Owners
Roodolph Senecal
Roody was born in the small village of Port Margot in the north of Haiti and emigrated to the US at the tender age of twelve. Upon exiting the airport building at JFK into cold February weather, his first thought was “why should so many people choose to live in an ice-box?”. He has been seeking the hot-box ever since.
Roody first trained as an engineer and software developer, working for companies such as Karp Associates and Estee Lauder. He later purchased a manufacturing company and worked as a manufacturing consultant.
He was introduced to yoga by his wife Jessica on their second date. It wasn’t hot enough (the yoga that is, you’ll have to ask Jessica about the date.) But then he discovered Bikram and with this method the heat he had been missing since he landed at JFK all those years ago. He and Jessica opened their first Bikram yoga studio after the birth of their second child. And they still have hot dates.
Jessica Senecal
Whilst Jessica was visiting her family in England, her father introduced her to her first Bikram class! After class, she recalls her legs felt like jelly walking down the yoga centers stairway, nevertheless she had a huge smile on my face. Back in NY with great anticipation she searched for Bikram Yoga and luckily found the only Bikram Yoga studio in New York on Chambers street. This became her weekly personal reviving and strengthening time from motherhood. The idea of providing such a unique system to people of Brooklyn really felt like an easy decision. Today 9 years later she feels so grateful to still have this in her life, giving her so much strength as she pursued nursing school during the last 3 years. She feels so blessed when she sees it bring such health and wellness to the community.
Teachers
Denise Kerr
Denise was born in Jamaica, grew up in London and has made Park Slope her home for over twenty years. A friend introduced her to Bikram, Dara happened to be her first teacher and she became hooked on this incredible practice. She attended Teacher Training in Acapulco in Fall 2008. Denise works for NYC Department of Environmental Protection. When she is not working, teaching or practicing she pursues her other passion, jewelry design. She feels blessed to have such an awesome family and amazing friends including her extended family of teachers and students. “The benefits of this practice are immeasurable – physically, mentally and spiritually, I love it. Peace + Love.”
Nandra Thompson
Nandra discovered Bikram Yoga while on vacation in San Francisco in 2004 and was hooked from the very first class. Shortly thereafter she moved to Memphis and had to wait six seemingly endless months for a Bikram studio to open. Nandra was there on the first day and has never looked back. In 2006, she decided to give up the nomadic urban hippie waitress career she had been working on and attended Fall Teacher Training in Los Angeles (with the Slopes’ Caroline Castro and Graham Coppin). “It was the best decision I ever made. Bikram Yoga brings balance to my life – my moods, my sleep-wake cycle, my metabolism. The yoga has helped me through two personal losses, and I don’t think I’d be able to live in this fabulously crazy city without it.”
Maggie Cafaro
Originally from New Jersey, Maggie moved to Burlington, VT to pursue a BS in Social Work. She spent several years working with at-risk youth and young people with autism during and after college. She began practicing Bikram and discovered strength in herself she didn’t know she was capable of, which she tapped into both in and out of the studio. While working on her Master’s Degree in mental health counseling Maggie decided to take her practice to the next level and teach others to find their own mental and physical strength. Maggie graduated from training in the fall of 2009 and within six months moved to New York City to continue teaching. She is grateful to be able to help other people improve their lives through yoga.
Jessica Miller
Jessica, a third-generation New Yorker, was born and raised in Brooklyn. Throughout her youth she was involved in dance, gymnastics, martial arts and other types of yoga. When she was seventeen her father took her to her first Bikram class in Tribeca. She ran out of the room after Standing Separate Leg Head to Knee Pose and down a spiral staircase that led to the changing rooms to lay down on the cold cement floor. She had never experienced feelings like this before and knew at this point that Bikram was going to be a big part of her life. Jessica likes patchouli, backward bending, and travelling to the Middle East. She celebrated her 23rd birthday at teacher training in Hawaii, and came home to teach at the Slopes, the studios that have and continue to give her so much strength, support, confidence and happiness in every aspect of her life.
Yaniv Nord
Yaniv prefers to be called Nivi, a nickname he’s had since he was a kid growing up in Israel. He has been practicing Hatha yoga in its many forms – Iyengar, Ashtanga, Jivamukti, Bikram, etc. – for more than 10 years, and began teaching Bikram in 2009. He’s also a student of Vipassana and Soto Zen meditation, and opens his heart to anything on the enlightenment path. Nivi lives in Sunset Park Brooklyn with his beautiful wife, an adorable daughter and a very lazy pit bull.
