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Our Instructors

Margo Butler
My path to yoga began with a car accident. My lung was collapsed my pelvis was broken and I was looking for a way to move and breathe again. In 2001 I walked into my first yoga class. By fall of 2003 I taught my first group of yoga students. After teaching fitness yoga, Pilates and water aerobics for five years I wanted to take my yoga practice and instruction one step further. That desire to understand yoga beyond the physical rewards led me to the Ashtanga system. The truly amazing thing about yoga is the ability to practice and grow from that practice despite age, injury, pregnancy or heartache. Each practice offers a new opportunity to get to know oneself on a physical and emotional level. As I go through the constant change of life my mat gives me the comfort of returning home. I have had many wonderful jobs and experienced many wonderful things in my life but none compare to the joy and peace I get from teaching this amazing lifestyle. I am ACE certified and have attended college at Boise State University and Gonzaga University. I am most grateful for my husband Steve and my incredible son Stanton.

Joanna Darlington
I started taking yoga classes in 2004 during a time when I was desperately seeking a change in my life. I definitely found it. Yoga has taught me to explore the connection between mind, body and soul and open my heart to a new and incredible world. Since then, my practice has developed into a tool that I use as means of deepening my understanding of who I am and who I want to be. I have explored several different styles of yoga including Ashtanga, Iyengar and Restorative. The beauty that each style brings has deepened my personal practice and given me several aspects to share with my students. I have been blessed with the opportunity to share my love of yoga with my students, my friends and my family.

Michiko Davis
Michiko was first introduced to yoga while traveling through India where she fell in love with the movement and integration of mental and physical aptitude. Upon returning to the US, she began studying Ashtanga Yoga in Wilmington, N.C. with Amy Sulva. Michiko decided to return to Washington State to attend graduate school, and began studying at Spokane Yoga Shala in 2002. Michiko has completed Teaching Intensives with David and Catherine Garrigues at the Ashtanga Yoga School in Seattle and her 200hr certification through the Spokane Yoga Shala Teacher Training Program. Yoga has opened her mind, body, and spirit to a more peaceful and less resistant path through life. Michiko hopes to share this beautiful practice and way of being with all who are interested in and perceptive to the art of yoga.

Shelley Enlow
Yoga has touched my heart and soul in a way that I can only explain as a feeling of coming home. I have explored many other forms of movement over the years but felt something was missing. That void was filled the first time I stepped on my mat.

I have always believed that your body is the home for your soul. Yoga has given me the gift of self awareness - the ability to listen to the subtleness of the unspoken. It has softened my heart and opened my mind.  This gift is something that I wish to share with people and is a passion that lies deep within me. 

I have been teaching different forms or movment for over 20 years and yoga for the past decade. I have a bachelor's degree in Exercise Science, Nutrition and Health Promotion and have been fortunate to study yoga with many teachers who have inspired me with their love and their teachings. I am grateful for Katie Gehn who taught me my first Ashtanga class and am honored to study as often as I can with my teacher David Garrigues. I plan in the near future to visit the birthplace of Ashtanga yoga in Mysore , India. My most precious gifts are my two beautiful children - Chase & Madison. Shelley was the founder of Twist Yoga Studio in downtown Spokane.

Mike Hannum
Mike is a traditional Ashtanga practitioner, trained by Tim Miller and authorized by Sri K. Pattabhi Jois at the Ashtanga Yoga Research Institute in Mysore, India.

Mike teaches the Ashtanga method in a passionate, dynamic and inspiring way, weaving in the wisdom of various traditions, his own personal experiences and humor. He teaches with enthusiasm and care incorporating both the physical and spiritual aspects of the practice, to guide practitioners on an inner journey towards healing, self-awareness, acceptance and empowerment. Mike's compassionate nature and sincerity help create the space for students to open in body, mind and heart.

Mike is also a dedicated student of Ayurveda, Buddhist meditation and Kirtan music - disciplines which naturally influence his yoga teaching and his life. You can find out more about Mike at www.livingsattva.com.

Betsy Lawrence
Coming from a background in dance and weight training, when I discovered yoga I was delighted to find an activity that combined my desire for both movement and muscle. I soon learned that practicing also heightened my awareness and serenity. With my practice drawing from flow and Ashtanga yoga, I embrace both the creative elements of vinyasa flow and the patterns and rituals of Ashtanga. I am challenged, strengthened, and nurtured each time I step on my mat.

