our instructors

kim weeks / founder, teacher trainer, instructor

kim weeks has been devoted to yoga since 1994, stumbling into it with a hamstring injury she sustained while training for the new york marathon. encouraged by a co-worker at JPMorgan and her sister in Santa Cruz, she looked up yoga in the yellow pages and chose Integral Yoga® because it sounded like an “integrated” approach to a word she wanted to know more about. during the deep relaxation (savasana) period of her first class, she felt changed.

after spending much of the late 90’s in asia and europe with her wall street job, kim left the corporate world in in 2002 to start boundless yoga, a washington, dc-based yoga studio that honors all forms of yoga. classes at boundless draw specifically on the krishnamachariya tradition and focus on one student at a time. kim believes that yoga is evolving rapidly as we enter the 21st century full-swing–and that it is a form of solace and inspiration in stressful times.

kim is a trained Integral Yoga teacher and continued extensive study with jj gormley, erich schiffmann, rodney yee, sarah powers, jinsung, and, most recently, paul grilley, ramanand patel, doug keller, and john schumacher. in 2004 she lived in oakland, california to take part in yee’s advanced studies program at piedmont yoga studio.

kim focuses on the body as a constantly changing object in time and space, encouraging her students to experience delight and forgiveness as they observe their bodies, with simultaneous discrimination and non-judgment, according to the breath’s direction. she also has a private energy practice and believes deeply in the innate healing capacity of the body, which she seeks to honor with each client.

for more information on private yoga, energy work, or the boundless yoga teacher training program, email kim[at]boundlessyoga.com.

aliya weise / ashtanga instructor

Aliya began studying yoga from the Hatha Yoga Pradipika in 1996 and continued to practice Hatha Yoga before beginning daily Ashtanga Yoga practice in 2004.

Finding it to be a particularly effective system, Aliya continued to study Ashtanga primarily at the Ashtanga Yoga Center in Washington.

In addition to his studies here, Aliya completed a Teacher Training workshop with David Swenson and began annual studies in Mysore, India during the summer of 2007 with Sri K. Pattabhi Jois, his daughter Saraswathi, and his grandson Sharath Rangaswamy. Aliya returns to study with them for the summer of 2008 and annually thereafter. By teaching Aliya hopes to share this particular system of yoga in the tradition and style of Guruji Pattabhi Jois.

When not teaching yoga, Aliya hangs out with his best friend and fellow ashtangi: his wife. In his spare time he is finishing a Ph. D. dissertation while eating excellent vegan treats from Sticky Fingers Bakery.

Andrea Kiss / teacher trainer, instructor

Andrea Kiss has more than a decade of modern-dance performance and teaching experience. she first began teaching herself yoga from books in 1998, growing deeply interested while pregnant with her daughter, zora. andrea quickly began drew links between the movements in modern dance and the asanas of yoga. she feels that just as modern dance is a creative expression of the body, so, too, is the body/mind philosophy of yoga.

Andrea grew up in budapest and moved to washington in 1996. she has studied with jj gormley at sun and moon studio, and is also a graduate of shiva’s yoga trance dance program. like kim's teaching approach, andrea's style is well-suited to busy urban professionals, focusing not just on the movements of the outer body, but on the movements of the energetic body (chakras) and their role in mind/body health. email andrea at akis[at]comcast.net.

annie moyer / visiting instructor, teacher trainer

Family legend has it that Annie's first exposure to yoga was in 1970, when, as a small child, she encountered her grandmother standing on her head. Naked. After a full recovery from the experience, Annie began doing her own headstands in 1994, and has been practicing yoga ever since.

With humility, honesty and compassion, Annie conveys the authenticity and beauty of yoga in an accessible and inviting way. She is firmly grounded in alignment principles and an avid fan of yoga philosophy; classes are moderately paced, light-hearted and friendly -- lessons in yoga, perhaps lessons in life. Always open to questions, she is able to tailor classes to students' needs, and encourages acceptance of each moment as a necessary step along the path of well-being.

