Our Instructors

Kat Tudor

Teaching Philosophy:

Kat Tudor’s Yoga is infused with her art and dance background as well as her extensive training in yoga which she has studied for many years traveling the world to seek out teachers and traditions.
She has developed her own creative form of yoga, heart-based and humorous.
Kat’s classes have an emphasis on balancing strength and flexibility, mind and body, breath and awareness.
She has broad experience teaching children, teenagers, and adults in  visual, movement, theater and yogic arts.

Background:

•    Kat has a Honorary Doctorate in Humane Letters from Colorado College.
•    Kat is Registered with Yoga Alliance as an RYT-200. Her teacher training was through Shambhava School of Yoga near Boulder, Colorado. She has also had advanced training in Yoga For Healing at Shambhava.
•    Kat has trained with Saul David Raye as a Thai Yoga Therapist.
•    Kat has helped create the world’s largest yogic spiral at Colorado College and America The Beautiful Park as well as the World’s Highest Yogic Spiral atop Pikes Peak in the fall of 2009.
•    Kat is creative director of the Smokebrush Foundation for the Arts which she founded in 1992.
•    Kat has recently taught Yoga and Public Art at Colorado College and is currently co-teaching Interdisciplinary Improvisational Arts at UCCS with her husband Bob.
•    Kat is available for private sessions.
For more information on Kat please visit her website/blog at  www.yogaandart.com

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Natalie Morris

Teaching Philosophy:

Natalie sees yoga as a method for becoming more in touch with our spiritual selves through working with our physical bodies.  Combinations of breathing, moving, stretching, meditating and deeply relaxing are all ways to find connections within ourselves of which we are often unaware.  Natalie encourages students to explore their bodies through movement, through breathing and through moments of stillness that come naturally if we let them.  Props are used extensively in class to allow bodies of any age, shape or physical state to participate.

Background:

• Registered with Yoga Alliance as an RYT-500, advanced teacher training.

• Yoga teacher training through International Yoga College .

• Studied for past 10 years with Rama Jyoti Vernon and Angela Farmer.

• Practicing yoga for 12 years, teaching for 8 years.

• Licensed Massage Therapist, and Certified in Neuromuscular Therapy (NMT).

• Practicing meditation of various types for 12 years, including studying Buddhist meditation for the past 4 years.

• Recently returned from 1 month Buddhist meditation course at Kopan Monastery in Nepal.

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Kathe Forrest

Kathe Forrest has been teaching yoga for the past 8 years in Texas and Colorado and has practiced yoga for over 20 years. She is a certified yoga teacher in both Hatha and Kundalini techniques. Her style of teaching incorporates both Hatha and Kundalini yoga, which uses the breath and movement. She is also a Master Herbalist and Reiki Master. For further details, please visit www.katheforrest.com

View her blog here http://kundaliniseeds.blogspot.com/

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David Gardiner

David Gardiner teaches Buddhism, and other subjects, in the Colorado College Religion Department, where he is currently Chair. He came to Colorado College in 1998, after receiving his Ph.D. from Stanford University in Religious Studies. His research specialty is Japanese Buddhism, in particular the writings of Kukai, the ninth century founder of the Shingon School of Japanese Tantric Buddhism.  Having first studied Buddhism with Robert Thurman at Amherst College, David was deeply influenced by meetings with the Dalai Lama and other fine Tibetan teachers, and has maintained a practice in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition for many years. As a result of developing in 2008 a close relationship with Khen Rinpoche Lobsang Tsetan, and in response to strong local interest, he and Natalie Morris decided together in 2009 to open BodhiMind Center in Colorado Springs in order to share Buddhist teachings and practices more widely in the community. BodhiMind Center’s activities are presently based at the Inner Space at Poor Richard’s.

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Jacob Kelly

LMT, Reiki Master and Sound Medicine practitioner.

Hello, and welcome. My name is Jacob Kelly, licensed massage therapist, and I am the proprietor of Euphoria Massage & Energetics. I provide services of top quality Massage Therapy and Energetic Balancing.

As a 2000 graduate of Colorado Springs Academy of Therapeutic Massage (CO), I received 1,100 hours classroom training and more than 150 hours of practice and clinical massage outside of the classroom. In school I was certified in 4 modalities of therapy massage: Swedish, sports, deep-tissue, and neuro-muscular therapy. I received my Colorado Springs City License in ‘01. In 2005 I became a certified ReiKi Master as well as certified in therapeutic hot stone massage.

I have worked professionally at spas and with chiropractors since I became licensed, and in 2003 I established Euphoria.

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Robyn Madsen

Teaching Philosophy:

Every practitioner of yoga brings something unique and different to a space. Just like every person has a unique fingerprint, every yogi or yogini has a unique practice. It is my intention, as a yoga instructor to provide a constructive and conscious setting that facilitates this inward journey to divine authenticity.

