Introducing the Mysore teaching team

Our Mysore team at Meadowlark is made up of 5+ teachers and team and several assistants that support our gloriously big program that runs up to 5hrs a morning- 6 days a week, evening program and dedicated online community also. 

Despite Emma Isokivi being our Mysore director, the program is most definitely a collaborative effort, which brings the joyful bonus of bringing a bigger spectrum of diversity, knowledge and skills to the wider community. 

We wanted to share a little information about who all these lovely faces (and beyond) are in the photo above.

There is a historical lineage to many of our teachers here that you should know about, starting with the formidable Karen Kirkness- Meadowlark's founder who begun the Mysore program over 13 years ago.  All of our Mysore teachers are, first and foremost, students of at least 10+ years of daily practice and assistants all of at least 3+ years or more. To join our teaching team there is waiting list, with often only 1 new assistant joining per year and 3 year commitment to their study- not a small undertaking and takes great work on all sides. 

From top left to right-

• Katie Paterson- amazing Tuesday morning assistant, teacher and long term practitioner.
• Shelagh Wallace- Tuesday late morning assistant- one of our newest additions to our team, but well established yogi and teacher based in Galashiels. 
• Vanessa Rigby- our late morning Mysore teacher who teaches the 09:30am room and also a monthly beginners course.
• Roxie Pankowiak- another new assistant who you'll mostly see on Thursday mornings. Roxie dived deep into Mysore style practice during the 2020 pandemic.
• Kirsten Waugh- our incredible evening Mysore teacher who supports both newer and advanced students with steadiness and deep knowledge of the practice. 

Bottom left to right:

• Karen Kirkness- this lady nearly needs no introduction! Karen started growing the Ashtanga community in Edinburgh back in 2003 and is many of our teacher's teacher. You'll find Karen's teaching has a healthy dose of anatomical geekery and diversity to it which we celebrate. She teaches Sunday early morning for a few more weeks and soon will be shifting to Tuesday early slot.
• Devon Taylor- co-teaches Sunday later morning room and several beginners sessions.  Both Emma and Devon were some of the "original" assistants of Mysore room back in 2012... 
• Emma Isokivi- bottom right. 

Not pictured: 

• Jenn Usher- Jenn regularly covers for us and you'll see her fly on her mat beside you in the early room with much grace and skill before heading off to a 9-5 job. 
• Amy Hughes- our online Mysore teacher, supports the dedicated online teaching space (4 morning per week, and hybrid led class). Our online Mysore program is planned as a permanent feature of our program despite being post-pandemic so enjoy diving into Amy's rich teaching of 20+ years of daily practice!  
• Caroline Graham- newly started assisting Kirsten in the Evening Mysore program- welcome Caroline!