Annie has studied with and been inspired by Rodney Yee, Erich Schiffman, John Friend, Richard Rosen, JinSung, and Sarah Powers; and locally by JJ Gormley and Bobbi Ponce-Barger. Annie is certified at the 300-hour level through Sun & Moon Yoga, and is pursuing an advanced teaching certificate in yoga therapeutics.

brooke adams / instructor

Brooke began taking yoga classes in 1996.  She found hatha yoga to be immensely soothing, taming the mind’s unruly thoughts while energizing the body.  As for many people, it can often be a daunting task to find a peace and balance within, having to first move through the fear of being open to that capacity.  Brooke believes yoga provides steps that allow you to begin that process and beyond. You can expect great attention to the breath and alignment in her classes, while opening the mind and extending the body together to expand upon the complete experience of being at one with yourself.

Having practiced Hap Ki Do for a few years in LA, Brooke found it a very balanced, spiritual and harmonious form of martial arts that complemented yoga. The experience of this ancient form of defense lent Brooke greater breadth in understanding how to sharpen the mind, and devote oneself to a practice while cultivating humility and developing an appreciation for the offerings of the body.

Brooke is certified through the Kripalu Center for Yoga and Wellness, 200-hour teacher training.  Over time she came to view yoga as indispensable; a must in the composition of her week to remain healthy, balanced and connected.

james foulkes / instructor

James Foulkes has been studying personal development for more than eight years. His diverse set of practices includes Yoga, Meditation, Chi Kung, Kung Fu and shamanic movement practices. He is also training in Cranial Sacral Therapy and Chinese Medicine. James enjoys finding parallels between these practices and feels the basis of them is unity, integration and wholeness.

James grew up in England and has recently moved to Washington, after eight years working within a corporate environment. He was initially drawn to yoga after a basketball career left him with a series of injuries. His approach to yoga is based on the work of Vanda Scaravelli, an Italian/ American who studied with J Krishnamurti, BKS Iyengar and TKV Desikachar for 2 decades.

James has recently completed a Teacher Training Course based on this approach, at Natural Bodies Yoga, Movement and Therapy Centre in Brighton, England. The approach is based on awakening the spine through an intelligent practice, which focuses on the breath and gravity. He is extremely interested in the spiritual and energetic aspects of the work and the ability of these practices to shift perception and connect the practitioner with the essence. His classes are suitable for all levels. Email James at jamesfoulkes[at]hotmail.com

jen rene / instructor

Jen first experienced the power of yoga in 2003 and her life has not been the same since.  Jen started her yoga practice as a way to calm the mind, she quickly realized the physical benefits of the practice, and with time yoga became her spiritual practice.  In 2005 Jen started practicing Pilates to help strengthen her asana practice.  She now realizes the transformative effects the combination of Pilates and yoga can have on the mind, body, and spirit and truly believes in the power of the two practices to heal and prevent ailments.

Jen has studied various styles of asana and her classes are a reflection of this.  Jen's classes are physically and mentally challenging; they have a quick tempo, a fresh soundtrack, and a core focus.  Classes include chanting and scripture as a way to practice devotion.  She encourages proper alignment and for her students to take themselves lightly and use their yoga practice in all their actions.  Jen has completed more than 500 hours of yoga and Pilates training and is forever grateful to her two most influential teachers, Larry Schultz and Rusty Wells.

Kristen Krash / teacher trainer, instructor

Kristen began her evolution from gym rat to yogi in 1999 when she walked into a Power Yoga class at the gym where she worked as a trainer. Seeking relief from multiple injuries she suffered in martial arts and while working as a bike messenger, she immediately felt the benefits of the postures and breathing. The experience led her to local yoga studios in Chicago and, within a few months, she knew that she would practice yoga for the rest of her life.

