Our Teachers
(The Rainbow Kids Yoga Family)
GOPALA AMIR YAFFE, Co-Founder
Gopala has been teaching Yoga for children and adults, as well as meditation and yoga philosophy, since 1995.
He was a monk in the Sivananda Yoga Centers in Israel and the Bahamas for ten years, from 1994-2004, where he completed his Yoga Teacher Training and Advanced Teacher Training, and also helped train Sivananda teachers. While living in the Bahamas, Gopala was the general manager of the Sivananda Ashram Yoga Retreat on Paradise Island, for four years.
From 2004 to 2007, Gopala created, managed and taught yoga and alternative spa programs in Los Cabos, Mexico and New York City. He also continued studying yoga for kids at Karma Kids in New York and Itsy Bitsy Yoga in Massachusetts, and Circus Yoga with Erin and Kevin O'Keefe. Gopala also studied healing with tibetan bowls with Avraham Benor and is a Reiki master. In 2008, after studying with Rabbi Joseph Gelberman, Gopala was ordained as an Interfaith minister. In 2009, Gopala was certified in Thai Yoga Massage by the Ritam School of Healing Arts and Saul David Raye.
In 2007, Gopala and Katya founded the studio Yoga LeShalom (Hebrew for “Yoga for Peace”) in Tel Aviv, Gopala’s hometown. Yoga LeShalom is a studio for the whole family, where the daily schedule included drop-in yoga classes for adults, yoga for kids, Ma and Baby, and Family Yoga. That same year, Gopala began focusing on training yoga teachers for kids, and Rainbow Kids Yoga was born! In late 2008, Gopala and Katya relocated to the United States, although Gopala continues to visit Israel to train teachers there.
Gopala has taught yoga for kids in such diverse settings as public and private schools, kindergartens, and preschools, summer camps, orphanages, yoga studios, juvenile detention centers, hotels, spas, at birthday parties, and in private classes. His playful, patient and warm teaching style has created a training course that has been described by graduates as “magical”, “inspiring”, “very practical,” “transformative”, and “an unforgettable journey.”
Gopala will continue to teach the three-day RKY teacher trainings in Europe and Israel in 2010, but will shift his focus later this year to the longer 200 Hr teacher trainings, allowing him time to work on much-awaited Yoga for Kids books, games, and products.
KATYA FIALKOVA, Co-Founder
Katya is certified by Sivananda Yoga (2002), Laughing Lotus with Dana Flynn and Jasmine Tarkeshi (2009), as well as Baby Om and Ma Yoga (both 2006). No longer teaching, Katya now co-directs Rainbow Kids Yoga with Gopala full-time (and usually more than full-time!). She is most likely the person you'll hear from when you register for a Rainbow Kids Yoga training, and she is also in charge of the RKY financial aid program, scheduling, admin, accounts, advertising, web stuff, product development...etcetera!
JENNIFER BUERGERMEISTER, Senior Trainer
Jenny is the owner of Jennyoga: Live. Breathe. Do Yoga., a leading yoga studio in Houston, TX, and residing president and founder of One Yoga USA, the Texas Yoga Association and Texas Yoga Conference. One Yoga USA is a seva project working with the Texas Yoga Association, YAMA, Yoga for New York and the New York Yoga Teachers Association, and other state associations and companies to build bridges among the states to stand together as One Yoga. One Yoga USA's Project Seva 2012 is a 52 week project where each state represents one week of seva to raise awareness and promote a shift in global consciousness using yoga, music, sustainability and environmental awareness to "be the change."
Jenny joined Gopala in 2010 to share her knowledge of archetypes, self empowerment, fertility and women's wellness in the Rainbow Family Yoga 200 Hr Teacher Training. She has passionately studied many traditional and nontraditional subjects over the last 15 years bringing quantum healing techniques to her programs to synthesize what she calls PsycheSynergy: Synergizing the Heart with the Body, Mind and Soul.
