Meet Our Instructors

Derek Waddy

@derekwaddy

Derek is a graduate of Towson University and a former collegiate football player who has taught yoga and meditation since 2011. Although initially hesitant to teach yoga due to his preconceived thoughts about the practice, the physical and mental benefits. Derek experienced from practicing yoga inspired him to share with others. As a result, he has presented at yoga conferences, lead yoga teacher trainings, and retreats throughout the United States and abroad. The passion Derek has for encouraging people is contagious. He is known for his big smile and sweaty, fun, challenging yoga classes. You will leave Derek’s class feeling renewed, strengthened, and inspired.

Kiki So

@tropicalyogi

KiKi took her first Yoga class in California. She was introduced to vinyasa flow with a heavy focus on alignment. In Miami she completed a strict 200+hr training according to a traditional style from Mysore, India. That same year, she traveled to India to expand her practice. As KiKi continued into her next 200hr training she gained appreciation for Yoga from a more modern perspective. Teaching over the past few years in Miami has given students from all backgrounds a chance to discover KiKi’s warm, fun and challenging classes.

Kata Bilanchone

@miamiyogagirl

Kata was first introduced to Eastern philosophy in college about 7 years ago. It was then that she fell fiercely in love with yoga and everything it encompasses. At 21 she became certified to teach, shortly after she went on to study philosophy in India amongst the Jains. There she really immersed herself in deep meditation training and everything else that came with temple life.

Upon returning she completed her second certification and became a 500 Hour certified teacher.

Everything from being the teacher of teachers, to working with athletes, leading mass meditations, and conscious book clubs have brought her, as she says, insurmountable joy!

Chris Byford

@chrisbyfordyoga

Chris is a RYT 500, E-RYT 200, YACEP and a Baptiste Yoga certified teacher. He also holds numerous other specialized certifications for teaching to specific populations and has over 3000 teaching hours in the last 7 years, teaching at studios, festivals, and events. He enjoys volunteering to teach for under-served populations and those that would greatly benefit from the powerful results of yoga, meditation, and pranayama practices. He has worked closely with active duty military and veterans, children, prisoners, people in recovery, and homeless communities. He has been a large contributor to several yoga non-profits, including Joined Forces Yoga, where I was a founding board member, and Small World Yoga, where he was the lead facilitator, Teacher Development Coordinator and helped to create and build the processes for our work with the Metro Nashville Public Schools, including training to incorporate yoga in the classroom.

Joey Corona

@joeycoronayoga

Joey Corona is a lifelong Meta Mover, Movement catalyst, motivator and longevity expert. As a 20-year yoga teacher he has attained E-RYT status, the highest credential of the Yoga Alliance. Joey combines his quick wit, levity, command of anatomy and physiology, biomechanics, kinesiology and his love of music into a sensational movement experience. He loves teaching his signature Yoga program.

Nicole Stalker

@nicoles811

Nicole is a 200 hour certified yoga teacher and a professional ballet dancer with the Miami City Ballet. She graduated cum laude with a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology from the University of Florida. Nicole started dancing at age 3 and never stopped, training intensely throughout her childhood with the dream of becoming a professional. After starting her professional ballet career in 2008, she came to yoga during her off season as a form of cross training. She fell in love with the practice for its mind-body connection, as well as the artistic sequencing and flow of movement created in a class. Yoga combines her two passions, the mind and movement! Nicole uses her extensive body awareness from ballet to focus on alignment in her classes. She encourages you to adapt postures to fit your own unique abilities and offers variations to suit all levels.

Laura Rae

@lauramariemcrae

Laura Rae is a multidisciplinary artist, teacher & performer. She is 500hrs certified in yoga and has been teaching since 2012, both here in the US & abroad. Her classes focus on alignment & power, blending repetition to build functional strength and yogic philosophy to deepen both the asana practice, as well as mind, body & soul connection. She offers a full range of classes, levels & styles including; Vinyasa Flow, Beginner/Basic, Power, Yin, & Restorative.

Luis Jimenez

@luisinmotion

Luis completed his 200 hour Registered Yoga Teacher training in the Spring of 2016 and is now a 200 Hour Expert Registered Yoga Teacher with Yoga Alliance. In addition to being a Yoga teacher he is also a Thai Yoga practitioner, Functional Range Conditioning coach, photographer, writer and founder of the Healing Talks Podcast.

Luis teaches Handstands and Arm-Balance workshops, Acro/Partner Yoga, Yin Restorative Yoga, Pranayama (Breathwork), Meditation as well as a courses on Yoga philosophy like the Soul Tribe.

Paul Toliuszis

@yogapaulmiami

Paul Toliuszis is one of the most experienced yoga teachers in the United States. He began practicing yoga in 1992 and in 1998 founded the first of three successful yoga schools in Miami Beach. Over the past two decades, Paul has taught 12,000 yoga classes, led more than forty 200 hour professional teacher trainings and certified over 400 teachers. He is known in South Florida as “The Teacher of Teachers.” His ability to joyously share yoga and non-duality with an absolute lack of dogma and judgement has inspired countless people.

