Our Teachers

A large team of fully qualified and experienced Iyengar Teachers in Sheffield offer classes for everyone in a wide range of venues in Sheffield and District.

All the SADIY workshops and classes are taught by our fully qualified Iyengar Yoga teachers, each holding the Iyengar Yoga Certification mark. More details about each teacher can be found on this page.

Qualification

All classes and workshops listed on this website are taught by fully qualified Iyengar teachers who hold the Iyengar Yoga Certification Mark. The Certification Mark is a registered trade mark awarded to teachers who are approved members of the Iyengar Yoga (UK) Association. Only properly trained and certified teachers who have maintained their professional development are legally permitted to use this logo. For details of teaching qualification see the IY (UK) Teacher Training site . Our teachers' IY (UK) profile gives their current teaching certificate level.

Teachers in Sheffield

Click on a picture to reveal the teacher's name and access their bio and contact details.



Allie Carr

alliejcarr@gmail.com
07850 153182
Certification Level: Level 1
Position in the Committee: Committee Member

Allie started Iyengar Yoga while working as an administrator at the Sheffield yoga centre. From her first class, she loved taking classes with Frances, realising immediately that this practice of yoga offered something different from what she had tried before in gyms. That was over 10 years ago. Since then, Allie’s life has taken on the twists and turns of life in art and academia, yet yoga has enabled her to stay grounded and balanced. She qualified as an Level 1 teacher in 2016.
Allie is currently taking a break from teaching.


Anna Cowlishaw

Certification Level: Level 1

Anna has been practicing Iyengar Yoga for 12 years and recently qualified as a Level 1 teacher in 2018.
Anna draws on her experience as an Emergency Nurse Practitioner and interest in anatomy to inform the practice of yoga. Anna finds Yoga helps to balance professional life with cycling, swimming and dinghy sailing.


Bridget Strong

bridgetstronguk@yahoo.co.uk
0114 327 3147
0793 913 8348
Certification Level: Level 2

Bridget has been practicing Iyengar yoga for over 20 years. She works in mental health and can see how beneficial yoga can be to our whole wellbeing - both physical and emotional. She also plays the violin and has found that yoga helps with posture and avoiding the aches and pains that musicians often feel. She is a runner and keen walker and has developed a particular interest in yoga for people who are especially active and teaches a 'Yoga for Sport' class.
She qualified as an introductory teacher in 2007 and gained her Level 2 (Junior Intermediate Level 1) certificate in 2011. She teaches at the Sheffield Yoga Centre.


Carolyn Usher

carolyn@yogatoyou.co.uk
0784 338 4496
Certification Level: Level 1
Position in the Committee: Committee Member and Newsletter Editor

Carolyn began studying yoga when she joined her local gym and quickly found that a yoga class was much more preferable than the treadmill! Iyengar Yoga became an important part of Carolyn’s life and she decided to take the teacher training course so she could pass on the benefits of yoga to others. Carolyn studied to become a teacher with the North East Iyengar Yoga Institute and qualified as a Level 1 teacher in 2010, moving to Sheffield in the same year.


Cath Morgan

Certification Level: Level 2

After starting Iyengar yoga with Frances Homewood in 2003 in Sheffield, Cath then moved to Sydney where she trained to become a teacher under the internationally respected advanced teacher, Pixie Lillas. During her time in Sydney, Cath spent many hours assisting and attending classes/workshops with Pixie before returning to the UK to open her own studio which she ran in the Hope Valley for 7 years. She now teaches online only as she is combining her love for yoga with a love for travelling! She continues to deepen her knowledge by attending a weekly class with senior teacher Sue Lovell and workshops/conventions in the UK with visiting teachers from home and abroad. She has studied at the Iyengar institute in Pune, India as well as attending the 2009 convention in Australia with Geeta Iyengar. She continues to attend annual workshops with Pixie Lillas in London and Italy.


Chris Walker

Certification Level: Level 1

Chris first started attending Yoga classes in his 30s after he suffered from a back issue. Some 20 years later he discovered Iyengar Yoga at ZagYoga Iyengar Studio and before long started to develop his home practice which led him on the path to becoming an Iyengar Yoga teacher 10 years later.
He joined the mentoring process to become a teacher with Debbie Bartholomew and Monica Bejarano Cortes in 2019. He is now a fully qualified Level 1 Iyengar yoga teacher, and he is now joining the Zagyoga team, teaching Sunday morning classes.


Dominic Batten

dominic@yogadom.plus.com
0114 264 9418
Certification Level: Level 3
Position in the Committee: Committee Member

Dominic started practising yoga in the 1980s on the advice of an osteopath. He no longer needs osteopathy. He qualified as an Introductory Level teacher at Manchester in 2001 and is currently qualified at Level 3 (Intermediate Junior Level 3). As well as attending classes with Frances Homewood and Marios Argiros, Dominic has gained from practising with a range of teachers at Yoga conventions in the UK, and at other events in Greece, Portugal and India. He has attended sessions with both Geeta Iyengar and BKS Iyengar.
Dominic is currently teaching a class at Hartley Street Institute on Thursday evenings.


