PETROS HAFFENRICHTER

SHARON GANNON

Yogini Sharon Gannon's quest for independence began with her birth on July 4th in Washington, DC. Her interest in mysticism was nourished by her Catholic upbringing.

Jivamukti Yoga
In 1984 Sharon Gannon and David Life created the Jivamukti Yoga Method, which is a path to enlightenment through compassion for all beings. They are pioneers in teaching yoga as spiritual activism/activation. The JY Method emphasizes vinyasa, scriptural study, devotion, prayer, music, chanting and meditation as well as animal rights, veganism, environmentalism and political activism. Jivamukti?s passionate focus on the original meaning of the Sanskrit word "asana" as seat, connection, relationship to the earth is as practical as it is radical at this time of global and consciousness shift.
The Jivamukti Yoga Method is taught worldwide at Jivamukti Yoga Schools in NYC, Detroit, Toronto, London, Berlin and Munich. The Jivamukti practice is also available on DVDs

Media Support
Yoga Journal has recognized Gannon and Life as innovators in Yoga and the NY Times says, "Without Jivamukti, yoga in the US would still be the obscure practice of a few." TIME magazine recognized JY as one of the nine methods of Hatha Yoga taught in the world today. JY is featured in the acclaimed documentary film: What is Yoga? Sharon is a featured yogini in various books: Yoga by Linda Sparrowe, American Yoga by Carrie Schneider, Yogini by Janice Gates and Women to Women by Christina Lessa.

Yoga Master
Sharon has studied yoga since 1976. Her guru's are Shri Brahmananda Saraswati, Swami Nirmalananda, and Shri K. Pattabhi Jois.
Sharon brings a rare blend of scholarly study, artistic pursuits and a highly disciplined asana and meditation practice to her offerings as a teacher. Sharon is a renowned teacher around the globe. She has taught yoga and meditation throughout the United States as well as Mexico, the Caribbean, Canada, England, Germany, Switzerland, France, Italy, Turkey, Israel, India, Singapore, Philippines, Thailand, Bali, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Japan. Her high profile students include Sting, Trudie Styler, Russell Simmons, Gabriela Bozic, Mike D. Donna Karan, Michael Franti, Geshe Michael Roach and Christy McNally
Since 1993 she has presented annually at various national and international conferences hosted by The Omega Institute, Yoga Journal, Asian Conferences and others. Each year, along with David Life she teaches a one-month intensive Jivamukti Yoga Teacher Training course which is offered in the US at the Omega Institute, Rhinebeck NY www.eomega.org and in Germany, 100 km from Berlin in Lychen, www.schluesshof.ee

Artist
As a poet, musician, dancer and producer, Sharon views art as a means for uplifting the soul and her artistic pursuits seek to enrich the community by being both inspirational and educational. She holds a BA in Dance and has studied ballet, modern, classical and various forms of Indian Dance; as well as music, poetry, painting and alchemy.
During the 1970's & 80's first in Seattle and then in NYC she was the vocalist and violinist for the jazz/rock band Audio Letter as well as directing and choreographing for the dance company 'Moon-Food'. Her choreography is featured in the Video: Asana: sacred dance of the Yogi. In 2003 she produced the CD Neti-Neti, a remix of the 1987 Audio Letter album of the same name, receiving rave reviews and critical acclaim from Billboard Magazine, Rolling Stone, Yoga Journal and others. She collaborated with Janet Rienstra of Meta Records to create the cd: Chakra, seven centers. She collaborated with Raven Recording to produce Sundari, music for a Jivamukti Yoga Class. In 2004 she co-produced with White Swan Music Records, the CD, Jai MA, a collection of divine women singers. Sharon is a guest vocalist, appearing on CDs with innovative world-beat musicians including Bill Laswell, Mike D., Sean Dinsmore, David Newman, Shyam Das and DJ Cheb I Sabbah.

Animal Advocate
Sharon is an animal-rights activist and outspoken advocate of ethical veganism. She was nominated for the "Gutsiest Woman of the Year 1999" by Jane Magazine. She is the author of Cats and Dogs are People Too, an investigation of the corporate profit-driven insensitive attitudes that result in commercial "pet food" and the health risks to companion animals who eat it. Together with David Life and Janet Rienstra, she established the Animal Mukti Free Spay & Neuter Clinic, which was the first free spay and neuter clinic in New York City, at the Humane Society of NY in 1999. In 2004 she was recognized as "Friend of Ferals" by the Humane Society of New York and Neighborhood Cats. She is a long time vanguard member of PETA, working with them on various projects and campaigns to help make this world a kinder place. In 2003 she appeared on a video screen in Times Square behind the New Years Ball advocating Yoga and Vegetarianism as a step toward world Peace. Along with Life she has established a 76-acre Wildlife Forest Sanctuary in upstate New York.

