Our teachers
Owner + Director
Annie took over the reins at Whole Sky Yoga in June 2023. Yoga has been in her life for more than 15 years, and she is passionate about connecting with others, forming deep connections, and creating community. Through yoga, she has found a deeper sense of self and calmness to her mind (sometimes!). Annie received her 200hr YTT from the Napa Valley Yoga Center and completed her 300hr training with Three Sisters Yoga based in NYC. She continues to learn by working with her mentor, daily practice, and additional trainings. Her classes incorporate functional movement, creative transitions, mindful flows, breathwork, and humor. She finds great joy in teaching and empowering others to reach their fullest potential, on and off the mat. Annie also runs AKG Insights, a marketing strategy firm based in the Hudson Valley. She is a former comedian, so she often throws a few dad jokes into practice for good measure.
Sara founded Whole Sky Yoga in March 2014. Sara’s all levels teaching approach strikes a balance between intuitive, creative sequencing and safe alignment for most bodies. Sara has 20 years of yoga experience and has introduced many hundreds of students to the practice of yoga at world renowned institutions such as Bard College, Omega Institute, and Yoga International. Sara also trained as a Yoga Therapist with Breathing Deeply Yoga Therapy and completed an advanced-level yoga teacher training with Rodney Yee and Colleen Saidman-Yee through Yoga Shanti NYC in 2020. In addition to her full-time career as Development Director at the Ashokan Center, Sara is also a mom of four. She loves reading, writing, staying physically fit, being of service to others, and of course the Whole Sky community!
Paige completed her 200hr Yoga Teacher Training with Whole Sky Yoga. She is a dentist at Pine Street Dentistry in Kingston, NY. Her classes are playful, challenging, and heartfelt.
Adi has been a lifelong student of practicing yoga off the mat in all shapes and forms especially when it involves being outdoors. Her passion for movement and the environment have taken her on countless adventures around the world and she currently travels and teaches as part of the YogaSlackers & created the Redefining Balance series and retreats to share the modalities of shifting perspective through yoga, slacklining, AcroYoga, climbing, surfing, mountain biking and just about anything else you can think to do on the Earth’s terrain. Traveling & teaching oftentimes with her car as a home base, you can find her somewhere in the vicinity of an ocean, climb site, mountain or legit climbing tree. She works with students on and off the mat to discover a new sense of balance, strength and focus in whatever their form of practice might be. Her yoga classes are alignment based and draw from a background of practicing Vinyasa, Iyengar, Ashtanga, Anusara, Pilates and Thai Massage.
Triana is a former professional ballet dancer turned NASM certified fitness trainer with specializations in functional strength training, Pilates, and barre. Her classes and private training sessions emphasize form, function, and mind-body movement to help assist clients develop a deeper sense of connection to their physical body. Throughout her years as a fitness professional Triana has worked with some of the top boutique fitness studios in Los Angeles, including ModelFit, PlateFit, and Natural Pilates. She has also had the pleasure of leading several special fitness events with established brands including PopSugar Fitness, Propel Water, Athleta, Nordstroms, Outdoor Voices, and Beats by Dre. Currently, Triana resides in the New York-Hudson Valley area, and works with clients both virtually and in-person. Triana is aware that every client has different goals and needs, and tailors to each individual client while providing a fun, safe, and encouraging environment.
Nixa has been practicing yoga since 1984 and teaching yoga since 2000. Master of Holistic Wellness, Aesthetics and Wisdom Teachings, she has been a dedicated student in a lineage called Rajanaka Sri Vidya with Dr. Douglas Brooks since 2001. She is invested in healing through touch, sound, aroma and breathing techniques and uses methods from Katonah Yoga, Kundalini Yoga and yoga therapeutics. Nixa has led the philosophy and subtle body portions of WSY teacher training since its inception. Her classes are intended to address mind and body, and to be useful and functional for your health.
Clara is an elementary special education teacher and mother of two dynamic teens. She has been totally transformed by the practice of yoga! Clara began her yoga journey in 2014, taking classes at the YMCA, and then joining Mudita Yoga Lab in uptown Kingston, NY. She completed a 200 hour teacher training at Yoga Lab in 2017, and began an advanced training there in 2019, which was interrupted by the events of 2020. Clara is happy to now call Whole Sky Yoga her home studio and to be completing another 200 hours of teacher training here. Clara seeks to honor the Teacher within each of us through sharing a movement practice that unites awareness with breath and sensation, so that each student may cultivate their own unique yoga practice and find peace.
Hannah Fox, M.A., native to the Hudson Valley, took her first yoga class in 3rd grade at the Campus School in New Paltz. She began her yoga studies in 1991 at the University of Oregon and started teaching in 1998. Hannah is a 500hr RYT having completed her 200-hr YTT, which embraced the Krishnamacharya lineage, from Yogaworks NYC in 2007, and her 300hr YTT from YogaRenew in 2024. Since then, she has studied with Seane Corn, Shiva Rea, Rodney Yee, Patricia Walden, Ana Forrest, Todd Norian, and David Swenson. Hannah also studies regularly at Kripalu and is in the process of completing a Positional Therapy program. She is an international theater trainer and runs the NY School of Playback Theatre and the Akimbo Youth Theatre. Her book Zoomy Zoomy: Improv Games & Exercises for Groups, is used by theater teachers and practitioners globally. In all that she does, cultivating a sense of compassion (ahimsa), inwardly and outwardly, is her main objective. She is a dedicated mom of a spirited 10-year-old boy named Rio.
