irus

YOGA INSTRUCTOR

Pronouns: She/Her

Teaching style: compassionate, playful, dynamic

Favorite pose: Headstand. A pose that always gives me a different perspective on the world. I also really like the way that gravity impacts my twists in this pose.

Bio: I started practicing yoga in Pondicherry, India in 1996 and attended my first vipassana meditation retreat in the Goenka tradition in Dharamsala, India, on the same year. I have been practicing ever since. Upon my return from India, I both participated in and facilitated insight meditation retreats in Israel and held an active sangha group in Jerusalem for several years. In 2002, I took a two-year yoga teacher training course with Orit San-Gupta, a disciple of B.K.S. Iyengar and Donna Holleman and the founder of the Vijnana tradition, after which I opened my own yoga studio in Jerusalem. In 2004, I left Israel to embark on my doctoral studies in anthropology, geography, and law in North America. Over the years, I was fortunate to practice with excellent teachers in a variety of traditions, including Iyengar teachers Patricia Walden and Eyal Shifroni as well as in the Ashtanga tradition.

Being an active dancer until an injury in my late teens, my teaching emphasizes the connection between insight, breath, and movement. For me, the practice of yoga is an anchor for dealing with life’s challenges generally, and with the difficulties and burnouts of being engaged in social change in particular. In my free time, I teach at UB and write academic books on the politics of nature.