She began to study intensively with the Ukranian instructor Andrey Lappa who encourages and challenges his students through rigorous practice and mindful living to become their own gurus -- as Andrey would say, "Don't just look like yogi -- be yogi." Over the past seven years of her practice and five years of teaching, Kristen's style has evolved from the Vinyasa-based Astanga and Power Yoga to the alignment-based Iyengar Yoga and eventually to the realization that correct alignment must relate to the movement of energy within asana as well as the anatomical position.

Kristen also draws on her practice of Anusara Yoga with senior teachers Geri Blier and Douglas Brooks, and the healing power of Tibetan Yantra yoga with Lama Labsang Rinpoche.

Kristen's classes thus incorporate the dynamics of movement with longer, exploratory holds of postures and "mini-clinics" within a class that often focus on a particular part of the anatomy or an aspect of yogic philosophy. While using the body and the breath as her main teaching tools, she still strives to give her students an idea of the "bigger picture" of practicing asana so that they can fully receive the gift that is yoga. contact her at kristen[at]boundlesyoga.com.

laura cavender / instructor

Laura began practicing yoga to help her sleep after 9/11 and has been enjoying the physical, mental, and spiritual benefits ever since. Her practice deepened as she tackled a marathon and several triathlons over the last few years, as a means to counteract high-impact and high-intensity workouts and prevent injury. This year, as part of Boundless Yoga's teacher training program, she has explored the philosophical and spiritual sides of yoga and focuses her teaching on body and mind awareness through asana. She will be certified as a Hatha Yoga teacher through the Yoga Alliance by Boundless Yoga in August 2007.

leah barr / instructor

Leah is an artist, a former elementary school art teacher, and a mother of two. She has practiced yoga for 15 years and is a certified Kripalu Yoga instructor. She is drawn to Kripalu Yoga because of its emphasis on bringing compassion, inner attunement, and creativity to bear on one’s yoga practice without compromising safety or the principles of physical alignment. Leah wants to share yoga with others because it has been a powerful force for change, happiness, and strength in her own life.

Kripalu Yoga is accessible to everyone and is rooted in the philosophy that anybody can have a rewarding yoga practice regardless of experience, age, body type or physical limitations!

liana brooks-rubin / instructor

Liana Brooks-Rubin integrated yoga into her life in 2001 at the urging of friends who thought it would introduce some much-needed down time in her life. Regular asana practice not only improved her sleep and increased her physical flexibility, but also profoundly impacted her overall sense of balance, clarity, and joy. Later, while pregnant with her first child, Liana discovered the power of breath, meditation, and movement to prepare the mind and body for the journey of childbirth and mothering.

Liana wholeheartedly believes that practicing yoga creates space in one’s body, heart, and mind. In 2006, Liana completed the 200-hour teacher-training program at Boundless Yoga. She has studied and drawn inspiration from various styles of hatha yoga, especially Iyengar and alignment-based vinyasa.

Liana’s Open Hatha classes are tailored for students who wish to learn or further ground their practice in basic principles of alignment, while challenging themselves to experiment with more advanced poses. Students have characterized her classes as “grounding,” “relaxing,” “creatively sequenced,” and “physically challenging.”

Liana’s prenatal classes are tailored for both beginning yoga students and those with a more advanced practice. The class builds a community of mothers-to-be, offers relief for common discomforts of pregnancy (i.e. low back pain, sciatica, leg cramps), and helps to prepare both mind and body for the process of childbirth. For those mamas-to-be who continue to practice yoga at home or in a non-prenatal setting, the prenatal class is a useful way to learn safe and beneficial modifications for poses that are not recommended during pregnancy.

mara schlimm / instructor

Mara’s first experience with yoga was over fifteen years ago while living in a West African village, where she would close the door to her mud hut and experiment her way through the pages of a tattered yoga book that had serendipitously made its way into her hands.

