Amy first started Yoga at a suburban Boston high school where Sivananda yoga was offered as a gym elective. She thought headstand was fun and that savasana was a great time for a nap. She was lucky enough also to study the Bhagavad Gita in her high school English class.
She started her yoga studies as an adult in 1993 at the Evanston Athletic Club with Kim Schwartz of the Temple of Kriya Yoga. He taught an Iyengar-based yoga with a very loving and gentle style. Kim had a profound effect on Amy's teaching technique.
Amy has also studied music her whole life. She was an All-State award winner in high school for her soprano voice, and a soloist with the Princeton University Glee Club which toured Australia, New Zealand, Tahiti, Hawaii, and Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Yugoslavia, Austria and France. She studied 11 years of piano with Ms. Gabrielle Rondeau, and 7 years of flute and 5 years of cello.
Amy then studied with Suddha Weixler of Chicago Yoga Center who introduced Amy to Ashtanga Yoga, and told her about the founder of the Ashtanga Yoga system, Sri K. Pattabhi Jois (Guruji). Amy went to Mysore, India for the first time in December 1996, for the first of many visits to see Sri K. Pattabhi Jois and his grandson, Sharath Rangaswamy at the yoga shala in Mysore. Amy returned numerous times to Mysore, India over the next several years, spending over 3 years total in Mysore. In 1999, she was granted authorization to teach Ashtanga Yoga. Amy also studied with Manju Jois, Guruji's son and with Dena Kingsberg, Tim Miller and Lino Miele, John Friend and Ana Forrest. She completed Teacher Trainings with Suddha Weixler and Tim Miller. She encountered wonderful music while in India and she learned to lead kirtan there.
On July 8, 2003 Amy founded Yoga Now North then on March 25, 2006 founded Yoga Now Gold Coast, an all eco-friendly studio where she teaches Ashtanga Yoga and Teacher Training and leads her band, Amy and the Ananda Bliss Tribe in monthly kirtan fusion. Amy helped to start a kirtan band in 1998, and has been leading her own kirtan band in monthly kirtans since 2003. Amy recently completed her first Vision Quest with a Native American elder, Singing Man.
Yoga Now Gold Coast employs the best yoga teachers in the city in each discipline. Yoga Now Gold Coast has upscale amenities such as a sauna and steam room and 2 massage rooms and it is an earthen oasis away from the hustle and bustle of city life. Come visit us soon!