Elka Haeckel Hauck
Head Instructor and Owner of Namaste Yoga Center, Elka Haeckel Hauck, is a certified Hatha Yoga instructor with emphasis in Vinyasa Flow and Power Vinyasa. She melds her vision for a healing and athletic community with detailed yoga postures. Elka's enthusiastic and compassionate personality, combined with her extensive knowledge and understanding of yoga practice and health, challenges the most advanced students and encourages the beginner and intermediate.
Elka began practicing yoga in 2001, teaching in 2002, and got certified to teach by Kathy Lee with the Institute of Progressive Therapy in 2005. She is constantly participating in teacher training sessions and workshops to further her knowledge. She did a teacher training in Yoga Trance Dance with Shiva Rea in 2006; an Embody the Flow teacher training with Shiva Rea in 2007--focusing on how to teach students a deeper level of understanding of vineyasa flow; a Key Muscles of Hatha Yoga workshop with Dr. Ray Long in 2006; and is studying to be a Holistic Health Practitioner at the International Professional School of Bodywork--specializing in Thai Massage, Reiki, Deep Tissue and Therapeutic Massage. She is also certified to teach pre-natal yoga. Elka has led workshops and retreats in California, Mexico, Costa Rica and Brazil and is excited to continue training and teaching in other parts of the world.
Om Shanti
Namaste
Amy Freeman
Amy found her personal practice of yoga in 1995, and teaching has been her passion since 2001. She studied with Swami Satchidanada at Yogaville Ashram, VA. Amy's vinyasa classes blend physical alignment and core strength in a fluid rhythm utilizing breath and mindfulness (intention) to bring ease and stability in each pose. Her goal is to help students find and maintain an easeful body and peaceful mind.
Angela Salemme
Angela has been practicing yoga for the last seven years and took her first several classes at Bird Rock Yoga and Prana Yoga Center. She instantly fell in love with yoga and received her 200-hour Yoga Alliance teacher training certification in 2007. She’s been teaching ever since. Her teaching style includes vinyasa flow, intro classes, and gentle hatha with a strong emphasis on breath work and focus. Her yoga practice has also led her to the Brazilian martial art form of Capoeira, which combines fluid movements and acrobatic sequences, and she trains with the group Capoeira Brasil. A La Jolla native, Angela now lives in Ocean Beach.
Atsuro Chiba
Born and raised in Japan, Atsuro discovered yoga in his mid-twenties after moving to San Diego. His daily practice of Ashtanga continues to change his life in a positive way, and he has come to view it as a wonderful science of the body, mind, and spirit. He completed the second series of Ashtanga yoga teacher training with Tim Miller in 2008. He finds great pleasure practicing and teaching yoga to his students. Atsuro feels that as his students' practice develops, their lives improve, which is the part of teaching that brings him the most joy.
Elaina Petrucci Gunn
Elaina began her yoga journey over 10 years ago in Portsmouth, New Hampshire after a back injury. She was happily transformed by the awakened energy of the powerful practice of Ashtanga. Since, then, her life has taken her to New Orleans, where her yoga practice took on a more creative element. Her latest journey brings her to San Diego, where she is happily starting a family, studying with Shiva Rea, and soaking in the California Shakti. Elaina Teaches vinyasa flow with an emphasis on the core, thoughtful and intuitive movement, and the full sensual experience of prana.
Janike Robinson
Janike teaches yoga with an uplifting, sincere and improvisational approach that reflects the way she approaches life. Janike has been studying ashtanga under Tim Miller since 2000, and was certified as a teacher in 2003. Janike remains a passionate student, and teaching yoga has opened her heart and mind to ways of helping others improve their practice and further harmony and balance in their lives. Forever optimistic, open-minded and enthusiastic, Janike's goal is to help her students embrace yoga as a celebration of our own "yet to be discovered" potential.
Laura Downing
Laura Downing began her yoga journey 10 years ago and has been teaching since 2003. She draws upon her experience as a professional ballet and modern dancer to bring a vast knowledge of movement, body mechanics and alignment to her teaching. Emphasizing the importance of the breath and listening to one's own inner guidance, Laura helps her students find freedom in their bodies, peace in their minds, and joy in their hearts. Her most influential teachers have been Shiva Rea and Michael Fukumura.
Maral Hadidi
Teaching since 2000 and practicing since 1994, Maral has studied Iyengar, Vinyasa Flow, Ashtanga, Anusara, and AcroYoga. Maral is also a skilled Thai massage therapist, practicing for the last five years. She blends her deep understandings of Anusara, anatomy, and energetics to create for a therapeutic experience both physically and spiritually. The devotion to community and peace on both a local and universal level are Maral’s intentions for herself and for humanity.The path of yoga has given Maral tangible evidence and more importantly, the energetic evidence to see and be involved in manifesting community and peace-building through connection. Yoga is one of the paths to this peace.
Renee Gauthier
Intertwined with her personal search for health, happiness, and fulfillment, Renee has always had a strong desire to inspire those things in others. Her passion for movement and healing arts lead her to become a yoga instructor and massage therapist. She has studied Iyengar, Anusara, Vinyasa, and restorative yoga, and enjoys teaching a variety of yoga styles. To compliment her somatic arts modalities, she also has a master's degree in education with an emphasis in cross-cultural counseling. This combination of expressive movement, yogic mindfulness, and counseling represent her integrated approach towards health and wellness.
Robin Oleata
Robin Oleata has been a Holistic Health Practitioner since 2003 and a Certified Yoga Teacher since 2004. She began studying yoga while in college at UC Berkeley. She has explored many different styles of yoga and enjoys blending different traditions to create her own unique yoga experience. Robin especially loves to integrate a strong and aligned physical body, open heart center and meditative mind through yoga practice. She is versed in many traditional yoga chants which she incorporates into her classes. Her teaching certification is in the classical Hatha style of Sivananda but she has also studied Vinyasa Flow, Astanga, Kundalini and Restorative Yoga. Her other interests include surfing, traveling and walking her dogs.
Teresa Austin
Teresa's Astanga-inspired classes allow her students to delve deeply into their practices, revealing to them their infinite potential. A teacher of World Mythology, Teresa yokes myth with the 5,000-year-old science of yoga. Teresa is thankful to all of her teachers--especially Sri Pattabhi Jois, Matias Flury and Sean O'Shea. Teresa also teaches yoga to young women at Shakti Rising, a leading-edge organization providing holistic services to young women in need.