Elizabeth began her yoga studies at the age of 18 as a way to relieve the physical pain she experienced from chronic scoliosis. After several years of regular practice and devotion to the New Paltz Ashtanga community, she received her CYT-200 with Michael Stein in 2011. She went on to receive her 1200 hr certification from SomaVeda College of Natural Medicine: Thai Yoga Center as an Certified Advanced Thai Yoga Practitioner (CATP) in 2015. She has also received her CYT-500 with Tara Judelle and Dr. Scott Lyons in Embodied Flow, a system of yoga that merges traditional yogic practice with somatic movement therapy. She also completed a 9-month immersive training in Inner Yoga, focused on meditation, pranayama, and yoga philosophy training with David Harshada Wagner in 2018. Expect to have a deep experience of your own embodiment through a challenging yet nourishing physical practice, along with lots of encouragement for moving at a slow, patient pace while cultivating laughter and play.
Patrice Heber is a certified yoga instructor and somatic movement therapist who has been teaching in the field for over 35 years. She is certified as a Body-Mind Centering practitioner and a Feldenkrais Awareness Through Movement teacher and has taught all forms of movement awareness and practices throughout the U.S. and Europe. Her work is influenced by her many years as a dancer and her deep understanding of embodied anatomy. She brings many years of meditation practice and study to her teaching style. Her yoga classes are geared to develop strength, flexibility and relaxation through slow and thorough movements, yoga postures and meditation practice.
Ami Jayaprada Hirschstein is a Certified Ayurvedic Practitioner and Yoga Therapist. She founded and directed two New Paltz Yoga studios: Jai Ma Yoga Center from 1999-2015 and YogAlive 2015-2017. Ami has received teaching certifications as an Anusara Yoga and Kripalu Yoga Teacher and Phoenix Rising Yoga Therapist. She has been teaching holistic healing and yoga since 1995, and she belongs to the International Association of Yoga Therapists and National Ayurvedic Medical Association. Ami specializes in therapeutic yoga, teaching her students how to come into alignment, eliminate pain and deepen their practice. Her classes inspire and empower students to embrace life more fully.
She is the author of “108 Yoga Poses” and her articles have been featured in several publications. Ami has studied meditation, Ayurveda, energy work, Sanskrit, philosophy and various forms of Yoga throughout the US and India, and she has been leading Yoga Teacher Trainings since 2001.
Kelly has been practicing yoga for nearly 20 years. With a concentration of hatha and vinyasa style yoga, her main focus in class is movement and breath along with a strong commitment to alignment. Kelly studied at The Kripalu Institute participating in a teacher training for Yoga Nidra (meaning yogic sleep) and weaves this mindfulness into her classes.
A Kripalu certified Yoga Instructor, Tanya teaches vigorous, moderate, gentle, Yin, and Yoga Infused classes (all levels welcome!) that help to enliven, strengthen, and stretch the body, mind, and spirit. Her 13 plus years of teaching experience, and having assisted 1,700 houtd of Kripalu's 200-hour, and Yin Yoga Teacher Trainings, feed Tanya’s strength in guiding students into a greater sense of connection to, and appreciation for the preciousness of the human experience. Full of spirit, Tanya’s classes are rich in imagery, offer brief guided meditation, strength building, and Kripalu’s inquiry into optimal living. Tanya also shares her love and knowledge of Young Living Essential oils in her Yin class and in special workshops.
As a writer and book doula, Tanya teaches writers (all creatives) how to apply spiritual teachings and practices to write (create) with so much more than the mind. From 2020-23, Tanya’s meditation practice expanded and deepened when she immersed in 3 levels of telepathy training. She works privately as an Intuitive Guide and writing teacher. She loves being part of the Whole Sky family.
Yonah has been teaching Yoga for 25+ years. Coming from a modern and jazz dance background in the Netherlands, it was a natural transition into the practice of Yoga. She has Certifications in Vinyasa, Yin, Nada and Restorative Yoga. She teaches classes to inspire and guide people towards enhanced health, vitality, and well-being. Inspired by the powerful effects of the bodymind connection, Yonah explores the capabilities of human potential through Yoga. The base of her training is in the Jivamukti and Shivananda style. She continues to deepen her knowledge and practice with ongoing interest.
Lizz (she/her) has been building her relationship with yoga for over 17 years, after first finding a pull to the spiritual practice as a teenager. Lizz became a certified yoga teacher in 2017 and has taught classes in a variety of settings, from classic studios and outdoor spaces to sanctuaries and temples. No matter the environment, Lizz approaches teaching with an inclusive, compassionate perspective that empowers all bodies to feel safe and experience Līlā (divine play) and joy on the mat. Every class upholds Lizz’s appreciation for and devotion to yogic philosophy and respect for its ancestral South Asian roots. Yoga’s medicinal energy has shaped Lizz’s life in beautiful form, and she hopes to help spark similar connections and passions for others as a practitioner and teacher.
Ashley began her yoga journey as a curious teenager and remembers learning her first sun salutations on a lovely day in college with friends. Ashley’s career path has led her to be a clinical social worker. She has extensive training and experience with mindfulness-based practices. For Ashley, yoga transcends time and space. It is everything from earthy and meditative, to energizing and inspiring. When not on the mat or practicing qigong, Ashley enjoys the outdoors and quality time with her family, including her dog and cat.
Shri, a dedicated student of yoga and Ayurveda for the last 10 years, offers therapeutic yoga classes - which focus on serving her student's individual needs. Her styles include: Yin yoga, Ashtanga, Hatha, Vinyasa, and Meridian yoga. She weaves in philosophy, zen stories, simple techniques and elemental wisdom into her teachings, classes, and workshops.
Her intention is to bring balance, self-awareness, and reverence to each person and space she gets the honor to work with.