Author
Sharon has co-authored two books on Yoga with David Life, Jivamukti Yoga, Practices for Liberating Body & Soul and The Art of Yoga. She is the author of Cats and Dogs are People Too and the newly release Yoga and Vegetarianism . She contributes the Focus of the Month, a monthly essay, focusing on yogic topics, which can be read on www.jivamuktiyoga.com. She is the compiler and translator of the Jivamukti Chant Book. She has contributed essays and short stories to Semiotext(e). She was a past editor of Patio Table Magazine. She is a member of the Woodstock Poetry Society. A collection of her poems and essays are complied in the book Freedom is a Psycho-Kinetic Skill. She is currently working on three soon to be published books, The Yogic Art of Assists, a book of Poetry as well as a Vegan Cookbook.

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DAVID LIFE

David has been recognized by Yoga Journal as an "innovator" in yoga in the U.S today. Together with Sharon Gannon, and through the blessings of his teachers, David has helped create the Jivamukti Yoga method, which focuses on teaching and practicing yoga as a means to enlightenment.

Jivamukti Yoga
Vanity Fair, in an article titled Planet Yoga featured David and Sharon, calling Jivamukti Yoga "a bridge between the East and the West." The Jivamukti Yoga Method is taught worldwide in Jivamukti Yoga Schools in New York, Berlin, Munich, London, Toronto, and Detroit. The Jivamukti Yoga method is recognized by TIME magazine as one of the nine major methods of hatha yoga taught in the world today, and is featured in the acclaimed documentary, "What is Yoga?".

Yoga Master
David's gurus are Shri Brahmananda Sarasvati, Shri Swami Nirmalananda and Shri K. Pattabhi Jois. David is a certified Advanced practitioner of the Ashtanga Yoga method of Shri K. Pattabhi Jois, which he began studying in Mysore, India in 1988. He spent several years as a sannyas(renunciate) initiated by Swami Nirmalananda in 1989. He has received Kalachakra and Bodhisattva initiation from His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama. His interest in yoga is supported by his artistic, literary and metaphysical studies. He imbues his classes with metaphor, musicality and spirituality, spiced with humor, vigor and spontaneity. He is considered to be a "teacher's teacher" and he is a respected, popular, and in-demand teacher around the globe. He has taught for more than twenty years throughout the United States, and in Canada, Mexico, Germany, France, UK, Switzerland, Italy, India, Turkey, Taiwan, Singapore, Japan, Philippines, Australia, China, the Caribbean, and Israel. Since 1993 he has presented regularly at national and international yoga conferences. Along with Sharon Gannon he teaches a one-month intensive Jivamukti Yoga Teacher Training course offered at various locations. He has written articles as well as being featured in many articles in Yoga Journal and is featured in Yoga an encyclopedic collection of asana by Linda Sparrow. - His high profile students have included, Trudy Styler and Sting, Madonna, Russell Simmons, Christy Turlington, Donna Karan and Geshe Michael Roach.

Influential Artist & Founder of Life Cafe
David Life was born in a small town in Michigan. He graduated from Michigan State University in 1972 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree with honors. He has lived in New York City since 1979. When he created Life Cafe in 1980 it was a coffeehouse with vegetarian chili, and espresso made one-at-a-time on an electric hotplate. Life Cafe featured jazz, art, and poetry. David became an influential performer, artist and spokesperson in the political and social foment and lively arts community in the1980's Lower East Side of New York City. Life Cafe has been featured in Newsweek, and in the Broadway play "Rent" as the setting for "La Vie Boheme."

Author & Teacher
He has been a contributing writer for several publications including Yoga Journal and Yoga International, and together with Sharon Gannon has co-authored two books, Jivamukti Yoga: Practices for Liberating Body & Soul and The Art of Yoga.

Animal Advocacy
Together with Sharon Gannon and Janet Rienstra, he established the Animal Mukti Free Spay & Neuter Clinic in New York City at the Humane Society of NYC in 1999. He is a long time vanguard member of PETA, working with them on various projects and campaigns to help make this world a kinder place. Along with Gannon he has established and maintains a 76-acre wildlife forest sanctuary in upstate New York.

PATRICK BROOME

Born in Germany, Patrick travels around the world sharing his extensive experience and knowledge of the Jivamukti Yoga method. He received Advanced Teacher Certification and together with the rest of the German Jivamukti Tribe they run 3 successful Yoga Centres.

Since Patrick introduced the Jivamukti Yoga method to Europe in 1996 there is a steady growing demand for Jivamukti Yoga on this side of the ocean. Now he tries to use this overwhelming public interest to promote, what really matters in the life of a Yogi: Self-discovery; the ability and the guts to analyze, to accept and to clear one’s own perception and behaviour.

