Director Kevin Kimple is Oregon’s only Level Two Authorized Ashtanga Teacher personally Authorized to teach by Sri K. Pattabhi Jois. Kevin graduated with Honors and a BA in Dance from U.C. Berkeley in ‘93. 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 Sarah Wells has spent 14 months in India studying yoga with the fountainhead of contemporary Ashtanga, Sri K Pattabhi jois. In addition, she has completed over 350 hours of teacher training with Ashtanga yoga masters Richard Freeman, Dr. M A Jayashree, and Manju Jois. Sarah has been practicing yoga for over ten years and teaching in Eugene for five. She maintains a daily practice at the Eugene School of Yoga under the guidance of Kevin Kimple. Before yoga and becoming a mother, Sarah studied and practiced Herbal medicine and was a performing dancer.
Yongsun Choe began practicing yoga nearly 20 years ago after her only daughter left for college. After deciding to fulfill her life long dream of traveling around the world she began practicing yoga to keep her health up. Her journeys included visiting the Suan Mok international mediation center in South Thailand, where she was first introduced to Vipassana Meditation.
Yongsun's formal yoga training includes trips to Mysore and Poona, India where she studied Ashtanga and Iyenga yoga. Her yoga teachers include Pattabhi Jois, Rodney Lee, John Schumacher, Patricia Walden, Kevin Kimple, Ramanand Patel, and Dona Holleman. In 2003 she completed Richard Freeman's 200 hour teacher training. However, Younsun considers her students to be her primary teachers.
Youngsun's teaching style is intuitive, and hands on. She is an incredibly gifted assister and her students often comment that they feel as though they had just received a massage after her class! Younsun believes that GOOD HEALTH HAS TO BE EARNED THROUGH SWEAT AND LIFESTYLE.
Priya Brezny studied yoga asana locally for fifteen years with Jean Nelson, Glen Tibbers and others before studying the Ashtanga system in depth with Kevin and Sarah in 2006. She also attended workshops with Tim Miller and Manju Jois. Priya is a holistic massage practitioner with 25 years experience and brings a wealth of anatomy and physiology knowledge to the yoga classes she instructs. Priya is a student of Srila Bhaktivedanta Narayana Gosvami Maharaja, a renound bhakti scharya. Her Bhakti yoga practice includes chanting, meditation and studying the Bhagavad Gita and other Vedic literature. Priya is an avid gardener, hiker and interests include nutrition, healthy cooking, homeopathy and herbology.
Dan Cox’s interest in yoga began in the 60’s when he started
practicing Transcendental Meditation and reading books on Indian Philosophy. He has practiced Iyengar, Bikram, Anusara, and Ashtanga yoga. In 2003, Dan completed Richard Freeman’s 200 hour teacher training. He has been a student of Kevin Kimple and daily Ashtanga practitioner since 2007. He recently returned from an intensive two-month guest teaching engagement at Studio Samasthiti in Paris, France. Dan is an avid musician with a wide ranging and eclectic artistic style.
