boundless teachers

Kim Weeks

Kim Weeks stumbled into yoga with a hamstring injury from her training for the New York Marathon in 1994. At the time she was beginning her career on Wall Street in New York City. After spending much of the late 90’s living in Asia and Europe with her Wall Street job, Kim left the corporate world in in 2002 to start Boundless Yoga, a Washington, DC yoga studio.

Kim has studied with many of the world’s great yoga teachers, including Sri Swami Satchidananda, John Schumacher, Erich Schiffmann, JJ Gormley, Sarah Powers, Paul Grilley, and Ramanand Patel. She is drawn to these masters because of their interest in harnessing the layered physiology of asana to expand consciousness. Kim received her first training from 1994-2002 in the Integral Yoga tradition, and has migrated since 2002 toward a multi-disciplinary, Iyengar-derived approach. She has practiced yoga for 15 years and taught for seven.

Classes at Boundless Yoga draw their potency from the Krishnamacharya tradition and focus on one student at a time. Kim has trained or studies closely with each teacher employed by Boundless.

In recent years, Kim has expanded her yoga practice to include not just public and private asana sessions for the general population. She focused also on athletes, populations healing musculoskeletal injury, adults with special needs (cancer, heart and other cardio-pulmonary disease, ailments of the nervous system), children with special needs (Autism, Cerebral Palsy, Down Syndrome, Premature birth, rare genetic issues), and others.

Kim has trained advanced yoga students to become basic or intermediate yoga teachers since 2004. In 2008, she launched Boundless’s first Energy Program, in which she trains apprentices to become Energy Healers. In  2009, she will begin Boundless’s Advanced Teacher Training (April 2009)  and the Boundless Yoga and Energy Therapy Program (September 2009).

The Washington Post, New York Times, Washingtonian magazine, and Yoga Journal have all covered Kim’s exit from the corporate world to become a a socially conscious entrepeneur and local business owner. Boundless Yoga is a partner with Co-Op America’s Green Festival and runs a green business powered by wind energy. Kim is Co-Chair of the local business organization, Think Local First, which she runs with Busboys and Poets’ Founder Andy Shallal.

kristen krash

This year Kristen celebrates her 10th year of challenge, dedication, change, and joy as a practitioner and teacher of yoga. “When I first started practicing, I had no idea what I was getting into. My first class was in the gym . . . I had torn up my knees pretty badly in martial arts, power-lifting, alleycat bike messenger races, you name it. In the beginning I was drawn to Ashtanga and Ashtanga-based vinyasa styles because the intensity and athleticism was similar to what I experienced in martial arts. I didn’t come into the practice gradually; I went from not knowing my asana from my elbow to practicing almost every day for hours. I would do lots of sun salutes and then try to do advanced poses from pictures in books. The initial changes I experienced were physically and emotionally galvanizing, but I injured myself a few times and was struggling to stay afloat in a flood of new feelings, not all of them pleasant and peaceful.  I still respect the Ashtanga system for its emphasis on discipline, but as my practice began to evolve I wanted to know more about the subtleties of the postures, how to keep my body safe in the poses, and to understand the powerful effects of these postures and perhaps how to control them.”

This desire for understanding ultimately led Kristen to the Iyengar system which is now her primary practice and influence on her teaching.  A self-described sensation addict, the longer holds and intense focus on alignment in the poses were exactly the antidote she was seeking. “I’ve always been a sort of gypsy, a vagabond, and Iyengar yoga is the only real home I’ve ever had. It’s not only a very rigorous methodology that appeals to me on an intellectual level, but also has given me a greater sense of integration in my body. I began to make better choices, to act with more awareness, to ask when to give, where to push, how to accept.” More recently, Kristen also began to study pranayama in the Iyengar tradition with her primary teacher John Schumacher. “Pranayama has opened me up to the possibility of an even deeper experience of yoga than a “perfect” posture . . .it has given me a sense of perspective, of my connection to all things. And that is a very sweet feeling.”

Kristen’s teaching is precise and grounded in alignment. She delivers clear instructions, makes appropriate adjustments, and challenges her students to be disciplined, courageous, and to pay attention. “The practice and teaching of Yoga is my passion; I am fully committed to this path. I teach because nothing makes me happier than sharing the joy that this practice has brought me.”

leah barr

Leah began practicing yoga in 1992 and it has been the guiding force of her life ever since.  She remains forever and always in awe of the gentle yet powerful ways that yoga has transformed her life for the better and shares this enthusiasm with her students.  She hopes that every student experiences yoga as an invitation to step into the greatness of who they are and to embrace the mystery of whom they might yet become.

She is particularly grateful to have discovered the Anusara system of yoga as a path that enriches all aspects of a practitioner's life from the mundane to the extraordinary and everything in between!  Anusara yoga is inspired by Tantric philosophy which affirms the intrinsic goodness of all beings and celebrates the pulsing, creative, intelligent, dynamic principle which is at the essence of all life.  Leah’s classes are heavily influenced by this system.

In class, Leah weaves Tantric philosophy through alignment-based instruction with an adherence to the principles of flow (intelligently and fluidly connected movement).  She is grateful to Shiva Rea for awakening her to the beauty of flow.

Her passions include her family, her dogs, and making sculptures.  She is a certified Kripalu yoga teacher and a graduate of the Willow Street teacher training program with plans to pursue Anusara certification.  She would like to thank all of her amazing yoga and yoga philosophy teachers including Shiva Rea, Douglas Brooks, and Paul Muller Ortega.  She gives special thanks to John Friend (the founder of Anusara Yoga) and to her very first yoga teacher, Gurumayi Chidvilasananda.

orly jalowski

Orly Jalowski completed her teacher training at boundless Yoga in august 2007 and is currently the creative director of the studio. She is thrilled to participate in the Boundless community through both teaching and administrative capacities.