Sucha Kumar

@primal.yogi

Sucha has been practicing yoga since she was a little girl, with her mom as her first teacher. As she grew, she began to immerse herself in various movement modalities including weightlifting, martial arts, and dance. She did her first 200-hour yoga teacher training in San Diego, CA where she eventually taught at. After 2 years, Sucha traveled back to her roots in India and did her 300-hour yoga teacher training in Rishikesh. She also did her training in Yoga for Kids and Prenatal Yoga. Sucha is loves bringing people back to their primal nature through movement, breathwork, and nourishment, leading them to feel free, strong, and energetic!

Peter Wollenheit

@peter.yogi

After tailoring his career as a flight attendant in 2012, he decided to dedicate and share his Yoga studies in the community.

Recognized for his ability to conduct warm and inviting classes that foster an invigorating, centering, and calming environment. Classes are playful and he invites the practitioner to search for the edges giving time and allowing to find the deeper and calming connection through the balance of mind, bodying body.

Abigail Mazieres

@aboutayogi

Jill Fox

@flyingfoxie_

As a young gymnast, diver, ballerina and cheerleader, Jill found a large piece of her world missing after breaking an elbow in high school until later she found yoga as a way to incorporate her passion for movement, flexibility and flight well into her adult life. Jill completed her 200 hour Registered Yoga Teacher training in 2018 at Laughing Lotus Yoga Academy in New York City, and is now a 200 Hour Expert Registered Yoga Teacher with Yoga Alliance. She is passionate about using yoga and meditation, not only as a tool for the body, but also the mind. In her spare time, Jill has volunteered to teach in various mental health and recovery settings, and is passionate about incorporating yoga, meditation and tarot cards as tools to learn about ourselves, and natural solutions to overcoming addiction and ADHD.

Warren Gilder

@warrengilder

After working in finance for 20 years, making NYC and London my homes, I decided to leave the industry and explore the world in search of something more tangible. While in Thailand I discovered Yoga and when I returned to London, found a studio and some phenomenal teachers in Rocket (Ashtanga Vinyasa), Jivamukti and Ashtanga – sparking a passion in these disciplines that has not left me. My interest in sport, anatomy, and the spiritual journey I was beginning to walk led me to follow this passion and embark on my first Teacher Training.

I moved to Miami where I took my 200h RYT and soon after completing my 500h RYT, all in Hatha Vinyasa. I have since traveled to India where I took the 100h RYT in Yin. I am excited to guide my students in both Yin and Yang styles and love making playful energetic Vinyasas for both the physical body and the mind to enjoy.

Sierra House

@thehouseoflove_

A seeker of knowledge and a true understanding of our human experience, Sierra found yoga to be her greatest tool for navigating life’s mysteries and constant fluctuations. In 2015 she began a devoted asana practice and took her studies further in 2018 when she completed her 200 hour YTT in an immersion in Costa Rica. She has been sharing ever since through a variety of different styles.

To her, yoga is so much more than a physical practice. It is a philosophy, a lifestyle, and a science of the mind. At the end of each class students will feel rejuvenated and stronger inside and out and ready to take what they have learned on the mat into everyday life. Her flows are sequenced in a creative way incorporating philosophy, pranayama, asana, and meditation.

Maria Alvarez

@mariaalvarezyoga

Maria, a native of Brooklyn, NY, migrated to south Florida in 2005 for law school. She first discovered yoga in 2010 as a way to combat the stress of marathon and high-intensity interval training, and eventually obtained her 200-hour yoga alliance certificate with Paul Toliuszis and Amy Dannheim of Tropical Vinyasa in 2017. Now, a practicing attorney, she uses her fast-paced and straight-forward attitude to create a dynamic and thoughtful yoga practice. Designed for yogis of all levels, Maria’s vinyasa classes are filled with creative and unexpected sequencing set to a fun and energetic playlist. With a focus on freedom over form, she encourages students to use their breath as motivation and to silence their minds through movement.

Maria Elena Camaiori

@maryshineyoga

Maria Elena’s journey to yoga began in Rome Italy in 2002 when she was working as an actress for both theatre and Italian television. She immediately fell in love and, before she knew it, yoga became her life. After years of practicing Astanga at the Astanga school of Lino Miele in Rome, she moved to the US where she continued her studies in various styles of yoga. Soon after in 2008, she was on her path to become a teacher. Having completed trainings in Power, Vinyasa and Dharma yoga, she began teaching in Miami where she now resides with her husband and their two kids. In her years as a teacher, Maria Elena has taught classes in both the US and Italy, organizing workshops and leading teacher training classes. She is recognized for her warm presence, positive energy, and radiant spirit, always aiming to nourish and empower students at every level of practice. Maria Elena is also a certified Pilates mat workout instructor and Naturopathic consultant.

Daniela Novati

@yoga_dany

Contact

Phone

(305) 397-8566

E-Mail

miamibeach@greenmonkey.com

1800 Bay Road Suite 201 (Upstairs), Miami Beach, FL 33139

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