Annie Dumas
Annie was born and raised in Huntington, NY. After experiencing her first Bikram yoga class, she went straight to her gym and canceled her membership. One year later in April 2008 she found herself at teacher training. For years Annie had been dealing with knee injuries and stress fractures she sustained throughout high school and college as an eight-time All-American runner and racewalker. Bikram yoga has allowed her to maintain a healthy lifestyle without her previous debilitating and constant pain. Annie loves the continuous challenges she faces in her practice, and enjoys being part of such an incredible community of people. Her increased interest in the human body and how it functions combined with the desire to help others has led Annie to the field of Nursing. She loves teaching her students about their bodies and enabling them to realize the potential they have to do anything! As Bikram says, ‘It’s not what you do, or how you do it, it’s how you try!’
Saya Ishii Velazquez
Saya grew up in Greenwich, CT where she took her first Bikram yoga class back in 2000. She went to teacher training in Los Angeles, CA in the Spring of 2003. Since then, Saya has taught classes across the nation and internationally. She teaches yoga in both English and Japanese. Saya is also certified in prenatal yoga and is a trained doula. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband and baby boy.
Havi Asch
Havi Asch was born in Park Slope. She grew up in a house filled with yoga and alternative health; her mother has been teaching yoga since before she was born. Havi completed her training as a holistic health counselor in 2008 at the world-renowned Institute for Integrative Nutrition in partnership with Columbia University Teacher’s College. Havi took her first Bikram yoga class in October of 2005 at BYPS and her life was changed forever. She began practicing 4-6 times a week and 4 years later found herself taking instruction from Bikram himself at the Fall 2009 teacher training in Las Vegas. While Bikram yoga has transformed her body, it is the emotional and spiritual benefits of the yoga that continues to inspire and shape her practice both on and off the mat. Havi now enjoys sharing her love and devotion for this practice by teaching others and watching how it transforms so many lives on so many levels.
Erin McGarry
Erin is originally from Albany, NY. She lived in San Francisco, CA for a period and discovered Bikram yoga in January 1999 while training for the California AIDS Ride, taking her first class at Global Yoga, Mary Jarvis’s studio in San Francisco. Erin attended training in Fall 2001 and returned to the Bay Area to teach for Mary. She then moved to New York in 2002 and taught at several different studios (Chelsea, Union Square, Brooklyn Heights) studios before coming to teach exclusively for Roody at Park Slope. She has a Master’s Degree in Social Work and has been a social worker for 12 years. Erin just completed a BSN RN program and will soon begin working as a Nurse.
Kathryn D Leary
Kathryn, a native New Yorker, began her Bikram Yoga practice in 2002 at Bikram Yoga NYC and completed Teacher Training in Acapulco in Fall 2008. With her lifetime commitment to holistic health and natural healing, Kathryn was thrilled to discover the glorious power of Bikram yoga to heal body, mind and spirit. Through her practice, she completely overcame a life-long respiratory ailment, and has found tremendous personal peace and self-satisfaction. For Kathryn, teaching Bikram yoga is a cherished blessing, and a gift she readily shares with all who take her class. Kathryn credits her mother, a devoted nurse for 44 years, for her deep appreciation of a healthy body. Kathryn is also a writer, a marketing consultant and an adjunct professor. She has an MBA from Stanford and extensive corporate and entrepreneurial experience in advertising, marketing and international business. Visit her website at www.kathrynleary.com.
Mishel Herrera
Back in 2006 when Mishel started the practice, she loved it. Her intro week turned into a 30 day challenge. At the end of the challenge she was hooked (who isn’t?). She realized that this was it, she saw herself practicing in the hot room for the rest of her life. She also realized that if she wanted to know more, she had to know it well enough to be able to explain it to someone else. So in the spring of 2007, she flew to Hawaii to study with Bikram, Rajashree, Emmy and numerous amazing teachers from around the world. Like everyone else who takes up Bikram yoga, Mishel’s life has completely changed, and now she’s committed – along with Bikram and the thousands of teachers worldwide – to help people, one 90-minute scorchin’ hot class at a time.