In the subsequent years, she has found yoga’s greatest gifts to be its spiritual and personal development aspects. She became a teacher four years ago in a mixed-style Hatha Yoga taught by the Silver Lotus Training Institute. Mara’s teaching style encourages students to explore yoga within their own unique physical, psychological, and emotional contexts. Her classes focus on developing flexibility and strength in the spine, abdominals, neck, hips, and legs; they also emphasize movement, body and breath awareness, stress reduction, the chakra system, inner reflection, yoga and tantra philosophy, and overall well being.

maureen vasquez / teacher

After leaving the corporate world, in 1994, to devote her time to being a full-time wife and mother, Maureen dicovered yoga at a local gym. She began teching in 2001 and by June, 2004, she obtained her 300 hour certification through Sun & Moon Studio. She continues to pursue a 700-hour advanced certifcation, as well as a (Yoga) Therapeutic certification.

orly jalowski / instructor

Orly Jalowski completed her teacher trainee at Boundless Yoga in august 2007 and is thrilled to have the opportunity to share her practice with friends in the Boundless community. She is a student of Buddhism in the Mahanayana tradition and is grateful to all the holy teachers she has had the great fortune of meeting and learning from. She believes that the goal of yoga is to help practitioners develop a heart so full of compassion and wisdom that we are better capable, as Ghandi said, of "[being] the change we want to see in the world."

As Orly herself travails life's ups and downs, she continually strives to use Yoga as a system of living that, put simply, just makes life better. She's realized that when she's feeling her best she is most capable of incredible acts of love, kindness, and generosity - the kinds of which can change everything. She hopes to foster an environment where physical movement is skillfully intertwined with mental concentration and spiritual exploration.

Orly is a self-pronounced mystic who tries to see the magic in everyday life. She enjoys hanging with friends, vegan cooking, co-running her small Ghana-based educational travel program, doing projects, dancing, philosophizing, and thanks to her wonderful partner, embarking on a new and fascinating pastime: watching football. You can reach Orly at raven32[at]yahoo.com

sam pinto / instructor

Sam first experienced yoga in the form of Jane Fonda's yoga cassette tape, stolen from her mother in the mid-eighties. Since then, yoga has seen her through many hairstyles, career changes, and moves from Philadelphia to Los Angeles and now to Washington, DC. Yoga's ability to adapt to our changing needs keeps her coming back to her mat, and she tries to bring that sense of flexibility into her yoga classes. In her "non-yoga" life, Sam teaches writing and literature to college students, and she uses the same philosophy in the classroom that she does in her yoga classes: class should challenge us, engage us, entertain us, and build our confidence.

Things you will definitely do in her classes: sweat, breathe, laugh, work hard mentally and physically, and hopefully leave a little bit saner than when you came into the room. That's what she's taken away from her study with teachers Ally Hamilton, Bryan Kest, and Eric Schiffmann, along with respect for the structure of Ashtanga, the energy and strength of vinyasa flow, and the creativity and flexibility of the practice as whole, in all of its variations (including Jane's-- though we may skip the terrycloth headbands).

susan ruether / instructor

working through severe neck pain and seeking reprieve from a windowless office, susan began a serious yoga practice four years ago. learning to move and breathe in the hatha-vinyasa style of yoga followed logically from susan's decade-long

meditation practice. susan believes that teaching yoga is an opportunity to engage the principle of embodied consciousness: linking movement and breath mindfully, she encourages students to seek the wisdom of the integrated body and mind.

as the saying goes, "when the student is ready the teacher appears": susan recently completed the boundless yoga teacher training program where her teachers are nothing short of a boundless current of energy and vitality. they have guided the evolution of her practice as she shares it with others. email susan at susan.ruether[at]gmail.com

valerie warner / instructor

Valerie is social worker, LICSW, and she works with trauma survivors. She was feeling herself struggling to be more grounded for her clients and herself, when she walked into Boundless yoga five years ago. She was instantly hooked!

Valerie is a Registered Yoga Teacher and received her training at Boundless. Valerie continues to pursue the delicate balance between mind and body in her life, and her passion to help other's find their path of wellness.