Our Staff - Teacher Bios

Lara Demberg, RYT, is a Certified Anusara teacher, with 8 years teaching experience and co-founder of Vikasa.

Lara's Anusara classes are fun, challenging to the body and spirit, and always invoke a deeper purpose for stepping on the mat. Her open level classes blend many different abilities and challenges; everyone walks away challenged no matter what they bring to the mat. Anusara yoga is a school of hatha yoga which unifies a life-affirming Tantric philosophy of intrinsic goodness with Universal Principles of Alignment. Lara was introduced to the Anusara style through her teacher, Kate Hagerman, while at Quan Yin in Garrison. Since then, Lara has deepened her study through much continuing training and education.

Lara specializes in therapeutics and is available for private and group classes. Follow her at www.Larademberg.blogspot.com

Melia Marzollo is a certified Pilates Instructor and Yamuna Body Rolling Practitioner, as well as a co-founder of Vikasa. She is also a member of The Pilates Method Alliance. Melia is proud to have trained with and earned certifications through: All Bodies Pilates of Cold Spring, New York, Half Moon Pilates of Brooklyn Heights, New York, Power Pilates of New York City, and Yamuna Body Rolling of New York City and Playa Negra, Costa Rica, The Center for Women's Fitness and Pilates on 17th of San Francisco, California.

Melia’s Pilates Mat classes focus on strengthening and moving from the core and are appropriate for all levels of fitness. Her Pilates Mat classes offer a level of strengthening and lengthening for the entire body from deep within. In her Yamuna Body Rolling class or YBR, Melia offers a therapy practice that combines healing, wellness, toning, and injury prevention in a single workout. YBR consists of a series of routines that use a 6-10 inch reinflatable ball to stretch muscles, freeing restrictions in all parts of the body, increasing blood flow, and promoting healing. Melia's most recent work in Pilates has brought her to a specialization in pre and postnatal Pilates. She teaches pre and postnatal in both private apparatus sessions and in group mat and ball classes.

Melia is grateful to work and live in such an amazing community, doing what she truly loves with wonderful clients, students, and fellow teachers, who inspire her to GROW everyday!

Kathy Toris Rowe, RYT and IYA member, is a certified Hatha yoga teacher and Co-founder of Vikasa. Kathy's Vinyasa classes encompass the teachings and techniques of Hatha, Iyengar, Kripalu, Vinyasa and Yin. She currently teaches at Sportsplex, Esplanade Senior Home as well as various private classe. Kathy challenges and encourages her students to integrate breath and movement, awareness and alignment, strength and fluidity. She guides students to experience the whole range of energy cultivated in yoga from the purification of flowing sequences to the stillness of inversions and meditations – yin and yang. She is wholeheartedly grateful to all her teachers who have guided her through the years and continues her studies with various teachers at Kripalu and Yoga Mountain.

Anne Vitiello At Madison Square Garden in 1995, the first year that women entered amateur boxing tournaments, Anne became the Golden Glove Flyweight Champion of New York. From 1996 - 2004, she worked for HBO as an online round-by-round commentator. Then and afterward, Anne continued to hit the gym, and integrate other exercise techniques to target all muscle groups and balance energies. WHY FOR POETS: Always cognizant of the mind-body connection and in pursuit of a balanced and self-expressive/self-discovering workout, BFP is an interdisciplinary form of creative self-aggression. No hitting people! Students use the heavybag, speedbag and focus mitts to Sting Like A Butterfly, training interval-style, using the 3-minute timing of boxing rounds. In the process of learning classic pugilistic techniques, getting a great cardio workout and developing both core and punching power, something more happens: I attract a lot of creative people. Boxing can help you transition into a more fertile state of mind, and some of my clients use it for that purpose. It?s extremely physical yet incredibly mental at the same time. ...Endorphins anyone?

Anne offers semi-privates on Tuesdays and Fridays. She also offers group workshops twice monthly. Check our schedule for dates and times! You won't be disappointed.

Kasia Bilinska, is trained in the Sivananda style of Yoga. More info to follow.

Andrew Hall teaches in the Anusara Style. Andrew trained with Ross Rayburn at Elements Yoga in Darien, Ct.

©2010 Vikasa Studio