4 Yoga Poses for Beginners to Get You Onto Your Mat
4 Yoga Poses for Beginners to Get You Onto Your Mat
Yarisha is an accomplished movement specialist – a yoga teacher and dance performer, teacher and choreographer with a passion for dance that began at a young age. She earned a Bachelor of Music in Dance with Distinction at the University of Cape Town and performed with several professional dance companies in South Africa for over a decade, including Cape Town City Ballet, Free Flight Dance Company, La Rosa Spanish Dance Theatre, Jozi Dance Company and Msanzi Productions. Yarisha was a well established teacher and choreographer in Cape Town before becoming the Head of Dance at StudioRepublik in Dubai for five years. She has returned to South Africa with plans to continue intensive dance training and choreography within the country. She is passionate about the emotional process within the creative realm, the performer’s mental and physical transformation as well as creative collaboration in the industry.
Yarisha became a certified Yoga instructor in 2009 and went on to open her own studio, Yoga by Yarisha, where she guided many students in their search for personal and physical transformation. She also taught for many Yoga studios across South Africa, Thailand and in Dubai, as well as directing numerous Wellness Retreats. Yarisha’s teaching style is largely a fusion of many different Yoga schoolings, influenced by her dance experience and a quest for balance.
“Yoga and meditation have given me ritual, refuge, an opening into self – discovery.”
Through a lifetime of curious exploration, Candice has developed a self-practice rooted in intuitive movement, yoga, meditation, breath work and self-study. She believes this potent combination of weaving breath, movement, contemplation and meditation is the path to healing and empowerment.
Candice’s teachings are gentle and explorative, threaded with embodied philosophy. She holds space for students to journey to their own rhythms and embodiment as gateways to embrace their depths, delighting in their own empowerment and awakening. In this way the practice becomes a call to home – to ourselves.
After undertaking her first 200hr Teacher Training in 2020, she went on to complete her 300hr under the guidance of Tamsin and Thomas Sheehy at The Shala.
Yoga has given me a true sense of belonging—within myself and in the world around me—and it’s this experience that inspires me to create the same kind of space for others. I want everyone to feel like they can show up exactly as they are, no matter where they are on their journey.
I’m a 300-hour qualified yoga teacher, and my teaching style is all about strong, dynamic flows that help build strength from the inside out. I also love working with beginners, creating a supportive and welcoming space where they can feel grounded and at ease in their bodies.
E-RYT500
Leigh has been practicing yoga since 2004 and completed her 200-hour foundational teacher training in 2016, followed by her 300-hour advanced teacher training in 2020. In 2018, she founded House of Yoga, where she has been teaching full-time ever since. Leigh leads group and private yoga classes, workshops, and House of Yoga’s biannual retreats.
Before establishing House of Yoga, Leigh spent many years working in the corporate world in the financial, real estate and renewable energy sectors in both London and Cape Town. Throughout her corporate career, yoga was a constant source of support, helping her maintain balance and wellbeing amid the demands of professional life.
Leigh is passionate about making yoga accessible and relevant to modern living. She believes its timeless wisdom and universal principles offer practical and inspirational tools for navigating life – both its “everydayness” and its deeper questions. Her teaching focuses on yoga as a pathway to greater presence, self-awareness, and holistic wellbeing on all levels — physical, mental, and emotional.
Firdose Moonda is a journalist, author, yoga teacher and scholar and combines these roles to provide critical education and examine body politics as it relates to yoga.
Firdose holds an MA in Traditions of Yoga and Meditation from the School of Oriental and African Studies (University of London) and is currently pursuing doctoral work provisionally titled “Yoga, Politics and Possibilities for Social Justice.” Her research interests include embodiment, body politics, cultural politics, decolonization, comparative religions and practice, and migrant studies.
She is a third-generation Indian living in South Africa and recognises the intersections of her ancestral lineage and activist upbringing in a country that continues to grapple with the legacies of colonialism, Apartheid and resultant inequality and what this has meant for the embodied experiences of its people.
For me, every time we step onto our mats, we begin a journey – a journey home to ourselves. Yoga is a philosophy and practice for living. It’s about celebrating the adventure of life, being human, our uniqueness, but also our connection to all things.
