Yoga Faculty

Hawaii is their island of choice, Kalani is their home and they will share their love for yoga with you.

Kathy Elder

Kathy, a Certified Yoga Teacher and Master of Yoga Education, has been teaching the mind-body-breath union and the spiritual connection since the late 1970's. "Yoga shows us the way to develop a greater understanding of ourselves and to the world around us. Yoga makes everything better," Kathy says. Her life's experiences have led her on the path of a deep and committed yoga practice.

Kathy feels that it is her destiny to teach, and she travels to India frequently to deepen her understanding of the ancient science of yoga. "Yoga is perfect and when practiced with devotion and under the guidance of an informed teacher, you will develop practice that will last a lifetime".

Kathy's first encounter with yoga was the Ashtanga Mysore practice. She had the opportunity to study with several well-known teachers, including Guriji Pattabhi Jois, from this school and other popular schools of modern yoga.

"The teacher who opened my heart to the meaning of yoga and took me to the next level was Dr. V.S. Rao. He guided me through my yoga master's education with the study of Raja Yoga and the Yoga Sutras," Kathy adds. Influenced by both the Iyengar and Ashtanga schools, Kathy teaches authentic, classical, non-denominational Hatha Yoga, incorporating the 8 limbs of yoga, understanding of the breath and the flow of prana in all the classical asanas.

As the senior yoga teacher at Kalani, she has been devoting her time and energy to several yoga programs here. Hundreds of guests, volunteers and community members have attended her classes, and many have deepened their practice through her Yoga Teacher's Training Certification program.

Jared Owen Sam

Jared is an avid hatha yoga student who first discovered his resonance with the practice nine years ago through the classic Ashtanga tradition. He now teaches vinyasa yoga, linking the asanas into waves of continuous flow connected with the breath. His series of sequences are inspired by the primary and secondary series, Bikram poses and the traditional hatha practice.

Jared received his teaching certification in the fall of 2001 through Kalani's Yoga Teacher Training program, and his sequences have been most recently inspired through an intensive Teacher Training with world-renowned master yoga teacher Shiva Rea. Jared has been teaching multi-level classes (including yin, gentle, restorative and vinyasa flow) for more than four years on the Big Island of Hawaii as well as in Portland, Oregon.

Jared believes that "yoga in its essence teaches us to listen to the wisdom of our own bodies". His gentle, warm approach to the asanas creates a safe, focused and intuitive class."

David Sanders

David began his personal yoga practice in 1976. He has studied at a variety of locations in Los Angeles, including Billy Porter's Urban Yoga Workout, and Yoga Works, Santa Monica. David has been deepening his practice at Kalani for the last six years. A Kalani teacher for the past three years, David graduated from Kalani's Yoga Teacher Training in April of 2002. While at Kalani, he has had the opportunity to study with visiting teachers, including Shiva Rea, Lynne Minton, Saul David Raye and Duncan Wong.

Peter Lavina

Peter's yoga practice and study started in 1990 at the Yoga Institute in Houston. His yogic journey took him to the Big Island of Hawaii in 1999 to continue his studies under Kathy Elder, where he graduated from Kalani’s Yoga Teacher Training in 2001. In 2006 he took his level of study to a deeper level when he journeyed to Varanasi, India to study in an ashram with other yogis on the banks of the Ganges. Peter believes the life science which is yoga has the ability to transform both the individual, and thus society. "Through the practice one unblocks the blockages that prevent and individual from achieving their ultimate human potential" He teaches both Hatha and Kundalini classes at Kalani.

Kimberly Dark

Kimberly Dark has been teaching for the past six years and practicing for nearly 15 years. She apprenticed for two years with Sherry Henderson at The Heart of Yoga, an Iyengar-style studio in San Diego, where she continues to teach when she is on the mainland. This training helped her to develop asana modifications for a variety of body types. She also received teaching certification in 2002 through Kalani's Yoga Teacher Training Program and continues to be Kathy Elder's grateful student.

Kimberly believes that "yoga is for the body you have today. Not the body you had 10 years ago, or the one you wish you had! With diligence, the yoga student gains strength, balance, flexibility in the asana practice. Ultimately however, yoga brings dignity back into the body and allows us to connect mind body and spirit toward yoga's real goal: a cessation of the fluctuation of the mind and an ability to know peace."

Robinette Sherman

Robinette lives her life inspired by her love for Yoga. She discovered Kirtan, a path of Bhakti Yoga, while living in many Yoga communities and Ashrams worldwide. She soon realized that Kirtan was something she wanted in her life, always. Her passion for sharing these beautiful chants developed as friends encouraged her to begin leading Kirtan gatherings in her community in Hawai'i. Robinette now continues to share Kirtan weekly as well as for many Yoga retreats in Hawai'i and Canada.

"I truly feel blessed to be able to share something as joyous as Kirtan. Each time I sit with others to lead chants, I can feel us creating our experience together and I feel honored to be a part of something as beautiful as this" says Robinette.

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