Yoga Teacher Bios

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LESLIE
Leslie guides her yoga students on a journey through forgotten anatomy, reminding us of the necks of the toes and the eyes of the elbows. Yoga helps us travel out of the mind, into the body. Leslie says teaching yoga for twenty years helped her find her voice. Yoga keeps her humble. It helps her tap into her inner world and respect her body more for both its abilities and limitations. She loves that there are many pathways within yoga, it’s never a one size fits all approach. Her Slow Flow Vinyasa classes are fueled by passion and balanced by a sense of calm. She was a swimmer in school and always a hiker. She hadn’t connected breath with movement, until she went to a stretch class hosted by her friend in their home. She said her brain exploded when she discovered the process of uniting mind, body, and breath. She sees potential for our shared yoga practice to ripple into the community and create positive change. She’s been in Leadville for thirty years, the serenity and small town vibes keep her here. Her advice for yogis who are just starting out is that you can expect to have good days and bad days in your practice, what matters is coming back.

JULIE
Julie arrived at her first yoga class wearing a sweater and corduroy pants, with no idea what to expect. Fifteen years later, Vinyasa flow and sequencing are her specialty as a teacher. Being a yogi is something she pursues daily, without expectation. The word yoga means “to yoke” — and Julie uses breath and movement to connect with herself and the world around her. She said: “When we chant Ohm, it’s to connect our sound with the universal vibration, to the person next to you, to your dog, to the trees.” She works in the tech space in cybersecurity and finds levity with her ten chickens, the Henriettas, and two dogs, George and Jelly. She is creating a homestead with her husband, Troy, in Leadville. Her grandmother taught her to crochet and she still practices the art to honor her, knitting blankets and hats as gifts. She volunteers with C4 and Lake County Build a Generation working towards food access for all. She believes one of the greatest skills we can cultivate is listening with empathy: the act of slowing down, taking a breath, and supporting each other.

AMY
Amy was a marathon runner and physique competitor before she broke both hips. This loss lead her to yoga. She was going through a depression and stepping onto the mat felt like being in a safe space. Amy retired from her work as a building designer and committed to becoming a yoga teacher. She worked as a team with her builder husband, A.T. They have two teenage boys, Asher and Auggie, which she homeschools. Her family moved from Atlanta to Leadville. Amy’s yoga classes tend toward stronger, more creative sequences. She finds the flow is in the transitions. She specializes in four-week workshops and she’s focused on Osteoporosis prevention, which pairs weight training with yoga. Amy is a sound healer and Reiki practitioner, aligning inner vibrations with outer vibrations. Sound is at the center of her yoga practice, and you’ll see Amy in class playing house music and playing the rainstick in Shavasana. Her creative outlets are pottery and watercolor. When asked what she would like to see more of in the world, she said: “I would like more tolerance for people to be whoever they are, whenever they feel like being that. I would like our environment to be a bigger priority. I would like a Native American chief to become president.”

MADALYN
Madalyn never plans her yoga classes. As a teacher, she loves inventing in the moment, tapping into a natural flow. She discovered yoga in a strip mall in Fort Collins. It was love at first sight. She describes yoga as a sustainable body and spirit practice that promotes longevity. It’s an antidote to despair. It can help us heal patriarchal and systemic wounds, generational trauma, and unwind colonial conditioning. In Madalyn’s classes, she wants to create a safe container, where each student can be vulnerable in their own body, by opening up through the heart, the expansion of breath, and getting into the hips, which can carry a lot of baggage. This creates space in the fascia, muscle, joints, vertebrae, where we let go of stagnant energy that doesn’t serve us. Yoga invites us to listen to the body and its wisdom. Madalyn has lived in Leadville since 2019. Her mom and dad lived here in the late ‘70s. Her dad worked his way to lead mechanic at Climax before it shut down. Growing up, her family vacationed in Leadville, camping at Sugar Loafin', hitting the slopes at Ski Cooper. When her mom passed away in 2008, she spread her ashes at Turquoise Lake. She lives with her partner Tommy and her son Storm. What has motherhood given her? The opportunity to learn unconditional joy.