About Us
ROBIN APPEL (ARULA) - Owner, ERYT-500, Yoga Ed.™ Instructor/Trainer, BA
Robin took her first yoga class at age eight while training intensively to become a professional ballet dancer. As a student at the School of American Ballet, she performed for many years with George Balanchine’s New York City Ballet Company, but her career ended early due to a hip injury. Yoga and Pilates became a vigorous part of her daily physical therapy toward recovery. In 1999, Robin began teaching in order to pass on her knowledge of these forms of body work. She is dedicated to empowering her students to make healthy decisions by becoming yoga educated. Through her compassionate style of teaching, Robin helps her students focus on letting go and opening up to the beauty within them. Her classes are both challenging and relaxing as she asks her students to follow what feels good to their bodies. She keeps each class different from the last, and this variety of sequencing helps students stay in the moment and enjoy the mystery of what might come next. Robin received a 500-hour experienced yoga certification from Yoga Alliance and became a a Yoga Ed.™ Instructor/Trainer in 2004. She also holds certifications as a Sport Yoga™ Instructor, AMFT Pilates Instructor/Personal Trainer, ISSA Youth Fitness Trainer, Usui Reiki Master/Teacher and Chakra Healer. She graduated from Sarah Lawrence College in 1995 with a BA. In 2006, Integral Yoga Institute honored Robin by giving her the spiritual name, Arula, which has two translations. In Indian it means "filled with grace," and in Sanskrit it means "shining as the sun."
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KATE RABINOWITZ - Yoga Ed.™ Instructor
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JULIE WEISS - Yoga Ed.™ Instructor
Julie is a certified yoga instructor for both adults and children. She received her 200 hour Vinyasa and Hatha certification at Frog Lotus Yoga in Massachusetts and her children's certifications from Yoga Ed. and the Radiant Child Yoga Program. Additionally, she holds a B.A. in dance from Muhlenberg College. At the present moment, she is participating in Shiva Rea's 500/hour Prana-Vinyasa teacher training, a style of yoga that truly celebrates the art of dancing with life’s flow. Julie has also participated in an advanced teacher training program with Seane Corn. Currently, she shares her love of yoga throughout Long Island, where she teaches in wellness studios, gyms, and public libraries, operating under her traveling yoga studio entitled “Wingspan Yoga.” Please visit www.wingspanyoga.com for more information about Julie’s workshops/programs.
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ANGELA STYRNKOWSKI - Yoga Instructor, ERYT, BA
Angela has been on a path of self discovery/ study since she was a child. She is an interdisciplinary Bhakti Yogi (Devotional Yogi). Angela’s first teachers were her family. They were role models for Union with the “Divine/Creation/Self”. After a few years of “suffering” from an Eating Disorder Angela discovered Hatha Yoga (Physical Yoga), while studying for a Bachelors Degree in Psychology.
Angela has had the honor of practicing with many Masters of Ashtanga, Jivamukti, Vinyasa and Hatha Yoga through numerous retreats, workshops, classes and Teacher Trainings. Some of the more well known Masters of these disciplines that she has studied with include: Sri K Pattabhi Jois, Tim Miller, Richard Freeman, Christopher Hildebrandt, James Butkevich, David Life, Sharon Gannon, Swami Bua, Bryan Kest, Amba Stapleton, Don Stapleton, and Sri Dharma Mittra. Angela has studied Sanskrit with Manorama from Ananda Ashram of Monroe, N.Y and chanting with many Bhakti Yogis such as Krishna Das and Bhagavad Das. Angela also attributes her understanding of Yoga and the mind to her literary studies of many Buddhist and Yogic texts.
Her strong attraction to nature and solitude have influenced her to
develop an in depth practice of countless month long travel experiences over the last 16 years. The Himalayas and the South West of the USA have experiencially developed Angela through combining the exposure of nature with meditation, Hatha Yoga, Pranayama, chanting, and reading. Angela says: “I have been up and down mountains, in the Ocean, lakes and rivers… walking and swimming through “fear” to become Yoga…Union…One."
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