Allison Dennis

Registered Yoga Teacher; Licensed Massage & Bodywork Therapist NC #6786 PATH: Before I had taken my first Yoga class I was living in NYC, it was 1998, and I was a struggling singer/dancer/actress making a living as a personal trainer. I read about a program at Naropa University in Colorado where I could get a Master's degree in Yoga and Buddhist studies. With absolutely no experience or prior knowledge on the subjects of Yoga or Buddhism, I applied for admission and got accepted. Months before leaving NYC and moving to Colorado, I landed a brand new Off-Broadway show (De La Guarda). I decided to take the show, stay in NYC, and not move to Colorado. I stayed with De La Guarda for a couple of years. The show was different from most, more like a circus/party than a typical theatre experience. It was interactive and had a very clear intention of shaking people up and getting them out of their heads, out of themselves, and into the moment. Then I hurt my back. I herniated my disc at L5 and was out of the show, and soon to follow out of a career. Unable to move around freely, I threw myself into empty journals, my guitar, and a very sobering sort of self inquiry. If I wasn't the body, then who was I? I ended up asking these sorts of questions and writing songs until all of a sudden two years had passed and I had recorded two CD's of unabashedly earnest soul searching songs, and had become a full time singer/songwriter. After three years of physical therapy my PT finally okayed me for Yoga. My dear friend Lana was taking classes at the Jivamukti Yoga Center in NYC and asked me to come with her. Lana is one of those people so full of light and love you can't help but want to try the things she suggests. She said I would like Jivamukti because it would make my spirit happy. I took my first Jivamukti class with Ruth and a huge shift began happening for me. At the same time, I had also started reading "Autobiography of a Yogi" by Paramahansa Yogananda. My curiosity around the truth Yoga and meditation had to offer was increasing, and the excessive ambition that kept me needing to be on stage was diminishing. About a year later, I took a 10 day silent retreat at the Vipassana center in Massachusetts. Soon after I decided to do a Yoga Teacher Training. I wanted to live on an ashram while I did my training, so I chose the Sivananda Ashram in Woodbourne, NY. The dear and blessed Swami Sadasivananda and Swami Sri Nivasananda inspired me to open my voice and my heart to people of like mind. So I decided to make a radical life change. I quit playing music at restaurants and bars, I went back to school for Massage Therapy, and I went back for my Advanced Yoga Teacher Training also of the Sivananda lineage. I've also studied Ashtanga at a Teachers Intensive with Chuck Miller and Maty Ezraty, and had the great fortune to take an Ashtanga Master Class with Sri K. Pattabhi Jois. After several years of teaching a Flow style yoga class inspired by Jivamukti, Sivananda, and Pattabhi Jois's Ashtanga method, I finally went to get my Jivamukti Teacher Certification. I am eternally grateful to have learned from Sharon Gannon, David Life, Ruth Laur-Manenti, and Manorama. I am truly blessed to call them my teachers and to be part of this lineage of Yoga. I offer everything I am and have to my many blessed teachers. My song is for them. Yoga is the path to enlightenment. We all want to be happy and to feel free. Once we can recognize the oneness of all beings we will experience the bliss of self realization. We are connected. Our separation is only an illusion constructed by the fluctuations in the mind. The paths are many, but we are one. INSPIRATION: Sharon Gannon, David Life, Ruth Laur-Manenti, Manorama, Swami Sivananda, Swami Satchidananda, Swami Vishnu Devananda, Paramahansa Yogananda, The Beatles, Joseph Campbell, Ti Harmony, PETA, Mahatma Ghandi, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Eva Cassidy, Joni Mitchell, Pema Chodron, Dave Stringer, Michael Franti, Deva Premal, Jai Utal, Krishna Das, Cheb I Sabbah, Shyam Das, Mom, Dad, and Strider. FAVORITES FOR GROUNDING: Meditation, japa (mantra repetition), chanting, singing, playing guitar, and a vigorous vinyasa practice. PRACTICE: I practice ahimsa (non-violence) by stepping as lightly as I can on the earth and by being a vegan. I practice bhakti (love, gratitude, and devotion) when chanting and opening myself to the possibility of writing music that will uplift myself and others. I practice nada (development of a sound body and mind through deep listening). I practice asana, meditation, and pranayama. I study the beautiful sanskrit language, the Bhagavad Gita, and Patanjali's Yoga Sutras. I offer all my efforts to my teachers and to the blue sky. INTENTION: To be an instrument of service for the happiness and freedom for all beings everywhere. "Lokah samasta sukhino bhavantu". Your yoga home for Carrboro and Chapel Hill North Carolina! Back to Home Page. Back to Bio Page Back to Schedule Page.