Emma Norminton

Certification Level: Level 1
Position in the Committee: Library Coordinator

Emma started practising Iyengar yoga in London in 2002 and qualified as a Level 1 Iyengar yoga teacher in 2012, having trained in Edinburgh and Manchester. She now lives and teaches in Sheffield.


Emma Rattenbury

61emmaratt@gmail.com
0783 781 1967
0114 255 6406
Certification Level: Level 2
Position in the Committee: Chair and Newsletter Editor

Emma has been practising Iyengar yoga in Sheffield for over 30 years. She qualified as an Introductory teacher in 2007 and now holds a Level 2 (Junior Intermediate Level 2) certificate. She has taught regular classes and workshops at the Sheffield Yoga Centre and several workshops for SADIY over the years.
From January 2023, Emma will be starting a new face to face General Class at ZagYoga. She will continue to offer online one to one classes as well. She has a particular specialism in scoliosis, as she has this condition herself and has studied with Elise Browning-Miller, the leading US teacher in Yoga for Scoliosis.
Emma has a lifelong commitment to social justice and to making the benefits of yoga accessible to all. Over the last year, she has been actively involved in Iyengar Yoga in Action, a national group of teachers which raises awareness and promotes good practice in relation to Anti Racism within the UK Iyengar Yoga community. Emma combines her yoga teaching with being a grandmother and local campaigner for justice for asylum seekers and migrants.


Frances Homewood

Certification Level: Level 3
Position in the Committee: Committee Member

Frances is a very experienced Iyengar yoga teacher with over 25 years’ experience teaching Iyengar Yoga in and around Sheffield, and over 6 years’ experience teaching Therapeutic Yoga. She has gained her Level 3 (Senior Intermediate Level 1) certificate in November 2012 and is a qualified Assessor and Teacher Trainer for the Iyengar Yoga Association (UK).
Frances has made regular visits to the Iyengar Institute in Pune over the last 20 years.
Her classes are enjoyed by beginners to intermediate level students and she is known for warmth and humour in her teaching. In 2005 she realised a lifelong dream of opening a dedicated Sheffield Yoga Centre so that people can practice in a calm and fully equipped environment.


Kulbir Kaur

Certification Level: Level 1

Kubir is a Level 1 Iyengar yoga teacher who teaches in Matlock, Derbyshire.


Heather Brennan

heatherab@sky.com
0753 524 7474
Certification Level: Level 2

Heather is an experienced Level 2 Iyengar Yoga teacher, recently relocated to Dore from Lancashire where she ran an Iyengar Yoga studio in Clitheroe in the Ribble Valley. She teaches a class in Dore on Monday morning and other online classes. Please ask Heather for details.
Heather qualified as a yoga teacher in 2014, studying for 2 years with Alan Brown, subsequently extending her teaching qualification to Level 2 in 2019. She continues to study with senior teachers in Manchester and now here in Sheffield, and attends national conventions led by Indian teachers and IYUK professional development days to maintain her teaching practice.


Helen Clay

helen@helenclayyoga.co.uk
07881 385 208
0114 2680458
Certification Level: Level 3
Position in the Committee: Secretary

Helen first qualified as an Iyengar yoga teacher in 1991 and holds a Level 3 (Junior Intermediate level 3) certificate. She has taught a wide range of students, from beginners to intermediate, as well as disabled people and those with health problems including ME and chronic back back pain.
She has studied with many senior teachers in the UK, as well as with the Iyengar family in Pune, India. In addition she has studied therapeutic yoga with both Stephanie Quirk and with Mira Mehta and has completed the Yoga for Healthy Lower Backs training.
Helen has a particular interest in yoga philosophy and its relationship to pratice, on and off the yoga-mat. Having studied with Gitte Bechsgaard's Yoga Vidya, Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies and others she is currently studying for an M.A. in Traditions of Yoga and Meditation at the University of London, School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS). In 2018-19 she co-delivered a study/practice course for yoga teachers around the Patanjala Yoga Sutra.


Laura Curtis

Certification Level: Level 1

Laura has been regularly practising Iyengar yoga since 2012. She first discovered Iyengar Yoga at a time of change in her life and found it provided her with a sense of space, balance and strength. As her practice developed it became more central to her life, the sense of well-being this brought motivated her to share with others and to train to teach.
Laura qualified as a Level 1 Iyengar yoga teacher in 2019 and teaches with warmth and humour, creating a welcoming, enjoyable and encouraging atmosphere in the class.


Laura Potts

Certification Level: Level 3

Laura discovered Iyengar yoga in 1977 and teacher training in 1993. She has continued to develop her professional learning, and is currently certified level 3 (2013); she has visited RIMYI three times for a month’s attendance at classes.
As a teacher in higher and further education for nearly thirty years, Laura has a practical and wide ranging experience in different pedagogical methods and approaches, and of working with students of all sorts of abilities. Her background in philosophy (BA Hons and PhD) and in health education (PG DipHEd) provide a strong foundation to her yoga teaching and understanding.
She has a particular expertise in, and a commitment to, teaching students with mental health problems.
Her yoga teaching is grounded in a deep love, understanding and appreciation of Iyengar yoga as lived experience. The fundamental principles of yama and niyama resonate through her teaching, her social and political engagement and way of living.


