David Sye

David Sye, listed as one of the top ten Yoga teachers in the UK and a Yoga Elder, has developed over many years "Yogabeats", his own brand of Yoga.

Yogabeats has now been touring in various festivals, cities and countries, gaining international success and recognition.

He has been practising yoga for over 20 years in International locations such as America, India and Israel. His “gentle power” yoga fuses Hatha, Astanga, Mridu and Vini. Gentle at the beginning and end but with dynamic and powerful periods at the core.

A regular teacher with Free Spirit Travel, David will take you on a journey to touch all your senses. The Yoga class is for all levels and is driven by music that matches the pace and the flow of the Yoga

It is an enjoyable and fun class, the ages of yoga students attending David's yoga holidays

range from 20 to over 70, it really is yoga for everybody!

Diana Shipp

Sivananda Yoga with Diana Shipp

Diana Shipp has over eleven years experience and specialises in the Sivananda style of yoga.

She is the owner of the extremely popular Kailasam Yoga Retreat in Kerala (pictures below), where she teaches the yoga classes from November through to March each year.

Diana teaches integrated breath and posture work, with spiritual awareness, based on classical Sivananda yoga and other traditions. She holds teaching diplomas from the British Wheel of Yoga and the Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Ashram in India.
Diana is an experienced teacher who has been teaching for the past 15 years. She has taught in the UK, Turkey, Bali, Crete, Spain and India.

On this holiday you will experience asana, pranayama, meditation, visualisation and relaxation in two classes daily. The yoga will improve your strength and flexibility and guide you to the calm centre of Being within.

This yoga will be suitable for beginners as well as more experienced students. Diana's approach is both joyful and imaginative, with emphasis on raising of consciousness through breath and body awareness, to bring you a feeling of well-being.

right: yoga class at Kailasam

Amy Redler

Flowing Hatha Yoga with Amy Redler

Amy is a health and well being expert with over 20 year’s experience of working with individuals and organizations as a yoga and Pilates and baby massage teacher and Thai Yoga Masseur. Her background is varied from working in 5 Star spars to drug and alcohol groups, schools and adult education s well as teaching on overseas yoga holidays.

She has studied extensively in Thailand and India and is Director and co founder of the Metta College of Thai Yoga Massage in 1991 where she runs Diploma courses in Massage, Yoga and Pilates classes.

Amy was named one of London’s best complementary health practitioners in The London Evening Standard, and her work has been quoted and acknowledged by the media over the past 10 years, appearing in numerous publications such as The Times, The Sunday Times; Vogue; The Scotsman on Sunday and London’s Time Out, Shape Magazine, Tattler and numerous other heath magazines. She has appeared on BBC radio Scotland talking about yoga and has also appeared on Breakfast TV.


Our week at Astrikas
During the week’s workshops we will learn ways to release tension, allowing the spine to lengthen, to awaken lazy muscles and calm down busy ones, learning to breathe and move more freely.

Particular attention will be given to breathing, to the work of gravity, and to the releasing of unnecessary and unhelpful muscle contraction and tension through breathing techniques and postures.

Amy’s style of teaching is precise but flowing, fun yet structured. With an emphasis in releasing blocked energy and restoring the body’s natural ability to enjoy and recuperate.

This course is suitable if you are a complete beginning in yoga or a teacher with many years experience and anywhere in between having the golden opportunity to spend some quality with yourself and take some time out of your busy life.

picture right: Amy's 2010 Astrikas group

For more information about Amy visit her website at http://www.yogamassage.co.uk

Alessandra Margarito

Hatha Flow Yoga and Pilates with Alessandra Margarito

This is a week devoted to improving the core strength of the participants

There will be a Hatha Flow Yoga class in the morning and a Pilates class in the afternoon.

Ideal for both beginners and intermediate practitioners who want to get back to basics, this week will strengthen your core as well as deepen your personal yoga practise.

The morning Yoga class will be based on the precision and breath work of Hatha yoga with emphasis on flow to create an uplifting yet grounding practise. We will work in a progressive manner throughout the week building a foundation for a strong integral practice. These sessions will guide you towards a deeper understanding of asana and the bio-mechanics of your body allowing you to progress through your practice without injury.

The early evening practice will be a Pilates matwork session, drawing from both the classical and the evolved repertoire. Over the week you will be introduced to a series of movements to develop and strengthen not only your core but the whole body thus perfectly complimenting the yoga practice.

Alessandra's creative approach to body alignment will benefit anybody who wishes to experience greater energy, dynamic relaxation and a sense of freedom in movement.

About Alessandra: Alessandra is an intuitive yoga teacher who is experienced at guiding students of all levels though the fundamental steps of their yoga practice. Her clear teaching approach is strongly influenced by studies of yoga anatomy giving her an understanding of how to ease bodies of all shapes and sizes into a comfortable beneficial practice. Her teachers have included many renowned teachers, Judith Lasater and Doug Keller in particular have had a strong effect on her own practice as well as Susanne Lahusse with whom she has been practicing Vinyasa Flow Yoga for a number of years.

Originally trained as a Pilates teacher, her training included an insight into the world of physiotherapy with Carole Thatcher as well as corrective Yoga with Gary Carter. After training with Judith Lasater, and becoming an accredited Restorative Yoga Teacher, she started combining the precision and strength work of Pilates with the deep release work of Restorative Yoga. After studying Ideokinesis with Ursula Striker, a descended of Andre Bernard the founder of the movement, she introduced more fluid somatic movements to her teachings.

Today, her Yoga Classes are creative and fluid yet carefully sequenced to allow for structure. Her main objective is to allow the body to have less resistance so that gravity can flow through allowing movement to become less restrictive. She uses the awareness of the breath to aid movement and uses movement as a focus for relaxation. Alessandra's creative approach to Yoga will benefit anybody who wishes to experience greater energy, dynamic relaxation and a sense of freedom in movement.

Alessandra enjoys teaching at all levels and runs workshops and retreats all over the world as well as running her own Yoga and Pilates studio in Bermondsey, London, SE1.

See her website at  www.alessandramargarito.com

picture above of Kat Hesse and Alessandra teaching in their  studio