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Teachers and Therapists
Meet the founders of Renaissance yoga and wellbeing and links to our other wonderful teachers and therapists below.
Craig Norris
Craig has dedicated his life to studying various forms of yoga, meditation and chanting, including Ashtanga, Sivananda, Iyengar, Satyananda, and Forrest styles. He has further deepened his practice and teaching with studies in meditation and chanting as well as in yoga therapy with Yoga Campus and the Yoga Biomedical Trust. He has great love for the traditional in yoga and continues to study Sanskrit and Vedic chanting in London and India.
Craig teaches a practice that challenges, uplifts and heals by allowing us to explore the playing field that is our own body and mind. Being able to see ourselves in a light and humorous way and flirt with our edge is an opportunity to grow from the relationship we have with ourselves.
Before coming to yoga Craig suffered from depression and lack of direction. Yoga and meditation have given him great stability and opened up a journey of growth, insight and joy. His intention is for everyone to experience the healing effects of yoga practice and to create an opportunity for change so that we can all live a life that feels empowered and confident. Craig is one of the founders of Renaissance yoga and wellbeing.
Michele Pianigiani
Although practicing many styles of yoga Mickey's experience is mainly from the Ashtanga Vinyasa and Iyengar traditions. He has practiced for 12 years with various teachers and completed his 200hr teacher training with John Scott and Lucy Crawford. He has also studied Yin yoga with Norman blair and continues his study in vortex energy healing.
His approach to teaching is working with people from where they are at what ever their level of experience or ability whilst also keeping the tradition of the practice. A big focus of his is getting people to breathe in a way that brings them more life on and off the mat as well as using it as a focus to bring the attention within and finding a place of stillness. Michele is one of the founders of Renaissance yoga and wellbeing.
Velia Stagno
Velia always had a strong interest in natural health, even before deciding to make it a profession back in 2014. Before then she used to work in hospitality and loved it. She found the contact with the public inspiring, fun, challenging and energising. In 2012 Velia became a mum and this changed everything. It was time to have a look at the bigger picture.
A visit to Peru exploring the ancient country’s traditions , history and beliefs helped her reconnect with herself, find inspiration and a new purpose in life. Back from her traveling she started her first course in massage at Bodyology School of Massage in London. Graduated in 2015 with a level 4 qualification in holistic massage, anatomy, physiology and pathology, accredited by the Massage Training Institute. She then went on completing a practical and theoretical diploma course of 132 hrs in Traditional Thai Yoga Massage with the London School of Thai Yoga Massage. On-site chair massage qualification with the London School of Massage is what she did next, as well as various workshops and short courses such as: myofascial release skills, lymphatic drainage techniques, massage for dancers and treating a frozen shoulders. Velia is completely in awe of, and utterly fascinated by, the body’s amazing intelligence: its ability to quickly respond to natural therapies and ultimately, regenerate and heal itself. This is why she loves empowering people to make a deep and real connection with their body, to understand it enough to be pro-active in their own healing process. She likes to integrate different techniques into a session as this allows her to treat the receiver as a whole: mind, body and spirit .Tapping into her intuition and combining it with a scientific knowledge of the body she tailors each treatment around the client needs. Velia is one of the founders of Renaissance yoga and wellbeing.
Kathy King
Kathy has been teaching Pilates privately and to groups for 20 years and has had a dedicated yoga practice for nearly as long. Encouraging efficient, easy, breath-led, whole body movement is the focus of her classes. Her recent Slings training with Art of Motion, (a repertoire of fascia based movement which draws from a variety of disciplines) has added a whole new dimension to her classes.
Using classical as well as evolved Pilates repertoire, either in flowing sequences or exercises that target specific movement patterns, good alignment and a dynamic, strong and flexible core are challenged.
Expect to strengthen, lengthen, roll, mobilize and move toward increasing your overall body and postural awareness both on and off your mat.
Kathy is a senior member of the Body Control Pilates Teacher Training team. She delivers on their basic Mat work and Conversion courses, as well as Continuing Education courses for teachers in the UK and internationally.
Kathy would particularly like to encourage yogis and those from other movement practices to her classes. She can speak from many year’s personal experience, that the more & different ways through which one can find ease of movement, the better!.
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