Jackie Prete 
Jackie Prete is a Certified Anusara Yoga Instructor, a Licensed Massage Therapist and Yoga Therapist. She is also Certified by Om Yoga Center and The White Lotus Foundation in Santa Barbara,California. Her training includes 7 years of study at the Iyengar Institute of NYC. Jackie has studied yoga therapeutics extensively with John Friend and practices the techniques learned in his therapeutic trainings. She is the owner of Ram Sangha Retreats leading retreats in the Catskills and Costa Rica for the past 7 years.

Jackie brings 18 years of teaching experience to her Anusara yoga classes. She draws on her experience as a body worker to help her students deepen their practice in a safe yet challenging environment. Her spirited yet playful classes are characterized by precision of alignment with freedom to connect with the essence of this sacred and heart-filled practice.

Since joining the World Yoga Center staff, Jackie and Rudrani Farbman Brown (WYC director) have co-led Anusara Immersions, Teacher Trainings and retreats. Their work together is a profound and joyful exploration of the weaving of Tantric yoga philosophy through the study of Anusara yoga and yoga scriptures.

Jackie has appeared on Good Day New York and The Sally Jesse Rafael Show. She has been published in Family Circle, Elle, Real Beauty and First Woman magazines. She currently also teaches at NYC's premier Equinox Fitness Clubs.

Marjorie Nass
Marjorie is a Certified Anusara Yoga Teacher, who discovered Anusara yoga's life affirming philosophy, universal principals and supportive community when she sought stress relief after a decade working in corporate environments. Her life dramatically shifted for the better as she explored and intensified her yoga practice. The path of teaching followed to offer others the gift of yoga, and she created therapeutics classes at the world Yoga Center in 2006 in order to address the needs in the community.  She offers gratitude to her teachers John Friend and Amy Ippoliti for their encouragement and support.

Susan Kotcher
Certified by the World Yoga Center, Susan Kotcher teaches Hatha yoga, inspired by the grace of Anusara yoga, imbuing rigorous asana practice with celebration of the luminous consciousness that is our core. Susan sees that yoga encourages us to practice even while "off the mat" in our daily lives, co-creating a powerful force within our city of 8 million people for a more compassionate world. Susan began a daily meditation practice 15 years ago, studying Tantra and Tibetan and Zen Buddhism. In 1997, she discovered the beauty of Hatha yoga at the World Yoga Center and began her studies with Rudrani Farbman Brown. Susan's practice continues to be shaped by the World Yoga Center, and she is blessed to teach at the school. She thanks Rudrani Farbman Brown, John Friend, Robert Thurman, Thich Nhat Hanh, the sangha and fellow yoga students, and her life partner, Steven, for their generous inspiration.

Susan holds a BA from Barnard and an MA from Columbia University, both in Political Science. She works with the International Rescue Committee, which rescues refugees around the world. Susan also teaches yoga and meditation in non-profit settings and privately.

Michael Fergot
Michael happily joins the faculty at the World Yoga Center and is unabashedly in love with the dynamic dance of Shakti and Shiva. He began studying yoga in 1982, but it wasn't until being introduced to Anusara Yoga by Jackie Prete that he feels he really met Yoga. He views each day, class and breath as an opportunity to deepen his connection to that divine mystery called Grace. While each practice is guided by the scientific principles of biomechanics, these principles are employed to elevate and celebrate the human heart. That the human heart can aspire and magically unite with the divine is the greatest gift. Michael's classes balance vigorous action and the life-affirming qualities of heart. He has been a student of the body and mind for over 25 years ranging from martial to the performing arts, philosophy and sciences. He has been a dancer for 15 years and holds certification in both Sports Medicine and Medical Exercise. As an Anusara Yoga affiliate he is working towards certification. Michael is known for his sweetness and gentle approach.

Tyrone Holmes
Tyrone fell in love with Yoga several years ago and has never looked back.  He was introduced to Yoga by a co-worker.  Like many, he at first came to Yoga for the physical aspect but quickly realized that there was much more.  It is the formless essence, the indescribable beauty, the poetry of Yoga and wonderful teachers that inspired him to continue.

Throughout his study he has been blessed with amazing Anusara Yoga teachers to whom he extends much love and gratitude.  On the journey towards becoming a teacher he was equally blessed to complete his teacher training at the World Yoga Center where his teachers, Jackie Prete and Rudrani Farbman Brown, transformed his practice. Through the spirit of both his teachers, he embraced the wisdom of Anusara alignment and the beauty of Yoga that takes us  beyond the form.   

Tyrone enjoys the diversity, energy, and pulse of city life.  His classes offer students from all walks of life an opportunity to explore and share the unifying powers of the practice.  He enjoys bringing the energizing physical practice and the breath together to create that subtle space for students to travel inward and dance with the luminous energy within.

