Center for Yoga Gathering for India

UNITY IN ACTION!

Join us again at Center For Yoga, birth place of Yoga Gives Back (2007), for a special afternoon event co-led by YGB Ambassadors at CFY and performances by LA's greatest artists. Along with the class, you get to enjoy authentic dance, soulful music, speeches, a silent auction, and a community gathering supporting Yoga Gives Back's mission. In our 18th year, YGB now empowers more than 3,000 underserved women and children in creating sustainable lives.

Program:
Opening Mohiniyattam Dance by Deepa Chemery

YGB Short Presentation by Kayoko Mitsumatsu

YGB Ambassadors Relay Class by Ashley Rideaux, Carolina Goldgberg, Dearbhla Kelly and Jeanne Heileman

Soulful Music by Donna De Lory and Joss Jaffe

*Refreshments and Silent Auction

MEET THE INSTRUCTORS & YGB AMBASSADORS -

ASHLEY RIDEAUX - Ashley Rideaux is a Los Angeles–based, 500 E-RYT teacher trainer, mentor, lover of life, and professional giggler who rocks big hair, a big smile, and an even bigger heart. In addition to the strong following she has built in LA, she also leads trainings, workshops, and retreats all over the world. Ashley's classes are challenging and playful, ranging from therapeutic work to advanced vinyasa flow. Outside of traditional studio spaces, she teaches yoga to women and adolescents in eating disorder treatment facilities, has experience working with seniors with neurological disorders, and was the featured yoga instructor for NBA player, Jordan Farmar's, Hoop Farm basketball camp for 4 years, where she worked with kids from ages 7-16. Ashley is passionate about making the practice of yoga accessible to all, and all of her classes are a balance of the physical and the philosophical, inviting the body and mind to unfold through her detail to alignment, breath, and subtle body. https://www.ashleyrideaux.com/

DEARBHLA KELLY - Dublin native Dearbhla Kelly M.A. moved to the US in 2001 to pursue a PhD in analytic philosophy at the University of Illinois at Chicago. She has been teaching yoga since 2003 and believes that the practice is an invitation to self-enquiry and skill in action, but also a method of healing trauma and integrating psyche and soma. An advanced Ashtanga yoga practitioner, Dearbhla’s superpower is encouraging students to go deeper, to try new things and get comfortable with being uncomfortable. She invites her students to embrace challenges, to expand the edges of their capabilities and step into the unknown. The invitation comes from the experience of her own practice which has yielded gifts of empowerment and deeper self-trust. Dearbhla is able to support people of all experience and physical aptitudes. She has taught at festivals, conferences, retreats, teacher trainings and studios worldwide. The diverse populations she has taught yoga include prisoners, veterans with PTSD, Navy Seals, children with severe physical limitations and college students. She maintains a robust private clientele in Los Angeles. A warm and welcoming teacher, her lilting Irish accent and Dublin wit make her classes especially enjoyable. https://www.durgayoga.com/

DEEPA CHEMERY - Deepa is a trauma informed, holistic practitioner specialized in various healing modalities like Yoga, somatic experiencing, mindfulness and DBT, Ayurveda nutrition, polyvagal theory and neurofeedback therapy. She is a software engineer turned therapist due to immense passion for healing sciences stemming from her personal life experiences and inspired by her personal yoga journey. Deepa brings over a decade of experience practicing and teaching Yoga, Workshops, and Trainings. Her deep love of Yoga Philosophy, Anatomy and Ayurveda inspires her work. Deepa is passionate about bringing Yoga and Ayurveda together as a fundamental lifestyle practice to maintain good health and mental wellbeing. She considers Yoga as a wonderful tool to educate and empower women. Through her work she encourages her clients to bring insight to action and to practice Yoga beyond the mat. Deepa works with clients trying to find support for PTSD, anxiety, depression, chronic stress, insomnia, childhood trauma, and disordered eating, to name a few. Deepa currently works for United healthcare/Optum as a therapist, and teaches at California State University, Northridge. She facilitates asana, pranayama, meditation classes and ayurveda nutrition coaching, conducts private therapy sessions and serves YogaGivesBack, a nonprofit organization supporting girls and women in India as their global ambassador. https://www.karunawellnesschicago.com/deepa-chemer...

