Allison Dennis

PATH:  Yoga found me at the tail end of a nasty back injury.   I hurt myself performing in the Off-Broadway circus type show "De La Guarda". After three years of physical therapy, a friend talked me into taking a class at Jivamukti Yoga Center in NYC. I was hooked. Gradually I could see myself growing stronger and becoming more flexible. I was also becoming more aware of the connection between body and mind, and was learning to look at my back pain instead reacting to it. I enrolled in a 10 day silent meditation course at The Vippasana Center in Massachusetts. Everything has changed since then. I returned from the Meditation course and enrolled in a 200 hour Yoga Teacher Training program at the Sivananda Ashram in Woodbourne, NY. I spent a month sleeping in my tent, studying The Bhagavad Gita, and learning how Yoga is much much more than postures, strength, and flexibility. It's a state of mind. I started teaching right away, and soon after enrolled in the 500 hour Advanced Teacher Training also of the Sivananda lineage. Here I studied Sanskrit, The Yoga Sutras, Pranayama, chanting, and Vedanta. I learned advanced postures and deepened my practice in ways I hadn't anticipated. In addition to teaching and studying Yoga, I am also a licensed massage therapist and a singer/songwriter with two CD's of original material. I have a BFA in musical theater, and enjoyed a career of singing, dancing, acting, and playing guitar for 10 years in NYC and Upstate NY. INSPIRATION: I find abundant inspiration in music. I love jazz, musical theatre, motown, and classics like Joni Mitchell, David Bowie and The Beatles. I also find inspiration in comedy. I love laughing and remembering not to take myself or anything too seriously. My sweetest and most profound inspiration comes from my dog Strider. FAVORITES FOR GROUNDING: Cleaning the house, watering and re-potting the plants, playing guitar, singing, writing, walking in the woods, hugging my dog, reading the Yoga sutras, massage, meditation and Yoga. FAVORITES FOR KICKING IT: Movies, long distance phone calls to the people I love, and anything that makes me laugh out loud. PRACTICE: Yoga changes for me from day to day. I move from flowing around for an hour to really hooking in on a few poses and just watching the thoughts come up and go away. I tend to practice surrounded by a lot of books to inspire me to try something new. INTENTION: I want to remind people to slow down and breathe. I like to teach students not to stress out about a perfect meditation or a perfect posture; but to cultivate gratitude, awareness, and a light playful quality around all of our edges and limitations. I hope to encourage curiosity about the mind/body connection. I guide students into meditations through a variety of postures and intentions that enable them to explore the differences between ego and the inner observer. Back to Home Page. Back to Bio Page Back to Schedule Page.