David is an artist, a craftsman and a student whose personal Yoga practice has helped him integrate truth, beauty and goodness into his life for over thirty years. His teaching reflects the Yogic ideal of physical, mental and spiritual union. David has been a BIYC teacher since 1995.

His talents as a craftsman can be viewed at Big Island Yoga Center, in the installation of our wall rope system; wall ropes are often found in studios that follow the Iyengar tradition.  In addition to his Yoga practice, David is a dedicated cyclist who has been making weekly thirty-mile outings for many years.  He and his wife, Yuriko, have made several trips to her native Japan—during which David has taught Yoga, with the assistance of Yuriko as translator.

Giuse has lived almost her whole life in Hawaii.  She says, “I have the privilege of being raised here on the Big Island. Having the honor of giving back to the community through yoga is very special to me.” She began her Yoga journey in 2000 and very quickly realized that this would be her lifelong path.

Giuse is certified with Yoga Alliance at the 200-hour level, having  taken a teacher training with Julie Rader of Mukti Yoga. She also spent seven months in an Anusara Immersion program with Jim and Ruthie Berhaert, teachers in Waimea.  Other influences are Yin Yoga, Power Flow and the Restorative practice. Giuse is also a graduate of the College of Purna Yoga at the 200 hour level.

Giuse’s  style is alignment based, heart opening, and flowing.  She seeks to synthesize her trainings and personal Yoga experiences and bring them to her classes with grace and reflection.  Her teaching includes vinyasa (linked poses), chanting and breath awareness. For Giuse, the intensity of the physical yoga serves to help “unpeel the onion, awakening the mind and spirit connection,” and she offers this to her students.  (The Italian spelling of her name is pronounced “Jesse.”)

Jan found balance in her life with yoga, and in 1972 she began her formal study of yoga with Felicity Green in Palo Alto, California. After completing the first teacher-training course at the Iyengar Institute of San Francisco in 1975, she began teaching at De Anza College in Cupertino. She later moved to the Big Island of Hawaii and was a co-founder of the Waimea Yoga Center. She became a certified Iyengar Yoga teacher and continued her yoga teaching in North Kohala, Hapuna Prince Beach Hotel and Big Island Yoga Center. Jan recently graduated from Aadil Palkhivala’s College Of Purna Yoga at the 200 hour level.

From her three decades of teaching, Jan knows the right amount of practical and subtle guidance to help students find their own inner strength. Whether it be gentle care for aging retirees, playfulness for children, or encouragement and refinement for the seasoned practitioner, Jan has a keen sense of how to communicate with each individual. She brings compassion and depth to her classes by her classical training and intuitive guidance. “Yoga makes me smile,” says Jan. “And when I smile, I’m real. And when I’m real, spirit guides me.”

Joan has been a student of Iyengar Yoga for eighteen years, most of that time at Big Island Yoga Center. She has served BIYC as a board member, as a scheduled teacher and as a dependable substitute teacher. We are happy to welcome Joan back to the weekly schedule. After having completed nine teacher trainings with Aadil Palkhivala, she graduated in June 2011 from Aadil’s Purna Yoga College at the 200 hour level.

Joan has and has lived on the Big Island for 25 years. She and her former husband built a 60 ft. Ferro-cement boat in their early marriage and lived on it for thirteen years while sailing about Oahu. Eventually they sailed to the Big Island and put roots into the lava of Ocean View. Joan now has two adult children and a passion for gardening which she pursues at her home in Ocean View. Shealso continues to run the small family business as a wire rope distributor.

Joan relies on her Yoga practice to assist her in bringing balance into her daily life; this is a constant goal and endeavor. She has studied meditation with Savitri and is an avid student of Eckhart Tolle. In her teaching, Joan emphasizes alignment and the nurturing of the Inner Awareness that is within each student.

A native New Yorker, Joanne was drawn to Hawaii through her love of surfing; and her home has been on the Big Island since 1972.  She began her Yoga studies  in 1993, with certified Iyengar instructor Darina Archer, the founder of BIYC, in 1993.  As she saw her own health, spirit and well-being benefit from her practice, Joanne began attending teacher trainings with Aadil Palkhivala in 1996.  She has also graduated from the 200 hour teacher training at BIYC with Jennifer Weinert, in 2010. 

Joanne feels privileged to share with her students her dedication and her love for her practice, experiencing the practice itself as a continual process of personal growth.  She is particularly interested in Yoga philosophy.  Joanne also focuses her talents in agriculture on Hawaii Island, considering as her “earthly dharma” the raising of queen bees for export worldwide.

Julie’s university training was in art education.  Equally significant has been her role as parent and stepparent for almost forty years—which has provided valuable training for life, as well as for teaching.  After living in New York, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Texas, North Carolina, Virginia, Wisconsin and Ontario, Canada, Julie has been home in Hawaii since 1990, where she maintains a private practice as a licensed massage therapist, incorporating John  Barnes Myofascial Release.  She also practices and teaches the energy modality Therapeutic Touch.

With some previous experience in Yoga, her commitment became serious in 1996.  Under the guidance of her mentor, Marcia Carman, she attended the first of many teacher trainings with Aadil Palkhivala in 2001.  She has been teaching since 2002 and loves sharing and exploring the body/mind/spirit practice of Yoga with her students.