DONNA DE LORY - Donna is a singer, songwriter, producer and multi-instrumentalist whose radiant voice and expansive musical vision encompass pop, world music, electronica and devotional mantras. In the pop realm, she’s perhaps best known for her work with Madonna as a backup singer and dancer, seen in the documentary film Truth or Dare and on Madonna’s Who’s That Girl, Blonde Ambition, Girlie Show, Drowned World, Reinvention and Confession tours. But De Lory’s own music has topped the Billboard Dance Chart several times, and her voice has been heard on landmark albums by artists such as Bette Midler, Leonard Cohen, Belinda Carlisle, Carly Simon and Selena. She has also sung on soundtracks for feature films like A League of Their Own, Smallfoot and The Switch. At the same time, De Lory is one of the world’s foremost singers of devotional mantras and songs of spiritual inspiration. Throughout the 2000s, she released a string of evocative, eclectic, beautifully-produced albums that have captured the hearts of listeners in mindfulness, wellness meditation and yoga communities and beyond. Her music is heard by over 100,000 Spotify listeners a month and has garnered more than 10 million streams across several digital platforms. Her newest album, Sing to the Light has already garnered widespread social media acclaim, moving one to exclaim, “the more I listen, the more beautiful your music becomes!”

De Lory’s vocal performance on a song demo for what would become Madonna’s 1986 hit “Open Your Heart,” caught the ear of the pop icon, who promptly engaged De Lory as a singer and dancer for numerous historic world tours as well as albums such as Like a Prayer, Erotica, Ray of Light, Bedtime Stories and Evita.

In 1993, De Lory made her debut as a solo artist with a self-titled album on MCA/Universal Records, hitting #1 in Japan with the single, “Praying for Love,” and landing in the US top 10 dance chart with “Just a Dream.” Prolific, innovative and always inspiring, Donna De Lory’s most recent album is Sing to the Light, a collaboration with guitarist James Harrah, a longtime friend and musical associate. The two first met in the 1980s, as part of the Laurel Canyon music scene and later traveled the world together on Madonna’s Who’s That Girl tour. As they worked on Sing to the Light, Donna underwent treatment—successful in its outcome—for a life-threatening illness. The music became part of her healing journey. The result is an album of profound beauty and serenity. Gorgeously layered vocals are interwoven with lilting guitar melodicism and atmospheric keyboards, taking the listener on a gentle voyage into light, wellness, wholeness and harmony. https://www.donnadelory.com/

JEANNE HEILEMAN – MA, 500-ERYT, YACEP, Founder of Tantra Flow Yoga®, Jeanne brings together 40 years of yoga study with over 29 years of teaching skills into a style of yoga inclusive of asana, Ayurveda, meditation, with the added focus of cultivating energy. Jeanne has studied extensively in Ashtanga, Iyengar, Anusara, ParaYoga, Vini and Tantra Yoga with many masters in each tradition. She specializes in discovering the needs of an individual and gently guiding students to their own grace and balance. Jeanne’s background as a classically trained actor brings the ability to keep students engaged and finding fun in the thickest of yoga philosophy lessons. She teaches with sensitivity, generosity of spirit and a lot of humor. Based out of Los Angeles, she tours internationally teaching trainings, workshops and retreats. www.jeanneheileman.co

JOSS JAFFE - California-based singer, musician and record producer Joss Jaffe is a regular performer at transformational festivals and premiere yoga conferences. His last album, “Meditation Music”, debuted at #3 on the Billboard New Age Chart on October 4th 2019. His critically acclaimed works include Dub Mantra, Traveller, Svaramandala and Echosystem often blending genres in surprising and revelatory ways. Known for working with a wide variety of acclaimed world musicians Joss uses his knowledge from a long study of Indian Classical music with Maestros Ali Akbar Khan, Swapan Chaudhuri and Zakir Hussain to influence the sonic landscape. Joss has been active in Reggae and Dub for over 20 years performing, recording and producing albums. His first collaboration with Mykal Rose, celebrated Grammy winning reggae vocalist, was in 2015 with the release of “Elohim”, the first time the iconic Jamaican vocalist recorded in Hebrew. Joss specializes in bringing together diverse artists to create revealing new sounds. https://jossjaffe.bandcamp.com/

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