Individual weekends:
Specific weekends are available for enrollment individually. Please write to Sarah at sarahmontross@bigpoweryoga.com for more details.

ABOUT THE FACULTY

Lead faculty
Sarah Montross / E-RYT 500, YAECP
Sarah has practiced and studied yoga since 2002 and has been teaching since 2007. She received her 200-hour certification from Laughing Lotus Yoga Center and my 500-hour certification from Yogamaya, both in New York City. Sarah studies asana and philosophy regularly, focusing mostly on the alignment-based practice. Her primary teachers are currently Christina Sell and Constance Braden. Sarah is skilled at translating powerful philosophical concepts into modern and relatable language and has an innate understanding of the body that lets her share sharp, impactful cues that move students forward in their practice at their own pace.

Gioconda Parker / E-RYT 500, YAECP, SEP, MTP
Gioconda has been practicing and teaching yoga for 20 years, and is still learning something new every day. Her enthusiasm for the practice is contagious and her dedication to yoga comes through in every class. Whether you are flowing in her artfully sequenced vinyasa classes, or moving through the layers in yin, her guidance and support keep you safe, steady and focused. In addition to years of yoga training, she also holds a Master’s Degree in Transpersonal Psychology and is a Somatic Experiencing Practitioner.

Nancy Perry / E-RYT 500
Nancy has been teaching yoga for over a decade, and brings all of her experience from being an entrepreneur, a mother, a wife, and a committed student of life into her teaching. Nancy is the co-founder and co-owner of BIG Power Yoga, Out Here Yoga, and Live Alive Adventures. She is a Tier 4 Certified Baptiste Teacher, a Lightyear Leadership Faculty Member, a writer, a wife, and a mother. She is a college drop-out turned entrepreneur, and credits her mistakes and failures as her greatest teachers, along with Susanne Conrad, Baron Baptiste, Justin Perry, and Emerson Perry! Nancy creates a completely welcoming environment, loving and accepting of all who choose to come. She provides a sweaty and physically challenging experience from a context of inclusion and authenticity, delivering a class that provides everything all levels of students need, letting them discover that they are more powerful than they know.

Guest faculty
Raghunath Cappo / E-RYT 500, YAECP
In his teens, Raghunath started a punk/hardcore band called Youth of Today, which championed the principles of clean living, vegetarian diet, and self-control. After amassing a worldwide following and starting a record label, he recognized there was a growing void in his heart he knew only Spirit could fill. After leaving the band and the label he got into spirituality, metaphysics, and mysticism; the teachings of India drove him East and at age 22, he ended up on an ashram floor in the holy village of Vrindavan. Raghunath remained a monk in an ashram for six and a half years and now, many years later, teaches how to incorporate everything he learned into everyday life. Presently Raghu is married with 5 kids and co-founded Supersoul Yoga and Farm with his wife where he leads yoga teacher trainings. Every year he leads pilgrimages to his favorite cities & villages around India. He prays that he can give his students the life-altering truths of the yoga system that he has learned from his gracious teachers.

Manorama
Manorama is the founder of the Sanskrit Studies Method™ and the Luminous Soul Method™. Manorama evokes healing through the universal arts of language and conscious living. “Happiness,” she often says, “is the free flow of energy, and communication is energy. When we use our voices authentically and confidently, we create harmony between ourselves and others.” A renowned, highly respected Sanskrit and Yoga Philosophy teacher, Manorama tours the globe, training students in the Sanskrit Studies Method and the Luminous Soul Method. Through the Sanskrit Studies Method Manorama offers a direct, easy and joyful approach to learning Sanskrit, encouraging students to focus on core Sanskrit Studies Method principles of learning, the dynamic sound qualities of the language and its philosophical beauty. In the Luminous Soul Method students learn how to stay connected with the nine pillars, which infuse life with wisdom, understanding and grounding.

Dr. Christopher Key Chapple
Christopher Key Chapple is Doshi Professor of Indic and Comparative Theology at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, where he founded and currently directs the Master of Arts in Yoga Studies, delivered face to face and through hybrid learning. Chris began Yoga as a teenager, receiving direct instruction from Gurani Anjali in classical Yoga at Yoga Anand Ashram in Amityville, New York, from 1972 until 1985, when he and his wife moved to California. He has published more than twenty books, including Karma and Creativity (1986), Nonviolence to Animals, Earth, and Self in Asian Traditions (1993), Reconciling Yogas (2003), Yoga and the Luminous (2008), and Living Landscapes in Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain Yogas (2019), all available through SUNY Press. In 2002 he started the first of many Yoga Studies programs at LMU and, in 2004, the Hill Street Center for Yoga and Meditation. Chris serves on numerous advisory boards worldwide and is part of the yogaglo.com faculty.