Colleen LaSota
Colleen began teaching Bikram yoga at the Park Slope studio shortly after moving to Brooklyn in 2004. She is incredibly thankful to have spent these years practicing yoga and sharing life with this community, and looks forward to many more! Colleen also practices acupuncture and raises her son Atticus with her husband, Christian.
Beth Hurley
Beth’s family traveled a lot while she was growing up. After stints in Dallas (Texas), Calgary (Canada) and Aberdeen (Scotland!) she finally ended up in New York state. One aspect of her youth did remain constant: her passion for dance, in particular modern dance and ballet. After receiving her BFA in psychology with a minor in dance she moved to New York to pursue her passion. Due to injury this dream was cut short but the very week she decided to give her body a rest from dance she took her first Bikram yoga class; the rest is history. She immediately noticed relief in chronic hip, foot and back pain and found the physicality of the yoga equally as satisfying as dance. In Spring 2009 Beth went to teacher training in Palm Desert, CA in the hope of spreading the benefits to others. She plans on traveling to teach yoga and continue learning about the body and mind, and to hear people’s stories on how the yoga has changed their lives.
Natasha Nepveu
Natasha was born in the south of Russia. While she’s only lived in Russia and the US, she’d love to travel and live in many different places. She is a graduate of New York’s Parsons School of Design and before teaching yoga made a living as a fashion designer. Like many other Bikram students she was hooked after her first class and knew that yoga was going to be an important part of her life. It was a natural progression that she would become a teacher. Natasha attended teacher training in Honolulu, Hawaii, graduating in Fall 2007. She calls training her most amazing experience; being a Bikram yoga instructor gives her a deep satisfaction. “It helps me and in that way enables me to help others,” she says.
Caroline Castro
Caroline went to Haverford College, graduating with a BA in Sociology. She worked in political campaigns and non-profit fundraising all over the US. After actively practicing different yoga styles, Caroline found Bikram yoga in 2001. Living with pain for many years due to sports injuries and “bad choices”, this was not only the most challenging practice Caroline had encountered, but the only practice that brought changes to her life, physically, spiritually and mentally. Her knees got stronger. Her whole body was healthier. Caroline went to Bikram Yoga Teacher Training in Fall 2006. After teaching in NYC for a year, she moved to Arizona where she taught full-time and refined her teaching style. She is now back in New York and living in her native Washington Heights. She teaches in Harlem and Brooklyn while working at The Children’s Storefront in East Harlem as Manager of Development and Communications. Through Bikram yoga Caroline says, “I have learned how to enjoy all things in moderation, to not take things personally and to love myself.” She looks forward to seeing you in one of her classes soon!
Amanda Baisinger
Amanda was born in Santa Cruz and grew up in Sunnyvale, CA. She moved to the East Coast to study music at Berklee College of Music in Boston, earning a BA in Professional Music. Amanda has over a decade’s experience teaching music and singing in many different styles. She was introduced to Bikram yoga by one of her voice students. After practicing for three years she decided to go to teacher training, attending with her mom who now teaches Bikram yoga in San Diego. Amanda loves teaching Bikram yoga and writing music. She sings in NYC with her band.
Danette Plagge
Danette began a consistent practice at the Park Slope studio in 2004 as a stressed Brooklyn public high school teacher and New York City Teaching Fellow. This sparked a curiosity in her high school students, all of them teens struggling with reading difficulties. She started a yoga program for teenagers at the Park Slope studio and saw tangible differences in the kids’ sense of achievement and reading skills. This led her to Bikram teacher training in 2007. And her life changed. After almost 10 years in Brooklyn she relocated to the Virgin Islands; she now splits time between surfing in the Caribbean and teaching yoga in Brooklyn. She is also now a very proud public school teacher with a Master’s in Education. Bikram yoga has transformed her life many times over: Bikram says, “Yoga is everything!” From drinking a cup of tea to walking down the street to living with presence and intention in life. Yoga is everything. Danette loves teaching and is so grateful for all of the love, support and community the studios provide in her life.