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Jules Febre was born and raised in a section of New York City known as the Lower East Side. He grew up in the L.E.S. during a very rough period surrounded by violence, drugs and a general atmosphere of anger. At the age of 13, Jules spent three months in India; two of which were spent in Mysore studying Ashtanga Yoga with Sri. K. Pattabhi Jois. During that time he was invited to share satsang with Swami Nirmalananda and Shyam Das, two radical yogis that have each helped to add to the progression of yoga in the West. At the age of 16 Jules began working at the Jivamukti Yoga School helping to clean, by 21 had become the general manager of two Jivamukti Yoga Schools and eventually became the C.O.O. of Jivamukti Inc. in New York City.

After years of working behind a desk Jules realized his need was to be with others in a more hands on relationship and took the 350 hour Jivamukti Yoga Teacher training. After completing the extensive one month training, he completed a six month apprentice program and became an Advanced Certified Jivamukti teacher.

Having taught with Sharon Gannon and David Life around the world, Jules decided it was time to give back to the neighborhood he grew up in and started Hip Hop Asana with two other Jivamukti Yoga teachers. Combining hip hop music and his street smarts, he teaches classes geared toward those interested in the hip hop culture and yoga; especially those who cannot always afford to pay for classes. So far, Hip Hop Asana has been taught by Jules in New York City in Homeless Shelters, High Schools and Recreational Centers for inner city youth. Teaching yoga is Jules’ passion. He is grateful to his teachers, Sharonji, Davidji & Yogeswari for igniting his devotion to the Jivamukti Yoga practice and inspire countless students.

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With a Greek mother and German father, Petros learned early to embrace life as a merging of polarities. Life is always exciting, demanding, real and the state we are... Accepting all sides of this play as equally important and as a chance for growth and insight is one of the challanges we can master though the practice of hatha yoga. Petros teaches now for over 10 years in an open-hearted, honest, funny and challenging way.

An advanced Jivamukti Yoga Teacher, Petros lives, teaches and sings in Munich, Germany, and gives workshops, kirtans and retreats throughout the planet. He wants to inspire his students to do whatever you do –in full awareness, and to do it with your heart. So we can always return to that place where independently from outer circumstance, we always will find peace: within our hearts. Many times we’ll meet obstacles on this path: our intellect, our body, our expectations and preferences. Yoga gives us the possibility to free ourselves from these hindrances that keep us from experiencing our true nature –free, wild, full of love and joy and without conditioning, without fear. He is thankful for all teachers and circumstance that give us the chance to experience this feeling of unity, of non-separateness, to eventually learn to accept the greatest of all teachers: our life itself. Om shanti.

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RUTH LAUER-MANENTI

Ruth started practicing yoga in 1989 as a way of healing from a bad car accident. She has made numerous trips to India where she has had many lessons from great masters as well as from the local people. She is currently helping to fund the building and running of an orphanage in downtown Mysore, a bustling city in India, where Sri K. Pattabhi Jois and his family live.

Ruth's strength as a teacher comes from her gurus: David-ji and Sharon-ji, their courage and perseverance; Sri K. Pattabhi Jois who is perfect in every way; her Sanskrit teacher Jaya Shree who has pushed the Yoga Sutras into me; her husband, the gentle nurse and humble tai chi master and from her own practice and studies which are never ending.

Ruth's growth as a teacher has also come about through the exchange that she has had with her students who are the best students a teacher could hope for. As a teacher, she hopes to be a link on the chain of all teachers who have inspired all students to be kind.

She is also an artist and has an MFA from Yale where she taught painting and printmaking. She currently teaches painting and drawing one semester/year at Dartmouth College.

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YOGESWARI

Based at Jivamukti Yoga Center in New York, Yogeswari is a popular teacher around the world. She is known for her vigorous and seamless Vinyasa sequencing, as well as for her thought-provoking philosophical teachings. Yogeswari is Advanced Certified in the Jivamukti Yoga Method, and has taken many Jivamukti Certified Teachers through one-on-one apprenticeships towards their 800-hour cerification. She has assisted and co-taught Jivamukti Teacher Trainings in Germany and the US, and will be co-teaching the Jivamukti Teacher Training at OMEGA Institute in New York in April 2009 with Sharon Gannon and David Life.

Yogeswari is the founder and president of AZAHAR Foundation, an international non-profit organization that promotes cross-cultural understanding and non-violent conflict resolution through Yoga and the Arts. Yogeswari brings with her a 20-year background in choreography and dance, and holds an MA in choreography and dance from New York University and a BFA McL in dance from Temple University, Philadelphia. Born in Switzerland, she teaches in five languages.

She thanks her teachers, Sharon Gannon and David Life, for instilling in her a deep commitment to the practice of Ahimsa (non-violence), and to Shirley Sweet for supporting her vision.

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