Liz Whelan

lizwhelan@talktalk.net
0781 128 1213
0114 236 8199
Certification Level: Level 1

Liz has been practicing yoga since 2000, In 2009 she started the two and a half year teacher training course and gained her Level 1 Iyengar yoga teaching certificate in 2011. Since then she has been teaching regular classes at the Sheffield Yoga Centre and family workshops. She now also teaches a class in Dore on Tuesday morning.


Lorraine Bonete

lorraine.bonete@gmail.com
0780 756 7532
0114 236 2115
Certification Level: Level 1
Position in the Committee: Membership Officer

Lorraine first tried yoga when she was pregnant and attended ante natal yoga classes. She discovered Iyengar yoga after the birth of her birth second child on the advice of her ante natal yoga teacher who recommended Frances Homewood's classes, and hasn't looked back.
Lorraine goes to as many workshops with visiting teachers, in Sheffield and further afield, as she can fit around family and work commitments. She was delighted to have the opportunity to train as an Iyengar yoga teacher and qualified as a Level 1 Iyengar yoga teacher in 2007. She has been teaching at Silverdale School for several years and more recently online. She is currently taking a break from teaching.


Ludek Knittl

Certification Level: Level 1

Ludek started his Iyengar Yoga journey in 2010. As a university teacher by profession, he particularly liked the precise methodology that underpins the Iyengar approach to yoga teaching, which makes it challenging but also safe and accessible to everyone. He soon started his own home yoga practice, as a complement to attending regular classes. He’s been attending workshops and retreats with various senior teachers from the UK and beyond. It felt natural that he wanted to share his personal experience of yoga. He joined the mentoring process to become a teacher with Debbie Bartholomew and Monica Bejarano Cortes in 2019. He is now a fully qualified Level 1 Iyengar yoga teacher, and he is teaching at the Zagyoga studio.


Monica Bejarano Cortes

Certification Level: Level 3

Monica Bejarano is Iyengar yoga teacher. She holds a Level 3 (Junior Intermediate level 3) certificate. Originally from Spain, she moved back to the UK in 2010 from Auckland, New Zealand. Four years on, she moved her classes to her own Yoga studio in the thriving Harland Works, John St in the heart of Sheffield, ‘Zagyoga’ Iyengar Yoga Studio.
She has taught an extensive variety of people, ages and abilities from the elderly to the athlete community including cyclists, runners and members of the New Zealand national rugby team. Monica Bejarano has had the opportunity to train with international senior teachers, including Stephanie Quirk (New Zealand), Pixie Lillas (Australia) and Faeq and Corine Biria (France) as well as with the Iyengar family in Pune, India.
Monica transmits with passion the Iyengar’s teachings as she has learned them from qualified teachers and from her many years of personal practice. Monica’s classes are dynamic, enthusiastic, generous and compassionate.


Nidhi Nanda

Certification Level: Level 1

Nidhi has been practising yoga for 20 years. In 2018 she qualified as a Level 1 Iyengar teacher and has had the opportunity to visit Pune, India and be taught by the Iyengar family.
She is passionate about Iyengar yoga as it gives positivity, inner strength and a happy spirit and it is a method of yoga which makes yoga accessible to all.
She has particularly appreciated these benefits of yoga in her professional life as a Pharmacist where yoga has helped with managing the work life balance.
She teaches at Sheffield Iyengar Centre, Yoga at the Reach and Nuffield Health Gymn.


Pascale Vacher

pascaleyog@gmail.com
0794 164 6418
Certification Level: Level 3
Position in the Committee: Treasurer and Communication Officer

Pascale started Iyengar yoga in 1994. She qualified as an Introductory level Iyengar yoga teacher in 2007 and has been holding a Level 3 (Junior Intermediate level 3) certificate since 2011.
She is now a full time yoga teacher, running several adults' daytime and evening classes of various levels either, face-to-face in Silverdale School, online from her little studio (A Yoga Room) or from the Sheffield Yoga Centre. In addition, she teaches monthly weekend workshops and offers 1:1 and 1:2 tuition on request. Occasionally she covers classes elsewhere.
She is also a member of the SADIY committee, acting as Treasurer, maintaining this website as best as she can (;-) and helping organise yoga events.
She has a particular interest in anatomy and the understanding of the physical structures and principles underlying movement to enhance the safe and efficient practice of yoga poses and to improve strength, flexibility, balance and posture.


Rebekka Campbell

Certification Level: Level 1

Bekka has been attending classes for many years and has recently qualified as a Level 1 Iyengar yoga teacher. She started her yoga as a way to address stiffness and injuries from running and strength training, but quickly discovered that attending regular classes brought deeper benefits too - better mental health, better sleep and a sense of calm.
Bekka’s classes are suitable for absolute beginners as well as those with a little yoga experience.


Stuart Bolton

Certification Level: Level 1

Stuart has been practicing yoga for 15 years and qualified as a Level 1Iyengar yoga teacher in October 2011. He is currently taking a break from teaching.