Coming from a background in dance, I’ve always found joy and expression through movement. But it was yoga that really taught me to listen in and to feel. To move the body in a conscious way, and to reawaken my breath. To embrace not only strength and resilience, but also stillness, quiet and surrender.
After over a decade in the corporate world in London and the renewable energy sector in Cape Town, I was fortunate to found House of Yoga in 2018 – an urban sanctuary in Claremont, Cape Town where people from all walks of life can explore the gifts of yoga.
I completed my 200hr Teacher Training with the Marianne Wells Yoga School in 2016 and my 300hr Advanced Teacher Training with The Shala in 2020. I’ve practiced yoga for 20 years and love interweaving the teachings from the various styles I have explored (including Hatha, Iyengar, Vinyasa, Scaravelli, Ashtanga, Yin & Restorative) in my classes.
Through movement, breath work, meditation and philosophy, I am passionate about sharing with others what the practice has gifted me: tools to navigate life with presence, to manage stress and anxiety, and to heal the relationship with self.
‘I found an easier way to be.’ – Hilary Mantel
Yoga has significantly improved my life, and I find happiness and fulfilment in teaching it to others.
In my twenties I sustained several serious injuries from playing rugby and not resting when I had niggles. I got into yoga in the hope of alleviating my injuries, and luckily for me, it worked. And to my surprise, I benefited even more from the mental and emotional peace that yoga gave me. For those who have constantly busy minds, even a few moments of stillness are a great relief. Yoga has allowed me to feel more at ease within the world, and within myself.
When I initially started yoga, I was self-conscious about how physically inflexible I was. Fortunately, I had teachers who reassured me. Now, I would like to do the same for others. I like the idea of making an hour a day where we can be kind to ourselves, and it’s important to me to establish a kind, non-judgmental and non-competitive space in my classes. I don’t really believe that there’s such a thing as being ‘good’ at yoga, and I’d certainly like to try to take the idea of being ‘bad’ off the table. I don’t think it’s about how far we can stretch past our toes, or how still we stand in balancing exercises. Rather, it is a personal journey in which we get in touch with our bodies and understand ourselves better.
I completed my 200 Hour Teacher Training at the Shala in 2019, and have subsequently taught in different places, from a private game reserve to a school rugby team. In 2023 I completed my 300 Hour Advanced Teacher Training through Wellness Connection Yoga Academy.
Having benefited so much from yoga, I would like to pass it on to as diverse a range of people as possible. I welcome students of all skill levels.
Outside of yoga, I work in television and have a Masters in Creative Writing from UCT. I enjoy reading and compete in amateur boxing.
With a background in fitness, Giulia has always followed an active lifestyle – keeping her body moving has always been her number one goal.
A healthy and fit daily routine led her to discover her love of yoga, as the fundamentals of her yoga practice allowed a deeper connection to her body as well as her mind.
After finding her place on the mat, Giulia proceeded with her 200hr teacher training at The Wellness Connection in Cape Town, which ignited a deep passion for the world of yoga anatomy. Giulia’s classes not only focus on strength building and alignment but also touch on a softer side of connection through breath to movement, allowing the mind to reconnect with the body.
Through her experience of teaching, Giulia has discovered the beauty of slow progression through movement and dedication to practice. She aims to focus on each and every student’s journey in their own practice and to guide them in a way which encourages more curiosity about their own body and finding contentment with where they are.
“As I breathe in I feel calm, as I breathe out I feel peaceful.”
Karen teaches yoga to little humans.
She is a certified children and teen’s yoga and mindfulness teacher, having completed her teacher training through Yoga4Kids, as well as obtaining her Mindfulness4Kids, YogaTherapy4Kids and Peaceful Babes certifications.
After attending her first yoga class more than 10 years ago Karen felt firsthand just how beneficial yoga was in helping her to deal with day-to-day stress and to self regulate through breathing and mindfulness. Over the years yoga has been crucial in helping her maintain a healthy balance between the mental, physical and emotional aspects of herself.
It is through her own ongoing journey with yoga and love for the practice that Karen found her calling in teaching yoga to children of all ages. She would love to make yoga and mindfulness accessible to as many children and teens as she possibly can, and believes the younger a child is exposed to the tools and benefits of yoga, the better they are equipped to handle the challenges of life.