Liz Bernstein
Instructor
Liz is a yoga, Pilates, and meditation teacher living in Tequesta, Florida after calling DC home for over 10 years. Her unique, compassionate approach mixes exercise science and biomechanics with mind-body methods in the hopes that you feel more at ease in your body and self. Liz stresses quality of movement over quantity, believes in skillful effort, and that humor helps almost everything.
Edy Blu
Instructor
Edy is a singer, songwriter, and yoga teacher who has a knack for challenging her students, while providing the space to be powerful with ease. Her classes center on breath awareness and mindful movement. She started practicing yoga in 2012 to alleviate knee pain and fell in love with the mobility she began to experience. As an athlete all her life, yoga provided her with strength and ease. This is what she focuses on as a teacher.
Nate Byer
Instructor
While he didn't know it at the time, Nate first found yoga in middle school when his basketball coach led the team through pre-game breathing exercises. After decades of competitive sports, Nate began practicing yoga in earnest at Past Tense, falling for the powerful combination of physical effort, mental balance, and patience.
Ellie Conrad
Instructor
In the summer of 2013 Ellie experienced the power of yoga and her practice quickly grew into her passion and she completed her 200-Hour Hatha Yoga Teacher Training in 2015 through Integral Yoga and in 2019 she attended Asheville School of Massage and Yoga and became a licensed Massage Therapist in Washington, DC. In Ellie's classes, you can expect alignment and creative sequencing to challenge the body, steady the breath and focus the mind.
Sara Curtin
Instructor
Sara began practicing yoga in order to explore the ever-growing relationship between mind and body. As a professional singer and musician she searched for ways to strengthen and relax her body. In her class, you'll build strength, increase flexibility and have fun!
Niki Dasarathy
Instructor
Niki started practicing yoga while living overseas in an effort to make new friends. Since then yoga has helped her grow into a stronger, less tense, and more flexible person, both on and off the mat. She graduated from Past Tense's 200-hour teacher training and, off the mat, she manages international rule of law projects.
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. She has been teaching yoga for over fifteen years. She opened Past Tense with the hope of giving others the same strength, balance and flexibility she finds on the mat in a place that is open and welcoming.
Meagan Estep
Instructor, Special Projects Manager
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
Studio Manager, Instructor
Since discovering yoga in college, Nichole has embraced yoga as an anchor in her life and as a sanctuary from DC's hurried pace. She completed her teacher training at Past Tense in 2017 and you can expect to find your own sanctuary in her grounding classes that emphasize form and tuning in. When she's not in the studio Nichole works as a health coach, cooking instructor and full-time mom.
Renana Fox
Instructor
Renana (RYT-200) has been teaching yoga since 2015 at a variety of studios, though Past Tense has been her home from the beginning. The focus of her class is always finding joy in movement. Students can expect energetic music and to work towards a peak pose with the goal of understanding how to access the muscles necessary. She has also been trained in Restorative Yoga, Foam Rolling, and Yoga for the Classroom. Outside the studio Renana is active in the local theatre community, she is a classroom teacher, and is trying to make her way to every country in South America.
Joey Gottlieb
Instructor
Joey has been practicing yoga for over a decade and teaching since 2013. An avid student, he draws on a wide variety of styles and influences to offer intelligent, challenging classes with a light-hearted touch. He currently lives in Boston and teaches third grade, but still considers Washington DC to be his yoga home.
Jenna Grubman
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. Beyond yoga, Jenna works for Habitat for Humanity and loves a good dinner party.
Dayna Heater
Instructor
Dayna took her first yoga class as an elective class (got an A!) and has been a student on and off the mat ever since. She completed her first teacher training in 2003 but didn't really consider regularly teaching yoga until the opportunity to teach kids popped up. Dayna loves sharing the tools of yoga as a form of play for students of all ages and shapes, as a means to reduce stress and build community.
Jennifer Hopkins
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
When Sonja first encountered yoga she felt as if she were re-united with an old friend. As a teacher, Sonja provides students with a safe space for exploration and discovery. Her classes are structured in a vinyasa flow style with emphasis on breath, alignment and breath-movement coordination. She works with students to modify the poses to best fit their physical and emotional capabilities. Sonja is also a clinical psychologist with a private practice in Dupont Circle.
Jeanette Lee
Instructor
Jeanette developed her love of yoga during law school, after which she immediately enrolled in her first yoga teacher training. Since 2008, Jeanette has been teaching dynamic flow classes that unfold from simple to more complex, allowing students to explore new challenges and to grow their practice. Jeanette is a certified Prana Vinyasa teacher and is an E-RYT200/RYT-500.
Paige Lichens
Instructor
A D.C. native, Paige has been practicing meditation and yoga for over 20 years and teaching since 2009. She completed her 500-hour Teacher Training at Kripalu and is also certified in Prenatal, Yin and Yoga Nidra. At Past Tense studio she teaches a monthly Sound Bath Meditation classes.
Rachel Morrison
Instructor
Rachel is a dancer, yogi and strength training enthusiast who practices and teaches yoga as a process of self discovery to inspire deeper connection to ourselves and our world. She’s practiced on and off for over 10 years, has been teaching since 2016, and offers students a fluid Vinyasa experience focused on alignment and awareness.
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.
Mallory Newall
Studio Manager, Instructor
Mallory first joined the Past Tense community as a studio assistant, then graduated from the studio's first Living Yoga Teacher Training in 2017. Mallory teaches a power-inspired class set to upbeat music to give students the opportunity to find their edge in a lighthearted way. She is an RYT 200 and is certified in foam rolling and prenatal yoga.
Melanie Nguyen
Studio Assistant
After practicing on-and-off, Melanie decided to deepen her practice at Past Tense. She now appreciates the mind-body connection and space for self-reflection offered by yoga, especially as a busy graduate student. Off the mat, you can find her strolling around the neighborhood with her dog or enjoying a cup of coffee and a good book
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. In his classes, even when you're working really hard, you'll be doing so from a place of calm awareness and focus
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.
Aashumi Shah
Instructor
Aashumi discovered her yoga practice during a big life change ten years ago. She finds her practice is an analogy to life as a practice off the mat. Aashumi teaches with a focus on asana fundamentals and alignment. Off the mat, a textile designer and owner of the eco-friendly, socially conscious kids brand Mirasa.
Emma Silverman
Instructor
Emma took her first yoga class with her mom in 1999 and finished her teacher training in 2007. She teaches prenatal, restorative, senior, and flow classes (a real smorgasbord). In her classes she plays music (usually), tells very bad jokes (always), and offers lots of modifications.
Emily Stock
Studio Assistant
After a lifetime struggle with being overweight Emily’s life changed when she moved to DC 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. After her first class at Past Tense she was hooked and sore.
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.
Bara Vaida
Instructor
Bara began practicing yoga 25 years ago as part of her fitness routine and fell in love with the ways the practice helps her care for her spirit too. Bara enjoys teaching sequences that help yogis build strength and self-confidence and her mission is to empower students to find their own path to health and well-being. Beyond the mat, Bara is a health journalist and enjoys sailing, hiking and spending time with her family and dog.
Caitlin Van Hecke
Instructor
Caitlin has been teaching yoga for almost a baker’s dozen. She’s passionate about the practice and its ability to calm even the craziest of minds (including her own). She loves working with all ages, but her favorites are six year-olds and 60 year-olds because they tend to be the most in their bodies. A former manager of Past Tense and resident of DC for many years, she now calls Asheville, NC her home. Having recently become a mother, savasana is her new favorite pose.