Aariel Perez
Aariel Perez is a 200HR-RYT with an 85-HR prenatal yoga teacher certificate coming in December 2023. She also holds certification in SEL facilitation. Her classes are fused with breathing into each movement and being in the present moment. She encourages you to enhance your own physical, mental, and emotional well-being. Aariel is a former early childhood educator for 12+ years that loved to bring mindfulness and mindful movement into the classroom. She is passionate about holding space for children in the yoga community. She strives to make yoga inclusive, trauma-informed, and accessible to adults and young people.
Alejandro Rivas
Alejandro Ian Rivas brings 23+ years of teaching Yoga and Meditation, alongside 15 years of Reiki and Qigong in the San Jose and Bay Area community and beyond, serving as a staple in the DTSJ community. Alejandro’s masterful style of teaching encourages practitioners of all ages and body abilities to find a strong connection with themselves—physically, mentally, and energetically—offering skillful subtlety and unique flow in guided breath, asana, energetics, and awareness. He blends his strong knowledge of the body, energy medicine, mantra, mudra, and the wisdom and passion of his many years as teacher and practitioner of Yoga, to offer a challenging yet deeply compassionate practice.
Alyssa Lugtu
In early 2011, Alyssa found her passion for yoga, dedicating herself to the practice in pursuit of greater strength and happiness. Through her active lifestyle, she found yoga to allow her to connect the mind and body. She wishes to share the same joy she has found with others. Her teaching is inspired by a variety of styles she has studied including hatha, ashtanga, kundalini, and yin. Since her training, she has deepened her practice and expanded her knowledge as a teacher. Alyssa completed a 200 hour teacher training with Noell Clark, and is a certified RYT with the Yoga Alliance. She aims to inspire community members to live with deep breaths and soulful, loving intentions through yoga teachings.
Ann Bierbower
Ann discovered yoga after taking a break from running after a hamstring injury, little did she know that it would become a deep part of her life! Since 2013, Ann has committed herself to the practice of yoga on and off the mat. Ann received her Yoga Alliance 200-hour certification (RYT) in February 2016 from Rishikesh Yog Dam and her Prenatal yoga teaching certificate (RPYT) from In Harmony in May 2020. Ann teaches a number of styles including gentle yoga, prenatal yoga, and vinyasa flow combining movement with the relaxation and calm that yoga embodies.
Christine Doblar
Christine has been serving her bay area community as a Physical Therapist, since 1991. She combines her experience in neurology, trauma recovery, orthopedics, chronic pain, and specialized manual therapies to help her patients to discover whole healing throughout the addition of body, mind and soul self care. She combines years of Integrated Medicine experience, State of the Art Technology, Western Medical Science, Eastern Medicine Philosophies, and Ayurvedic Self Care lifestyle together to help patients and students find whole healing. Christine’s wide base of knowledge allows her to problem solve even the most complicated of chronic stressful lifestyle situations.
Danielle Karlowitz
Danielle has been practicing yoga for over a decade and through vinyasa, found both movement and philosophy that inspired her to become healthier and want to share that passion with others. After studying Exercise Science and Psychology, she’s been teaching various formats of fitness and wellness classes for the past 15 years and has realized the best results come when clients are having fun! This journey to keep folks engaged and excited to improving their health has led to the exploration of many types of movement practices including: vinyasa, kundalini, backpacking, animal flow, trail running, obstacle races, aerial arts, spinning poi and more. Fusing all these together into classes that are safe, stimulating, challenging, build camaraderie, and most of all, fun.
Gee Wang
Gee is a 200-hour registered yoga teacher who started her yoga journey in 2014. Having gained valuable insights from personal practice, the wisdom imparted by instructors, and the experiences shared by students, the transformative year of 2018 significantly altered her perception of yoga. The loss of her father in 2018, a figure of great wisdom and influence, brought profound grief. Learning important life lessons, including work ethics and family values, from her father, who served as both a parent and a best friend, Gee struggled to cope with the emotional aftermath of his passing. Gee's teaching, centered on promoting positive energy and fostering self-connection and joy, spans styles like gentle yoga, alignment-oriented yoga, yoga sculpt, vinyasa flow, and power yoga.
Joseph Conway
Joseph (he/him) has always had a sincere desire to help others. Off the mat, Joseph works in Social Services serving those in need in his community. On the mat, Joseph invites his students to reconnect to the intuitive wisdom of their bodies through aligned movement and breath, allowing the student to truly bloom and feel alive! His mission is to help others come back home to themselves by inviting free expression and self-love in a safe and nonjudgmental space. Joseph is certified in Hatha, Yin, AstroYoga, and Trauma-Informed Yoga and has a Master’s Degree in Health Psychology. He often incorporates mindfulness techniques, positive psychology tactics, and self-care methodologies into his classes to empower his students to recognize their own inner strengths and thrive.
Nikki Wong
Nikki first discovered yoga in 2002 when her co-worker suggested it would help her with her carpal tunnel syndrome. Since then, yoga has helped her through many life changes including multiple pregnancies, losing her job, chronic pain, depression and cancer. Yoga helped her stay grounded, connected, resilient and calm through all the difficult situations. She’s witnessed how the power of yoga transformed her life and believes there’s a yoga for everyone no matter your age, ability or circumstance. It all begins with connecting to the present moment and bringing awareness to your mind, body and spirit.
Veronica Cruz
Founder and Owner of Downtown Yoga Shala, Veronica aspired to create a warm and welcoming environment to introduce yoga's profound health benefits to the diverse communities of Silicon Valley. In the Spring Equinox 2009, Downtown Yoga Shala opened its doors in the SoFA District of Downtown San Jose, CA, and the vision that enabled a yoga community to grow organically over the years continues to this day.
Veronica is a certified yoga instructor, having completed Teacher Certifications in Ashtanga Vinyasa from Larry Shultz (SF It’s Yoga), Power Vinyasa from Baron Baptiste and Ashtanga Teaching Certifications from Tim Miller and David Swensen. As an Ashtanga practitioner, she continues to study with many senior teachers in the Ashtanga lineage and with Sharath Jois in Mysore, India. Veronica currently teaches Mysore-style Ashtanga, Half-Primary and Led Primary Series, Intro to Ashtanga, Ashtanga Vinyasa and has occasionally taught Vinyasa Flow sequences including Baptiste Power Vinyasa, Rocket Series, Vinyasa Krama. Apart from her personal Ashtanga asana practice, she also has a pranayama and meditation (TM) practice.
Veronica infuses her classes with warmth, sincerity, kindness and compassion. She encourages a mindful practice through deeper breath and body awareness, while honoring the inner teacher that resides within each of us.
Allison Ngo
Our friendly front desk team, with Allison at the helm, is prepared to welcome, greet, and assist students at our studio. They are dedicated to helping you prepare for your class and providing support throughout your experience.