were things I had control over! Eventually, Kirsten started teaching her own class, and that's where I really learned the details of alignment."

Jazmine Gabriel was introduced to yoga as a teenager by her Iyengar instructor step-mother. At age 17, she completed 6 month Iyengar teacher's training with Bob Glickstein and Moses Brown. For five years, she studied primarily Anusara yoga, working closely with Paul Malley, and doing an intensive training in Anusara yoga therapy with senior instructors Kathleen Hogan and Mary Romeu. Jazmine moved to Eugene in 2004 to pursue her PhD in philosophy, and began studying with Kevin shortly after he opened ESOY. For the past two years she has attended intensives with Manju Jois.

Jazmine first began teaching yoga regularly in 2000, and has taught classes in a variety of settings-college, gyms, and studios. She has worked extensively with private clients doing personalized therapeutic work, and also spent several years working as a certified personal trainer, teaching creative combinations of weights, aerobic conditioning, yoga, Pilates, and relaxation. She helped initiate a health and wellness program for a volunteer fire department in Maryland, where she led wellness workshops and offered a weekly yoga class for firemen and their wives.

Jazmine has been teaching at ESOY for over a year. She tries to combine strength and playfulness in her own teaching.