Robbin Farrell
Robbin holds a Masters of Elementary Education/Standard Certification and is a United States Return Peace Corps Volunteer, Niger, West Africa, (1995-1997). Robbin has traveled and taught in Europe, West Africa, the West Indies, throughout the United States and most recently the Marshall Islands/South Pacific where she developed a yoga curriculum on behalf of an independent school accredited by the Western Association of Accreditation. She is further certified to teach Kripalu Yoga, Kripalu Yoga Dance, and Dr. Jeff Migdow’s Prana Yoga (along with Robyn “Priti” Ross). Robbin’s commitment to growth as a yoga teacher is demonstrated through her continued review of the Bikram Yoga Method via assisting and participating in numerous Bikram and Rajashree Choudhury Yoga Retreats all while seeking further professional training along the eight-limb path of yoga, which inform her ability to create a yoga practice space in which the student feels safe and which encourages further awakening of each student’s desire and ability to practice hatha yoga while on the path of Self Realization.
Christine Park
Christine was born in Seoul, Korea. She took her first Bikram yoga class in 2003. At the time she was suffering from a severe shoulder stress injury. She found the Bikram series so healing and in so many ways that she quit her computer animator Job in Vancouver, Canada and embarked on the teacher training in Hawaii in 2007. Bikram yoga has changed every part of her Life. She loves guiding students through their practice. “It’s a great Journey,” she says, “and it is such a blessing.”
Kara Kerek
Kara fell in love with Bikram yoga after her first class in 2005 and trained and studied with Master Teacher Bikram Choudhury in 2008. She is just as enthusiastic about the practice now as she was on her first day. “Bikram Yoga is where my yoga journey began and has been a strong backbone to the discipline and strength both in and outside of the room.” Traveling to many countries around the world, including most recently Peru where she studied shamanism deep within the Jungle, Kara is on a continual quest for inner knowledge and truth and encourages her students to do the same. Ask Kara where she’s from, she’s most likely to say the Moon!
Sarah Yurich
Sarah started practicing Bikram Yoga in 2007 in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. She was immediately attracted to the physical and mental challenge of the Bikram series. With a consistent practice Sarah started to see the health benefits on a physical and emotional level and her Life took on a whole new meaning. After several years of working in the hectic corporate world environment, Sarah decided to embark on a new path and attend the Bikram training in Spring of 2008. With her background in Exercise Science Sarah is committed to helping students realize their power to improve their health through this amazing practice.
Vanessa Fitzgerald
Vanessa was born in NYC and raised in California. While attending NYU, she fell in love with the energy and intensity of New York and has yet to leave. She was taken on a date to her first Bikram class on a hot New York summer day and fell in love with the practice. A few months later she made the decision to travel to Las Vegas to train with Bikram and become a certified teacher. Having known little about the yoga before her training, she continues to discover the many wonderful gifts of Bikram yoga and hopes to share them with her students.
Christian A. Doten
Christian A. Doten has been teaching Bikram yoga since 2004 and is a licensed massage therapist and personal trainer. Christian’s knowledge of human anatomy and physiology as well as his postural assessment tools enables him to help students work through injury and physical imbalance/limitation. Christian brings a positive mix of compassion, discipline, responsibility, body/mind awareness, and fun to his classes which he hopes will inspire others on their journey towards self-realization.
Trey Griley
Trey was born and raised in Columbus Ohio. He spent the first 26 years of his life aimlessly wandering the earth, in desperate search of meaning and purpose. In the winter of 2002 in South Beach, FL Trey was introduced to the Bikram Yoga College of India and life started to make sense. He continued as an avid practitioner for 9 years before deciding to take his yoga life to the next level and go to Bikram’s teacher training in Las Vegas in Fall of 2009. Trey thoroughly enjoyed the nine weeks he spent with Bikram and his fellow yogis. The transition into teaching has been nothing short of magical, he loves what the yoga has given him and is thrilled to be able to share it with others!!
Kimberly Simms
Known to everyone as Kim, she grew up a “Navy brat” up and down the East Coast of the United States. She attributes this to why she
enjoys meeting people and being a part of the Bikram community. There are so many people doing Bikram Yoga, all ages, socioeconomic statuses, cultures, and religions; Kim sees the hot room as a microcosm of the world. Kim has practiced for 5 years and became a certified Bikram Yoga Instructor in Spring 2009 in Palm Desert, CA. She believes, as Bikram does, that anyone can do Bikram Yoga. She likes to remind students at the end of class that the same English bulldog determination and Bengal tiger strength they exhibited in the hot room can be used in the real world. In this way the world will change one Yoga class at a time.
