Leslie Bradley, Director of Blue Spruce Yoga, has taught yoga in the Iyengar tradition since 1985. She is certified at the Intermediate level, is a recommending teacher in the certification process, and has served as a certification assessor since 2003. She has made four trips to Pune, India to study directly with the Iyengars, most recently in 2002. Leslie was chosen as one of 70 women from 18 countries to attend the Women’s Intensive with Geeta Iyengar, learning much about the application of yoga to women’s specific needs. She studies with and assists senior teachers in America on a regular basis. She has served as President, Vice President, and Secretary of IMIYA, the regional Iyengar association.
Leslie started yoga for the joy of the physical postures. Over the years of practice and study, she has found yoga philosophy to be a source of great comfort, inspiration and wisdom. B.K.S. Iyengar is of an ancient and respected lineage in the yoga tradition, and Leslie is grateful to have all the wisdom of her teachers and their teachers to inform her practice and teaching. She is also grateful to have the opportunity to share what she can with her students. Since the Columbine tragedy occurred in her children's school district, Leslie has become active in the cause of non-violence. Read Leslie's post-Columbine discussion of Ahimsa, non-violence.
Nancy Crum Stechert is an intermediate certified teacher in the Iyengar Tradition and has practiced yoga for over 20 years. She studied with the Iyengars every year from 1982 to 1989, most recently studying there in January of 2001. She originally founded the Colorado School of Yoga and also established the international Yoga Center of Tokyo. She taught at the lyengar Institutes of San Francisco and New York and Studio Yoga in New Jersey. Nancy just served as President of the local Iyengar yoga association, IMIYA, and she has chaired three recent Iyengar Teaching Assessments.
Melody Madonna is a certified Iyengar instructor and has studied Iyengar yoga for over 14 years, including a month of study with the Iyengars at the Ramamani Iyengar Memorial Yoga Institute (RIMYI) in Pune, India. In addition to Blue Spruce Yoga, she teaches at her own studio, Harmony Hill Yoga in Indian Hills (near Evergreen), at Iyengar Yoga Center Denver, at Colorado School of Iyengar Yoga, and organizes the annual Yoga Fiesta in Mexico, north of Playa del Carmen, with Senior Iyengar Instructor Nancy Stechert.
Diane Goldstein was introduced to yoga while studying social work in the 1970s. After graduation from law school, she moved to Colorado and began practicing Iyengar yoga with Leslie Bradley. She has used yoga to strengthen a weak back brought on by the demands of mothering three young children. Diane has deepened her knowledge of yoga through the Advanced Studies and Teacher Training Program taught by Nancy Crum Stechert and Leslie Bradley, as well as training with various senior teachers who visit locally. She enjoys helping students discover the strength and peace a yoga practice can bring.
