Liz Bernstein
Instructor
Liz has been practicing yoga since June of 2005 and Pilates since 2010. It has helped teach her how to create space and cultivate compassion for herself and others. Although she loves to practice, yoga is more than physical shapes to her. She draws on her knowledge of functional movement biomechanics, Ashtanga, Pilates and Prana Flow for her classes. She is also an active volunteer in the D.C. community; especially through N Street Village and loves to travel.
Monica Brinn
Instructor
Monica discovered Pilates over 15 years ago to help her deal with the back and neck pain she experienced from scoliosis. Later, she began practicing yoga and found that she loved what it did for her back, the rest of her body and her mind. She is 500-hour certified in yoga and certified in Balanced Body Mat Pilates. As an instructor, she recognizes we all must work with the body we have, and she strives to guide practices that keep students of all ages and abilities safe, healthy and coming back for more!
Chantelle Britton
Instructor
Chantelle began her yoga journey from a desire for spiritual transformation, healing and mind-body balance. Chantelle, an E-RYT, teaches energetic, stimulating and motivational class that give people the opportunity to have both a learning and healing experience. While not on the mat, she commits to service and travels every chance she gets.
Clare Kelly
Instructor
Clare has been practicing yoga and Pilates since 1998 and teaching in DC since 2010. She is a playful and artful synthesizer of ancient healing traditions and evidence-based science. Her classes call students to explore their nature. Clare's love of nature runs deep; she is also a certified forest therapy guide.
Dan Carter
Studio Manager, Instructor
Dan's friends call him Danimal and he hopes you do too! Danimal teaches a power and rocket inspired sequence that incorporates the breath, movement and noise of a specific animal each week to create a playful and primal flow. Expect fun music and space to workshop poses in his classes.
Mary Champeny
Studio Assistant
Mary is a West coast transplant who started practicing yoga after moving to DC and discovering that mid-Atlantic winters make outdoor exercise very uncomfortable. Since then she has come to rely on yoga as a way to find ease in both body and mind. Mary works for a public health NGO as an infant nutrition researcher and feels lucky to call Mt. Pleasant home.
Sara Curtin
Instructor
Sara began practicing yoga in order to explore the ever-growing relationship between mind and body, and deepen the bond with her breath. As a professional singer and musician she searched for ways to strengthen (and relax) a body often challenged by physical fatigue. She quickly discovered the healing properties of the breath that yoga facilitates through movement and strength. In Sara’s class, you will increase strength, flexibility, and have fun!
Katie Davey
Studio Assistant
Katie began practicing yoga in 2002, and quickly found the mat to be a stabilizing "home base," even as she moved from city to city and from country to country. Yoga has been the perfect companion to a hectic and sometimes transient lifestyle - bringing balance, strength, flexibility, intention and focus, all within the span of an hour-long practice.
Kelly DiNardo
Owner, Instructor
Kelly discovered yoga when she was procrastinating on a writing assignment. Parked on a yoga mat, she not only cleared her writer’s block but developed a new passion. Trained through YogaFit, she has been teaching yoga in the area for over ten years. She opened Past Tense with the hope of giving others the same strength, balance and flexibility in a place that is open and welcoming.
Meagan Estep
Instructor
Meagan wandered into a lunchtime yoga class in 2007 after spending many years as a classical ballet dancer. She immediately fell in love with the freedom she felt in both her body and her mind. Meagan completed her 200-hour teacher training at Past Tense in 2017. In her classes, expect an unhurried investigation of movement, breath, and full body presence.
Nichole Ferrigno
Instructor
After discovering yoga in college as a way to combat anxiety and stress, Nichole loves watching her relationship with the practice evolve. Indeed, it's been an anchor in her journey through motherhood and career, always showing up as a sanctuary. Nichole completed her teacher training at Past Tense in 2017 and when she's not in the studio she works as a health coach and cooking instructor. Expect to find your own sanctuary in Nichole's classes, with an emphasis on slowing down and tuning in.
Christine Gallagher
Studio Assistant
Christine turned to yoga after low-back pain began impeding her running and biking. On the mat, she discovered the practice not only helped strengthen her back but also provided a respite from busy city life. Beyond yoga, Christine helps manage scientific programs that support communities’ efforts to prepare for and recover from impacts of weather events.
Jenna Grubman
Assistant Studio Manager, Instructor
Jenna has played multiple sports all her life, but it wasn’t until moving to DC from Indiana that she realized yoga was the perfect balance for her active lifestyle. Jenna was introduced to Past Tense by her sister, Sunny, a student assistant. Beyond yoga, Jenna works for Habitat for Humanity of Washington, D.C. and loves a good dinner party.
Jennifer Hopkins
Pilates Manager, Instructor
Jennifer believes in the core power found in Pilates, but also in its life-changing, full-body benefits. Jennifer sought out the classical method of Joe Pilates by studying directly with the Power Pilates studio in New York City. She strives to make Pilates accessible, to see individual needs of students and to work the core with laughter.
Sonja Kubota Johansson
Instructor
Sonja first encountered yoga and felt as if she were re-united with an old friend who reminded her of the true meaning of life. Since then, it has helped her work through pain and encouraged her to nurture compassion, gratitude, and peace. She emphasizes yoga as a physical, emotional and spiritually healing practice in a unifying, non-dogmatic way. Sonja is currently pursuing her doctorate in clinical psychology.
Jeanette Lee
Instructor
Jeanette turned to yoga after dancing for many years. Yoga inspired her to find freedom and release in more subtle and deeper ways than she could before. Jeanette received her initial teacher training in 2007 and a 500-hour certification in Prana Flow. Jeanette enjoys creating yoga practices to connect us with the natural cycles of life – to the seasons, the weather, and the basic elements.