In addition to teaching yoga, I am an English instructor at Spokane Community College and am blessed with five fabulous children and a wonderful husband to whom I am grateful for many things: just one of which is bringing me to my first yoga class. I am passionate about yoga and am delighted to share that enthusiasm with all who enter the studio.

Julia Pelc (photo coming soon!)
I started practicing yoga with Shelly 14 years ago. From the first time I stepped on the mat I knew that this was the place for me. Yoga brings me peace and comfort amongst the chaos I experience in life as a practicing family law attorney. Throughout all the highs and lows of my life I have learned to bring yoga with me whether it be the physical or the psychological path. I completed my 200 Teacher Training in the summer of 2010 and am currently working on additional studies with Katie. It is with gratitude from all whom I have met that I practice and teach. Coincidentally I initially studied ballet and taught in the same location where the Yoga Shala is located on the South Hill. I also study Ayurveda, the sister science of Yoga.

April Ponikvar
It was quite by accident that I stumbled upon my first yoga class. I had been taking belly dancing lessons with a friend in downtown Spokane. Needing to use the restroom, I entered a hallway shared with a yoga studio. I could not believe my eyes. A group of several people where practicing yoga together in the candlelight. I was mesmerized by the synchronized movement of their bodies. The studio was comfortably warm and the sweet smell of incense was in the air. Up until that night I had been practicing yoga, alone, in the small space between my couch and TV. My whole life changed that night.

That was in the year 2000, and yoga has been a daily part of my life ever since. Every day I am challenged and sustained by this practice. Sometimes the challenge lies in just finding the time to practice, sometimes, in the postures themselves. And yet, sometimes I am challenged and sustained by what this practice uncovers within my spirit.

I began teaching in 2005 with a desire to help people enrich their lives with yoga. My goal as a teacher is to meet each student where they are physically and mentally. It gives me great joy to provide assistance and support so that each person can meet the challenges and joys of his or her unique life. April is also one of the founders of Equal Standing Spokane.

Sarah Prior (photo coming soon!)
Sarah began a daily Ashtanga Yoga practice in 2008. A natural teacher, she has been working with Katie Scanlon-Gehn to refine her ability to share this yoga with others. In 1999 she graduated as a Licensed Massage Practioner from Inland Massage Institute in Spokane, WA. She has worked many years as a therapist and has continued her education in bodywork and anatomy. She also has a background in martial arts and dance. I find yoga to be a very personnel journey. When I practice I experience my life as it is right now. Very often I feel a strength and clarity in my practice; a deep connection to life inside and around me. Even when I am struggling yoga gives me just a little more acceptance and perspective, a little more love.

Having moved to Spokane from Boston where she taught at O2 Yoga for Mimi Louriero via Charlottesville, VA, and not finding anywhere to practice Ashtanga yoga, Katie opened the Spokane Yoga Shala (then called City Yoga) in 2003.

Katie has had a daily Ashtanga Vinyasa practice for the past 14 years. In 2011, after 7 years of study with her teacher David Garrigues she recieved his blessing to teach in the Ashtanga Vinyasa lineage as he was taught by his teacher Sri K. Pattabhi Jois. Her teaching style is encouraging and direct and reflects her belief that everything we experience in our lives is a bodily experience and through yoga you can unlearn the negative and re-learn a positive integrated way of being. As a teacher, Katie's goal is that anyone who wants to can achieve the benefits of yoga, both thereaputic and physical in a deep and lasting way.

Katie had the honor of meeting and paying her respects and gratitude to Sri K. Pattabhi Jois, on several occasions during his last US tours. And in 2010 with the help and support of family and friends she was able to travel to Mysore, India and study at the Sri K Pattabhi Jois Ashtanga Yoga Institute. Find out more about Katie at her blog www.katiescanlongehn.com.

Karen Vielle
It's hard for me to remember when I started practicing yoga, because it's hard for me to imagine my life without it. I believe it was 1997. As a result of an interest in Eastern philosophies I read an introductory book on yoga. Immediately, from the first short practice, I noticed relief from the back and neck problems I had from an automobile accident 10 years before. I loved the feeling of being able to care for myself physically, emotionally and spiritually all in one practice. Then I read Beryl Binder Birch's book, Power Yoga, and was introduced to the Ashtanga yoga system. I began taking Iyengar yoga classes and continued the Ashtanga practice on my own. During the summer of 2001, I took an Ashtanga yoga teacher training course with Larry Schultz at "It's Yoga", in San Francisco. Prior to Spokane Yoga Shala, I've taught classes at Harmony Yoga. I also teach private groups and continue to work full time as a School Psychologist.