She is a student of Mahayana Buddhism and infuses her classes with the practices and philosophical teachings which she has received in that tradition. She hopes to foster an environment where physical movement is skillfully intertwined with mental concentration and spiritual exploration.

Orly is currently working on cultivating gratitude and probably will be for a while. You can reach her at orly(at)boundlessyoga.com

liana brooks-rubin

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.  Liana was one of Kim Weeks’ first students and a regular at Boundless Yoga from its inception.  Regular asana practice not only improved her sleep and increased her physical flexibility and strength, 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.  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 other alignment-focused styles through her teachers Kim Weeks, Kristen Krash, Karin Stefan, and Jill Manning.

Liana wholeheartedly believes that a regular yoga practice is essential for creating space and stillness in the body and mind.  Without such stillness, we remain tethered to old habits and recurring thought patterns and have little mind-space to reflect on life’s big questions.  A regular yoga practice, under the guidance of the right teacher, changes one’s life in subtle and more obvious ways.  Liana has a profound appreciation for the ancient (yet timeless) tenets of yogic philosophy and aims to integrate these principles into her daily life, as well as her classes.  Her asana 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.  Liana aims to provide a comfortable space for beginners to get their “yoga bearings,” while focusing on the subtle aspects of the practice with intermediate and advanced students.  Students have characterized her classes as “grounding,” “relaxing,” “creatively sequenced,” and “physically challenging.”

james foulkes

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

julia gaspar-bates

Julia started practicing yoga more than 10 years ago while living in Cambridge, ma and recently fulfilled her dream of becoming a yoga instructor having completed the teacher training program at Boundless Yoga in summer 2008. She has also spent considerable time at the Kripalu Center in Lenox, MA and at Sivananda ashrams in Kerala, India and in Montreal. Julia strives to blend the spiritual with the physical and her classes are designed to incorporate a deep awareness of breath control with careful attention to the physical alignment and benefits of each pose.

A cross-cultural trainer in her non-yogic world, Julia is currently researching ways to cultivate self-awareness through the practice of yoga and the development of cultural intelligence. When not practicing yoga, she is passionate about traveling, writing, salsa dancing and playing with her 3-year old daughter, Talia.

erin dowdy

Erin Dowdy came to yoga after being unsatisfied with how long distance running made her feel.  After dabbling in Ashtanga, she came to Boundless Yoga on a friend's suggestion and signed up for the unlimited month trial pass for new students, taking every class Boundless had to offer and was amazed at the quality and dedication of the teachers.  Now almost two years later, she is a committed member of Boundless and in 2009 graduated from the Boundless Yoga Teacher Training program. She is currently apprenticing in the Boundless Yoga Teacher Apprenticeship Program, where is she honing her skills as an open-level teacher as well as a pre-natal yoga teacher.  She is grateful for the quiet strength that yoga and Boundless have brought to her life.

cecilie jones

As the clearly senior member of the teacher corps and the lone grandma, I feel extremely privileged to be counted among this wonderful group of teachers. I started yoga at Boundless a little over 3 years ago and was quickly hooked. I joined the Teacher Training class of 2008-2009, and while still involved in that course, jumped into the inaugural Advanced Teacher Training class, which started last spring. It has been a cram course, a roller coaster ride and a wonderful ongoing education. These courses have prodded me to return to an early love of philosophy; and the many facets of yoga have changed my entire outlook on life. It has been especially helpful in the gradual transition out of my life-long pursuit of a high level violin performance. Not to mention the indescribable benefits to the purely physical manifestation of me, more commonly called my body. I feel honored to be given the chance to share some of these life-changing experiences.

kelly beavers

kelly's practice is based in natural gratitude. she teaches a centering class on honoring the body, grounding, and lightening up. she is very passionate about music, color, life, and peace-making. she offers meditation, clear information, and a welcome space for any student input. she wants to help make your practice work for you! key elements of her yoga style are creative sequencing and gently (strongly) being on the ground. kelly hearts: family & friends, yoga for kiddos, plants & animals, design, facebook, earth, hair, and just plain chilling out. she is fond of butterflies, humility, and therapeutic yoga. she sings in a band with her friends, and she loves to see how yoga shapes the music. she is very enthusiastic about the boundless yoga therapy program!!! she offers deep, sincere thanks to all of her teachers, family, and friends for their light and grounded inspiration.

susan ruether

Working through severe neck pain and seeking reprieve from a windowless office, Susan began a serious yoga practice six years ago. Having had a steady meditation practice for 12 years, she 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 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.

Susan introduces beginner and advanced beginner students to the holistic practice of yoga, one breath and one pose at a time. Her class focuses on, in the context of yoga, how to breathe and why; how to get into fundamental poses and why and how to learn to stay in the poses and learn from them.

The point of her class is to get each person to become comfortable enough in their own mind/bodies (no separation here) that they begin to be able to experience the way yoga, as a system of living, creates positive change within each specific person.

In 2009 she will work together with students as a community in the class for 1.5 hours each week to define goals for the class as a session, marking landmarks along the way for each practitioner. Handouts and individual feedback will be given to those who want it.

email susan at susan.ruether[at]gmail.com

valerie lanham

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 others find their path of wellness.