Teachers

Meagaan Baas

Meagaan Baas is the owner and director of Orange County Yoga Studio. She is an ordained minister and holds a BS in Divinity from the Nizhoni School for Global Consciousness. Before she became a full time yoga teacher, she was a personal counselor and traveled throughout the US and Europe giving workshops on spiritual topics.

Introspective by nature, Meagaan took a keen interest in the human condition at an early age. After having a spiritual experience in 1993 she devoted herself to the pursuit of yoga and enlightenment. Meagaan feels that the regular practice of yoga asanas and pranayama help her to embody the bliss she experiences in contemplation.

A deep passion for the practice of yoga led Meagaan to start teaching at her college in 1996. She soon discovered the joy of sharing yoga's benefits with others and knew this would be her life’s work.

Meagaan is deeply grateful to have found her current teachers Manouso Manos and Anna Delury. She has also studied with Karin O’bannon, Faeq Biria, Gabriella Giubilaro, Mary Dunn, Carolyn Belko, Paul Cabanis and many other gifted Iyengar yoga instructors. She is just returning from 2 months in Pune, India where she was blessed to study with Geeta S. Iyengar and Prashant S. Iyengar.

Meagaan is E-RYT 500 certified through Yoga Alliance and has over 13,000 hrs of teaching experience. She teaches Iyengar style yoga which emphasizes dynamic precision in bodily alignment. In her teaching she strives to be clear and to inspire students to move beyond self-imposed limitations and discover greater awareness and joy in their lives.

For information or to schedule a private please email meagaan@ocyogastudio.com or call her at (949)307-9517.

Chris Beach

Chris BeachChris Beach has been practicing Iyengar Yoga for 23 years, and teaching for 11 years. A Junior Intermediate I certified teacher, he has been to Pune three times to study with the Iyengars, most recently in October 2007. He has also studied with a wide range of teachers, including Patricia Walden, Manouso Manos, Faeq Biria, Karin O'Bannon, Gloria Goldberg, and Carolyn Belko.

For the past four years, Chris has served on the Board of Trustees of the Iyengar Yoga Association of Southern California (Los Angeles chapter), and since 2005 he has been president. In the fall of 2008, he will begin a four-year term on the Board of the national association of Iyengar Yoga (IYNAUS).

Nayelli Cardenas

Cynthia Neilson

Since 1974, Cynthia Neilson has taught Yoga in Hawaii, Europe and throughout California. She continuously studies under, and trains with, the finest Iyengar yoga masters in the world. Patricia Walden, Manouso Manos, Karin O'Bannon, Gloria Goldberg, Carolyn Belko, Deb Murray, John Friend and Erich Schiffmann, have all contributed to Cynthia’s style, knowledge, and love of teaching. Students of Cynthia’s often find their abilities enhanced through her credibility and experience, enabling them to achieve higher degrees of awareness and well-being.

Cynthia focuses on instilling balance, strength, alignment, and grace through a strong emphasis on balanced postural alignment. Cynthia’s love for healing, attention to detail and individuality emanate in her teachings. Cynthia is registered with Yoga Alliance at 500 hours. She also holds certifications in Tai Chi and Qi Gong.

Gary Penn

Gary Penn began practicing yoga in 1998 as part of his training for triathlon. Upon retirement from triathlon he attended a Teacher Training Retreat with Rodney Yee and has been an avid practitioner and teacher since 2004. He has trained with Manouso Manos, Anna Delury, Rusty Wells, Max Strom, Peter Sterios & Aadil Palkhivala practicing worldwide in such varied places as Sydney, Maui, Japan, China, the Pacfic Northwest and NYC.

Valerie Read

Valerie Read began yoga in 1975, teaching at the Glendale YWCA in the early 1980s, and Iyengar certified in 1988.

Valerie served on the Board of Trustees of the Iyengar Yoga Association of Southern California, and was a partner in the B.K.S. Iyengar Center of Pasadena. She taught yoga at the Training Center in La Canada, the Marbella Golf and Country Club, and pre-natal yoga at Yoga House in Pasadena.

Valerie has been to India six times to receive instruction from B.K.S., Geeta, and Prashant Iyengar. She has attended all six of the Iyengar Yoga Conventions held in the United States, beginning with the first one in 1984. In the fall of 2005 she attended the Yoga Journal Convention held in honor of Mr. Iyengar and his recent book Light on Life.

Valerie continues to further her education by attending workshops and classes with senior teachers from around the world.

Valerie currently teaches at Orange County Yoga Studio and at her home in Capistrano Beach.

Janet St. Julien

Denise Thibault

Denise Thibault shares her love of Iyengar yoga asana, and helping students of all levels of experience. She has devoted 27 years of teaching the joy of Yoga asana. In the last 20 years, she has spent almost 3 years in total with the Iyengars at their Institute in Pune, India. Denise is a certified Iyengar Yoga Teacher.