Teachers

Billie Jo Joy, Ed.M., R.Y.T., is co-founder, and co–manager of Art & Soul. She is an Iyengar trained, Kripalu certified yoga instructor who has been studying for 20 years, primarily with Zoe Stewart; and teaching for over 15 years. Her instruction is ornamented with yogic philosophy, experiential anatomy, and poetry. She offers a safe and friendly place for practice that balances strength, flexibility, reflection, and spiritual upliftment. She teaches public and private classes, and yoga retreats in Mexico, Colombia, Italy, and Michigan. Billie Jo is also an accomplished dancer, choreographer, actor, writer and director who works irregularly in stage and film. She has been performing and directing in the Boston area since 1989. Credits include Dust to Dust (2006); Venus De Mini Van, Mothers in the Breakdown Lane (2002) which became the off–broadway play Eve–olution (2004); two highly acclaimed productions of The Vagina Monologues at Harvard University (2000) and Boston V–Day (2004); Spiderman 2 (July 2004); Homeward Bound (2002); Small White Woman Impersonating Martin Luther King, (1999). She toured internationally, as a dancer, with Paula Josa–Jones Performance Works from 1990–1994. She is a certified teacher of Action Theater improvisation, and has studied extensively with the Roy Hart Voice Theater in France. She is a member of the Screen Actor's Guild. Currently, she performs with the East Coast Action Theater Ensemble. She has a master's degree in education from Harvard University where she also studied trance dance and healing practices through ethnographic film making and then worked there in the fields of international education and mind–body medicine. This work involved her in research projects with the Dalai Lama in India and Qi masters in China. The research confirmed her initial belief in the potential of the contemplative and expressive arts to improve health, raise consciousness, solve problems, and deepen joy. Billie Jo has taught at Salem State College, Emerson College and The Boston Conservatory. Students have called her an "exceptional and knowledgeable teacher." joy@yoga.com, 617-395-4227

Carol Faulkner has a BS in Education from Lesley College and is a certified Iyengar yoga teacher. She has been to India to study yoga with the Iyengars, and studies regularly with Patricia Walden. Carol teaches adult and children classes as well as private group and individual lessons. She leads 2 Yoga Retreats each summer on a private island in NH and in 2006 was the yoga teacher for a group tour in Kerala, India. For more information you can contact her at 617-492-5246 or carolfaulkner@comcast.net.

Johnny Lapham is a working artist, performer and teacher who creates thriving and inviting spaces for deeply intimate and wildly connected creative expression. His goal as a teacher is to provide a spirit of safety, focus and an invitation to support fearless creative expression for people of all ages. His studio, The Big Hand, is located two doors away from Art & Soul at 97 Hampshire Street.

Nancy Turnquist is a certified teacher of Iyengar Yoga. She completed a two year Iyengar teacher training program with Patricia Walden with whom she continues to study and work with closely. Nancy has traveled three times to Pune, India to study with the Iyengar family and spent a year teaching yoga in Spanish and studying with Jordi Marti at the Center for Iyengar Yoga in Barcelona, Spain. Nancy has a masters degree in literary translation and welcomes Spanish speakers to her classes. Her teaching is inspired by the joy and skill that arise from the practice of yoga. For questions or more information you can contact her at 617-599-8486 or nancyturnquist@gmail.com. www.yogaoffering.com

Lorraine Grosslight, M.Ed., improviser, actor and director, has been teaching since 1989. She is a certified Action Theater teacher and performs with the International Action Theater Ensemble directed by Ruth Zaporah. Lorraine also conducts communication and leadership development workshops for executives and teams through The Ariel Group. She directs the local improv troupe New Tricks and is a member of the Playback troupe True Story Theater. She developed original shows with school children and youth with disabilities through VSA. Former faculty of the Boston Conservatory, Emerson College, New Theater Conservatory; affiliated with the Shantigar Foundation. A believer in the healing power of theater, Lorraine provides supportive coaching to develop skill and authentic creative expression in performance. Please reach her at 617–623–2842.

Deb Goldman, MA, is Certified Celebrant and Multifaith Officiant, an Expressive Arts Therapist with a specialization in dance/movement therapy, a practitioner of Authentic Movement, a Childrens and Family Yoga Teacher, and a mother, with 20 years of experience creating and facilitating groups, rituals, and rites of passage ceremonies. 617-957-4413

Deborah Elizabeth Lotus, Guild Certified Feldenkrais Practitioner™; Certified Bones for Life® Teacher, Trainer; began her somatic/movement apprenticeship with Dr. Moshe Feldenkrais in 1972 at Esalen Institute and continued under Dr. Feldenkrais’ at his First North American Feldenkrais Professional Training Program at the Humanistic Psychology Institute in San Francisco, CA during the ‘70’s. To this date, she continues her learning with Feldenkrais Master Trainer, Ruthy Alon, and originator of Bones for Life® which is designed to stimulate strong bones, good posture and 'biological optimism'. She has been a Consultant/Teacher at Harvard University's Wellness and Health Communication Center, Guest Faculty at Lesley University's Bones For Life academically accredited Professional Training Program, is currently conducting a ‘First Generation’ BFL professional training in Mexico through 2010, and has her private Functional Integration® practice at her home in Cambridge and at the Arlington Center. She is the Senior Feldenkrais Practitioner of the Greater Boston area and has served the New England Region since 1981. For more information (including curriculum) visit: www.bonesforlife.com and www.movementintelligence.org. To sign up contact Deborah at 617-661-1585 or www.deborahelizabeth.lotus@gmail.com

Annie Hoffman is owner/co-founder of Art & Soul. She is a certified Iyengar teacher, grounded in 20 years of teaching experience. Her classes focus on balancing the basic elements of alignment, as well as an investigation of the more subtle aspects of breath and energy flow. Classes are a safe space to explore connection to self, other, and the divine. www.anniehoffmanyoga.com, 781-643-4159

Beate Grieben-Francis is a certified Kripalu Yoga Teacher and has an M.Ed. from Lesley University where she studied Creative Arts in Learning. Beate is teaching gentle to moderate yoga classes for adults. She teaches private classes and has been teaching pre-schooler yoga classes for the past three years. She has led yoga workshops for teachers. She has also been assisting with restorative yoga classes at Art& Soul. Beate has been a teacher of young children all of her professional life, working with mostly preschool aged children and their families in a variety of settings. Helping children unfold and access their full potential in all areas of development has always informed her teaching practice. Working with visual arts and creative movement and music, the leap to yoga was a natural evolution. Beate came to a personal yoga practice in the mid 1990’s, studying with Phoenix Rising, Iyengar and Kripalu trained teachers. Deepening her relationship with yoga led to teacher trainings for children and the 200- hour Yoga teacher training at the Kripalu Yoga Center in Lennox, Mass. in the summer of 2009. Students have called her a gentle, insightful teacher whose classes have a beautiful flow and sequence, and a meditative quality. beate@rcn.com

Neely Cohen has studied, taught, and performed belly dance in the United States and throughout the Middle East for over twenty years.

Vered Levy's yoga teaching follows the tradition of the Iyengar method. She has completed teacher training with her mentor Patricia Walden whom she continues to study with and assist. Vered is a long time yoga practitioner and a Ph.D. scientist. She integrates a deep interest in life science research with her passion to yoga in her energetic teachings. For more information contact Vered at 617-447-7534 or levyvered@gmail.com