Naz Sarman
Naz is an Anusara-inspired Hatha yoga teacher; she has been practicing since 1999. She had her first teacher training in New York  with Jackie Prete. Naz is honored and thrilled to be joining the staff of the World Yoga Center - a respected Anusara school and a spiritual oasis come to life under Rudrani's leadership.  

Since 2004 Naz has been trained in yoga therapeutics and advanced teaching with Anusara founder John Friend and has studied with his senior certified teachers throughout the country including Elena Brower, Ellen Saltonstall, Lois Nesbitt and Paula Tursi. She continues to study yoga philosophy with Professor Dr. Douglas Brooks and meditation with Sally Kempton. Naz has a strong interest and commitment to meditation and spiritual development.  

Currently Naz enriches her Anusara Yoga classes with her knowledge of Reiki, Alexander Technique and Body Mind Centering techniques. She explores the wisdom of the moving body and the body's healing capacity through a balance of holding and moving fluently within poses. She emphasizes breathing, alignment and imagery related to the mechanism of the inner body. In her classes you will develop a heightened awareness of your body's movement patterns while getting a complete workout through isometric holding of your muscles.

Naz recognizes and thanks all her teachers and mentors as well as her students for their constant inspiration and support.

Danielle Lee
Danielle offers a personal approach to yoga that integrates the insights of various traditions into a vital practice that cultivates strength, grace and awareness.  Her classes draw on the precise alignment and heartfelt spirit of Anusara, the fluid grace and creativity of Vinyasa, the breath centered approach of Desikachar, and the quiet power of Yin to help students experience the stillness in movement and the flow in stillness. 
 
Also passionate about food and healing, Danielle has developed insight from a variety of nutritional and philosophical paradigms on preparing foods that are beautiful, delicious and health supportive.   She is currently enrolled in the Chef's Training Program at the Natural Gourmet Institute for Health and Culinary Arts. It is her hope to inspire her students, through the healing arts of yoga and food, to create a life of expanding consciousness and deliberate positive action that will better their lives and the lives of those around them.

Danielle is honored to join the faculty at the World Yoga Center - a sacred space where she herself studied yoga and meditation with Rudrani Farbman.  She is grateful to John Friend, Lois Nesbitt, Amy Ippoliti, Shiva Rea, Leslie Kaminoff and Sarah Powers who have taught her to become the teacher she is, and to the community of teachers and students in NYC who continue to inspire her.     

Alice Hogan
Certified by the World Yoga Center, Alice joyfully embraces the beauty of Anusara Yoga.  In her gentle Restorative classes she uses Anusara's principles to align and make space in the body, and the breath to calm the thought waves of the mind.  Alice is drawn to Yoga as the world's most ancient wisdom tradition and embraces meditation as its core, most illuminating and luminous practice.  As a teacher, Alice shares her love of Yoga philosophy, the wisdom of the Siddhas, and the heart-opening poetry of Hafiz, Rumi and Kabir with her students.  Through the Restorative practice, she aims to help students connect with the peacefulness at the core of their being while gently "restoring" their physical bodies.

Alice is grateful to her teachers, Jackie Prete and Rudrani Farbman-Brown, for her very thorough training as a Yoga Teacher.  Recently inspired by practicing with an expanded group of talented senior Anusara teachers, Alice is grateful to live in a city that has such a vital Anusara presence.  She is also grateful to be part of New York's very vibrant Siddha Yoga community.

 As part of  her continuing education as a Yoga Teacher Alice studies Anatomy and Therapeutics with Ellen Saltonstall and will complete a professional training in Yoga Nidra in 2009.  Yoga Nidra is an esoteric meditation practice that has the potential to help many including those who are physically challenged.

Jana Castellano
A former professional ballet dancer turned equestrian, Jana was introduced to Rudrani through a mutual friend and became irresistibly drawn towards the practices of Yoga within the World Yoga Center student community. In May 2008, she completed WYC¹s Teacher Training course and is now a freelance yoga teacher in both the New York City and Pocono Pennsylvania areas.

Julia Pearring
After taking her first yoga class five years ago, Julia immediately set the intention of lifelong studentship. She felt a deep knowing and recognition of the joy that underlies the heart- opening practice of Anusara Yoga and holds herself to the rigors of cultivating awakenment in mind and body. Julia offers students an arena in which to play with the precise method and transformative powers of the Alignment Principles. Her classes immerse students in an ever expanding freedom that comes from moving intentionally from our core. By accompanying an integrated, challenging class with the subtle opening to possibility, Julia's class is a place to take your practice to the next level.