"Beyond change, you must also be the love and inspiration you wish to see inthe world."
Jenny teaches workshops and trainings:
. Advanced Yoga Studies of Archetypes and Self-empowerment for
Leadership and Change: Finding the Warrior to Be Yoga.
. Yoga for Fertility - The Fertile Soul of Yoga (dvd available at www.AWomansWellness.com or www.TheFertileSoul.com)
. Intense Shakti Vinyasa Yoga for the Heart and Soul: Channeling Grace
to Find the Flow
. Red Hot Yoga (dvd available at www.jennyoga.com)
"I believe in unity. Yoga shouldn't be about competition, it should be about sharing an art that can help people awaken, grow and stay healthy."
Jen is also the founder of Breathecure, a 501(c)3 non-profit organizationdedicated to raising consciousness with quality breathing programs and published a children's activity book in 2010, The FUNdamentals of Breathing, with Yoginos: Yoga for Youth and the Crow Collection of Asian Art Museum. Breathe the Cure shares that the "missing link" between mind and body is the breath.
Jennifer began studying at the Institute of Transpersonal
Psychology in Palo Alto, CA in 2002, and has her masters in Transpersonal Psychology, specializing in Health and Wellness with an emphasis in archetypes and transitions through life's stages and spirituality. She is now a PhD candidate in Transpersonal Psychology at ITP.
JULIA MANNES, Senior Teacher
Julia is a certified yoga instructor who teaches breath-centered
vinyasa flow classes, as well as prenatal and parent / baby yoga. Her
down-to-earth, creatively sequenced lessons emphasize alignment,
introspection, and getting to the edge of your comfort zone. Julia
completed her primary and prenatal training with Dana Flynn and Jasmine
Tarkeshi at Laughing Lotus Yoga Center, and completed postpartum yoga
training at Integral Yoga Institute with Jyothi Larson. She received her
Bachelor of Arts in Psychology at Vassar College. Julia is a native New
Yorker who has traveled and lived in Israel, Morocco, Australia, and
Europe. She also worked in the music business for many years. But it was
close to home where she found the yoga practice that changed her life
almost ten years ago. Julia is also a DONA-certified doula skilled in acupressure,
massage, photography, and babycare. She is a birth consultant and
activist dedicated to supporting pregnant women and new families in
NYC. She teaches workshops in babywearing, alternative newborn care,
and yoga for labor and delivery. She served as Marketing Director for
Coalition for Improving Maternity Services (CIMS') The Birth Survey, and
currently is a volunteer with Choices In Childbirth, helping with
distribution for the New York Guide to a Healthy Birth. Learn more at www.juliamannes.com.Julia will be teaching prenatal and postnatal yoga, as well as parent / baby yoga in our 200 Hr Rainbow Family Yoga Teacher Training.
AMANDA McFADYEN, Senior Teacher
North America
Amanda spends her days helping children to retain, and adults to remember, the simplest and sweetest joys of living through yoga and music. She is a student, a teacher, a mother, a daughter, a sister, a most passionate crew member on spaceship earth and she secretly wants to be a savasana rock star when she grows up!
Amanda learned to sing even before acquiring speech, and while studying kinesiology in South Florida in 1999, she discovered and immediately connected with the melody of movement that is yoga. After becoming a mother in 2003, Amanda moved back to Canada and delved deeper into yoga practice and the yoga of mothering. This collided with a budding career in marketing / PR, which she abandoned in 2006 to build BlissKids, a Children’s Yoga and Music company operating North of Toronto, Canada. Today, Amanda continues to nourish her community with her whimsical, creative and contagious energy though BlissKids and Rainbow Kids, and has shared yoga, yosic and yoga with thousands
of children, adults and families in classes, workshops, trainings, and events in a wide variety of settings. She continues to be inspired most by the innate wisdom and dynamic energy of children (ages 0 – 99!) and is amazingly honored to be a part of the Rainbow Kids Yoga family!