Yoga defines the human being as being composed of 5 layers, or sheaths of consciousness.  An introduction to these 5 layers of consciousness provides a framework for deeper development of the spiritual, physical, and emotional beings. This is why one feels so incredibly grounded and present when they leave a yoga class.

The deeper one gets into their practice, the more authentic it becomes and the more it begins to filter into all aspects of one’s life. This is the point- all the world is a yoga mat. The brilliance of yoga is that you don’t need anything but your body, your breath and the earth to develop your practice.

I encourage all yoga practitioners to go inward- to listen to the wisdom of their own organism. For, you are your greatest teacher. You hold the key to experiencing a state of health and wholeness- all you need to do is listen. We are all hooked up to source. Your DNA is saturated with all life’s answers.

Background:

• Robyn has a BA in Communication from UCCS.

• Robyn studied yoga in Costa Rica at Nosara Yoga Institute where she received her 200-hour level teacher training certification.

• Robyn is creative director of Beer Yoga at Bristol Brewery.

Robyn is available for private sessions

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Andy Finn

Andy Finn has owned and operated Finn Graphics, a sign and graphics company in Colorado Springs for the past 15 years.  He is an urban farmer, beekeeper and regularly sells his organic produce and honey at local farmer’s markets.  He is an avid cyclist and devoted father of two wonderful children.  Andy discovered Wisdom Healing Qigong in 2006 and has been dedicated to this practice ever since.  He is deeply grateful to his teachers Mingtong Gu and Ellie Coriell for introducing him to this powerful healing tradition.  He is honored now to share this tradition with this community.

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Jenny Finn

Jenny Finn is a licensed social worker (LSW), embodiment educator and owner of Soma, Ltd, offering opportunities for healing through creative expression and embodied practices. Currently, Jenny is pursuing her PhD in Wisdom Studies at Wisdom University. She has studied in Boulder with Melissa Michaels, certified 5Rhythms® instructor, where she completed the Foundation Year Training of SomaSource®. Jenny has studied the theory and practice of embodied psychotherapy with Susan Aposhyan, author of Body Mind Psychotherapy. In the summer of 2005, she organized the first Movement Ministry of First Congregational Church, United Church of Christ. This ministry, now named Shekhinah, offers opportunities to experience dance as a spiritual practice and deepen into an embodied, mystical relationship with God. She recently danced with the Oikos Ensemble from Cleveland, Ohio, interpreting through movement, the parable of the Prodigal Son and His Brother. Jenny is passionate about unearthing the heart and soul of our institutions, and has offered workshops at local hospitals, churches, schools and several non-profit organizations. She also works with small groups using ritual, song and dance for healing. Jenny is a cancer survivor and works with people of all ages, including those living with life threatening and chronic illness. Jenny is excited to be bringing this work outside of Colorado Springs this year to Nova Scotia; Asheville, North Carolina; San Francisco and she has a beautiful opportunity this winter, to travel around the world with Semester at Sea, where she will offer spiritual development on the ship to college students, faculty and staff. Jenny is a member of the Sacred Dance Guild, the National Association of Social Workers, the Associated Body Work and Massage Professionals and the Jungian Society of Colorado Springs. To learn more about Soma, please visit the Soma website at www.somamovement.org.

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Michael Paler

Michael has studied and practiced Chinese Martial Arts such as Wing Chun, Shaolin 5 Animal Gongfu and others since he was 8 years old. At 16 years old Michael began his study and practice of “Internal” Chinese Martial Arts such as Tai Chi Boxing (Taijiquan) Mind-Form Boxing (Xingyiquan) and 8 Trigram Boxing (Baguazhang) as well as Qigong. He has taught Tai Chi for the past 17 years in both class and personal settings to people ages 8-90, and continues to do so in Colorado Springs, promoting this beautiful art he has dedicated his entire life to. Michael is a qualified instructor who has over 17 years experience in Tai Chi, Push Hands, Weapons, Chi Kung (Qigong), and all of the basic training exercises necessary in becoming a proficient Tai Chi practitioner.

More information at http://www.taichicoloradosprings.com/

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Marguerite Cordtz, RYT

200 hour certification – Shosohni Yoga Center  Nederland CO Hatha yoga and Meditation
50 hour certification – Kripalu yoga at Yoga Journeys  Colorado Springs
Silver Age yoga – certification in progress
50 hour certification – Specializing in seniors and special needs
Registered with Yoga Alliance since 2006

My classes are a balance of breath work, asana, meditation and relaxation. The focus is on bringing the body and the breath into awareness and cultivating that awareness into everyday life.
Classes are gentle and mindfully assisted.

I specialize in beginner classes, encouraging students to build a home practice.   Experienced students will enjoy more challenging poses offered as modifications to the poses, taking students to an intermediate level.

The Silver Age certification that I am currently working on is for seniors or students with limitations.   I am in my fifty’s, and believe yoga is for everyone.  I hope to create a life long passion for yoga in my students.

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