Julie has also been inspired by the teachings of Tias Little, Julie Gudmestad, Patricia Walden, Marla Apt and Leslie Kaminoff.  She has served as Director of BIYC since 2009.  Julie and her husband, Garrett Webb, own and operate a palm nursery in Kona.

Mimi George PhD, LMT, earned her doctorate in cultural anthropology at the University of Virginia in 1988, with a focus on voyaging cultures. During her thirty years at sea, researching ancient knowledge of remote voyagers, Mimi’s field locations included New Ireland, Papua New Guinea and the Southeast Solomon Islands, where she repeatedly visited the Polynesian people of Taumako over a period of sixteen years. She also wintered over in the Antarctic south of India and spent several years on both sides of the Bering Straits, spending winters with the Siberian Yupik of Saint Lawrence Island and with Chukotkan reindeer herders.

Since 1998, Mimi has made her home on Hawaii Island, where she studied lomilomi under the late Auntie Margaret Mechado, a designated Living Treasure of Hawaiian Culture and Arts. At Auntie Margaret’s request, Mimi began to lead "Hawaiian Cleanse" programs (named by Auntie Margaret), which is done under strictly non-profit (501c3) rules and for educational purpose to perpetuate Auntie's work and to train others to lead the programs. More information can be found at www.hawaiiancleanseprogram.com

In 2003 Mimi began to attend classes and workshops at BIYC , finding gentle and powerful skills that helped increase her spiritual, mental, and physical health and well-being. With many years of experience in teaching, it was a natural progression in Mimi’s journey to become a teacher of yoga; and in June 2011 she graduated from the 200 hour teacher training with Jennifer Weinert through the College of Purna Yoga. Mimi enjoys sharing with students what she has learned, including how to safely do poses and how to use any props they need to achieve alignments that give them maximum benefit from the poses.

With a long held interest in living a healthy lifestyle and finding wholeness and balance, Reagan is inspired by her own path of Yoga and by the personal transformation that has come through   dedication to, and the experience of, practicing and teaching.  She earned a Bachelor’s degree in the field of Child Mental Health and has twenty-five years’ experience  working with learners of all ages in the areas  of health, healing, yoga and meditation.

Reagan has been a joyful and passionate devotee of Yoga since the age of fifteen; and she has been teaching for the last ten years. She is trained in the Iyengar and Purna  styles and is a 2010 graduate of the Purna Yoga 200 hour teacher training.  Her teachers are Bryan Legere , of Ventura, California, and Aadil Palkivala.  Reagan is also a trained clairvoyant and energy healer  whose mission is to inspire others to know and heal themselves, and to promote personal evolution through  awareness, truth, and lifestyle.

Stephanie Conant began her exploration of yoga in 1994 with Ganga White in her home state of California.  Shortly after this, she sailed into the sunset, with Australia as her destination;  but Yoga had already caught her.  It was in 1999 that she discovered the Iyengar tradition at BIYC and, subsequently, the extensive knowledge imparted in Aadil Palkhivala’s teacher trainings.  Since that time Aadil and his wife Savitri created the College of Purna Yoga in Bellevue, Washington.  Stephanie recently completed the 200 hour teacher training in Purna Yoga at BIYC, with Jennifer Weinert,  graduate of the college.

Stephanie has also studied with numerous other exceptional teachers who offer guest workshops at our studio.  She continues the level of dedication and support she has experienced from her teachers, encouraging her students to share with her the many benefits of yoga. Stephanie’s students appreciate the joy that she experiences in her own practice, her attention to detail and her sense of humor.  After having spent a number of years as successful coffee farmers, Stephanie and her husband, Howard, have “retired” and now charter their fifty-one foot sailboat, The Holy Grail.

Yvette Minear, LMT
Yvette has loved physical movement all of her life. The study of ballet and flamenco dancing as a young girl laid a foundation for her pursuit of the mind~body connection. It resonates deeply with Yvette to "feel rather than force," during asana practice, as well as in the rest of life. Yvette began to learn numerous life lessons “from the mat,” even before she understood that this could happen in Yoga. You may not see the following definition in any books on Yoga, but Yvette believes Yoga is magic!

After a successful career in food and beverage industry, Yvette embarked on a quest to find a lifestyle which would promote health of mind, body and spirit. In 2009 she took two big leaps in her quest. She began training to become a licensed massage therapist; and she now maintains a private massage practice in Kailua. Secondly, she enrolled in the first 200 hour teacher training offered by the College of Purna Yoga in Hawaii. After graduating in June of 2010, she continued to practice and study until the second Hawaii Purna Yoga 200 hour teacher training was offered, from which she graduated in May of 2011. Her instructor for the 400 hours was Jennifer Weinert. Whenever she is asked why she completed the training twice, Yvette replies by saying that she believes repetition is the master of all teachers.

Having now married all the passion, grace and energy required to drive a successful food and beverage operation with the necessary knowledge, patience and support for the teaching of Yoga, Yvette is prepared to offer students guidance and assistance along their yogic journeys. A former staff member of Yvette's told her that she embraces the essential qualities of a Yoga teacher by telling her, "You're calm but enthusiastic. You love people. You're passionate and you have lovely energy."

Yvette & her husband Josh live in Kailua-Kona, where they embrace Living Aloha! They know that the Big Island is where they are meant to be.