Yoga

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.

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.

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.