We are thrilled to have Amanda teaching the three-day Rainbow Kids Yoga teacher trainings in North America.
PAOLA GARCIA, Senior Teacher
Central & South America
Renown Kundalini and Kids Yoga teacher Paola is a native of Colombia, where she directed her own yoga studio, El Eterno Sol, and continues to teach yoga for children and train teachers in Bogotá. She has trained in India with Gandhar Mandlik of Yoga Vidya Dham (2005), is also certified in Kundalini Yoga Levels I and II (2005, 2009), as well as numerous Yoga for Kids trainings, including Child Play Yoga (2008), Kundalini Yoga for Children (2008) and Rainbow Kids Yoga (2010). Her infectious energy, generous spirit, and love of music and movement make her classes well-loved by children (and adults) of all ages!
Fluent in Spanish and English, Paola now teaches the three-day Rainbow Kids Yoga trainings in Central and South America.
CAYETANA RODENAS, Senior Teacher
Europe
Cayetana was born in Madrid 38 years ago and her passion for children started when she was a kid herself!!
Very involved in Performing Arts, she studied drama, song and dance and made it a very important part of her life, and nowadays she makes good use of it when teaching kids and grown-ups.
She also studied education and worked as a teacher for a few years. Later on, Yoga came into her life by a beautiful chance when she was living in Australia, where her daughter, Lua, was born. There she completed her Yoga teacher training in Melbourne and decided that she wanted to bring children all the joy and
benefits from Yoga!
She completed her YogaKids Teacher Training with Marsha Wenig and The Radiant Child Yoga Program with Shakta Kaur Khalsa. Last year she met Gopala at her studio in Madrid, and finished the Rainbow Kids Teacher Training, loving every part of it from the beginning to the end…
She owns the yoga studio Yoga&Arte, where she teaches Hatha, vinyasa and dynamic styles of yoga and also Yoga for kids, pregnant women and mum&baby yoga. She also teaches at schools, special events, libraries, etc. Since last year starred in a TV program in Spain doing the yoga section and
she’s currently finishing another project for TV that will be showing soon!
Cayetana loves travelling and has travelled to many places all over the world, and she looks forward to keep doing it and bring our RKY TT to Europe!
NIKKI MASSAIOLI, Senior Teacher
Sydney
Australian native Nikki Massaioli is an incredibly experienced yoga and pilates teacher as well as founding director of Yoga to Go, Sydney's leading yoga and pilates studio. Nikki teaches the three-day Rainbow Kids Yoga teacher trainings in Sydney at her gorgeous studio in New South Wales. More info on Nikki coming soon!
ARTURO PEAL, ANATOMY & PHYSIOLOGY
200 HR Teacher Training
Arturo Peal is a Certified Yoga therapist.
He Holds a Masters Degree in Chinese Medicine, practices Craniosacral Therapy
and has been involved in the "alternative" health-care field for more
than 30 years. He teaches weekly classes in Therapeutic Yoga at the Yoga Dojo
in Santa Barbara. His classes
address the needs of students who, because of injury, infirmity or age are
unable to do a traditional Vinyasa practice.
Arturo teaches anatomy and physiology for
Yoga teacher trainings, for body workers, and for other movement
specialists. He has co-lead the
Therapeutic Yoga Teacher Training program for over 12 years. He integrates his expertise in Anatomy,
Kinesiology, Chinese Medicine, and the healing processes to present a
multidimensional understanding of the human body. He is able to relate the complexities of anatomy and
physiology to the practice of Yoga.
We are super excited to have Arturo teaching Anatomy & Physiology in our 200 Hr Rainbow Family Yoga training!
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"I was easily opened into this fascinating world of yoga, a place of fun and joy. I am so happy to have had this experience and I am thankful to you for the infinite generosity and the infectious happiness." Michal L.