Reana Kovalcik
Studio Assistant
They say all real New Yorkers are in therapy, but this one has always preferred the mat to the couch. For Reana the mental and emotional practice of yoga is just as important as the physical, and she is grateful to have had truly inspirational teachers over the years who have helped her to stretch and expand all three. Reana works for the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition, a DC-based policy organization that elevates the voices of diverse, sustainable, and organic farmers across the country and translates their wisdom and needs into meaningful, federal policies.
Sarah Kirby
Kids Manager, Instructor
Sarah Kirby began her yoga journey in college as a runner seeking to balance her workouts with some regular stretching exercises. As her practice grew over the years, she discovered her own power to connect her mind and body with her breath. She received her 200-hour training from Mind the Mat, and outside of the studio she is pursuing certification as a master esthetician. Sarah hopes that everyone leaves her classes feeling a sense of balance in their bodies, peace in their minds, and joy in their hearts.
Alicia Moyer
Director of Teacher Training, Instructor
Alicia has been practicing yoga since 1998 and teaching since 2009. She has studied in various traditions, and strives to bring them all together in her alignment-focused vinyasa classes and teacher training. Alicia is a native to Mt. Pleasant and still lives in her childhood home with her husband, daughter and rather large dog.
Rachel Morrison
Instructor
Rachel is a dancer, yogi and personal trainer and completed her 200 hour teacher training with Eric Schwarz at The Studio DC in 2016. She views yoga as a life practice that continues to inspire deeper connection to ourselves and our world.
Mallory Newall
Assistant Studio Manager, Instructor
Mallory first joined the Past Tense community as a studio assistant, then later as a member of the studio's first Living Yoga Teacher Training class. Mallory teaches a power-inspired class set to upbeat music to give students the opportunity to find their edge in a lighthearted way. Off the mat, Mallory works in public opinion research and communications and loves to travel and explore D.C.'s many new restaurants.
Otis Ramsey-Zoe
Studio Assistant
The name Otis means “he who hears well” or “one who listens.” Yoga has become another opportunity for Otis to live out his mission in life as determined by the name given to him by his parents. A theatre artist, educator, and PhD student, Otis has maintained a committed yoga practice since 2010.
Emma Silverman
Instructor
Emma is recent D.C. arrival, most recently residing in Montreal, Quebec. Her training was at the Kripalu School of Yoga in 2009 and she has accumulated over 10,000 teaching hours. She also writes books about yoga and wellness (four so far!). She looks forward to living and loving D.C. and its yoga community!
Bethany Shaffer
Instructor
Bethany came to the mat after years of Buddhist study and meditation. She became serious about the practice at the Lotus Buddhist Center in Prague and was certified through Yoga District in 2010. She teaches a creative, alignment-based flow that emphasizes presence. Bethany is also a high school English teacher and believes in language, learning, and leaping off the well-worn road.
Rob Phillips
Instructor
Rob Phillips teaches yoga with an emphasis on simplicity, precision, and attention to the present moment. His teaching style draws from a variety of influences, including traditional Ashtanga, Iyengar, and Yin as well as non-yoga methods like calisthenics and strength training. In his classes, even when you're working really hard, you'll be doing so from a place of calm awareness and focus
Mirtha Soto
Studio Assistant
After living in France for graduate school, where "too many baguettes, too little time" could have been her mantra, Mirtha re-discovered yoga as a complement to running. Mirtha's yoga practice has ebbed and flowed for nearly 10 years but since moving to D.C. in 2014 it's been a constant presence and grounding force. Outside the studio, Mirtha enjoys learning languages and playing with other people's dogs.
Emily Stock
Studio Assistant
After a lifetime struggle with being overweight Emily’s life changed when she moved to DC in 2011 and had numerous opportunities to create an active lifestyle. After losing over 100 pounds she still struggled with a weak core, a loud mind and back issues. She was urged to give yoga a try by a friend and regular Past Tense student. After her first class at Past Tense she was hooked and sore. Emily loves the welcoming community that Past Tense offers to everyone.
Sasa Tang
Studio Assistant
Sasa unexpectedly took her first yoga class in the high Atlas Mountains of Morocco during her Peace Corps service when she invited a lost yogi and her daughter to her village to stay for the night. Now in a Ph.D. program studying Middle Eastern politics, yoga gives Sasa time to find rest and to be fully present in her body on the mat.
Sunny Widmann
Studio Assistant
Sunny fell in love with yoga while practicing on a beach in Thailand, after completing her Peace Corps service in Togo, West Africa. She realized yoga was exactly what she needed to help her transition into the next phase of her life with ease and intention. When not practicing, Sunny can be found working as an arts administrator, planning world travels, or baking cookies.
Jennryn Wetzler
Instructor
Jennryn thoroughly enjoys teaching Prenatal and Baby & Me classes. Jennryn has been practicing yoga since 2001 and loves bringing the different elements of yoga to her daily life and travels. From practicing poses in mud huts, as a Peace Corps volunteer in Niger, to stretching along the beach at a community development program in Thailand, to leading informal classes between Arabic studies in Egypt, yoga has served her as a home away from home. With RYT certification in 2012, and Prenatal Yoga certification in 2016, Jennryn feels blessed by the chance to share the practice with others.
Karen Vargas
Studio Assistant
For Karen, coming to the mat represents an opportunity to check in with the internal self as well as the way to manifest the work (and growth) that the soul is craving. When she’s not at Past Tense, she can be found enjoying the outdoors, searching for the best cappuccinos and croissants, spending time with friends and family or adventuring to foreign lands.