ABOUT US

TEACHERS

Karen Allgire, MFA, RYT, CIYT, is a Level3 Certified Iyengar Yoga Teacher and and Registered Yoga Teacher with Yoga Alliance. She has been teaching yoga since 1998.
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Karen received her MA in Dance from Ohio State University and her MFA in Dance from Case Western Reserve University. She taught modern dance and movement awareness from 1982-2000 at many Ohio institutions including Hiram College, Oberlin College, Case Western Reserve University and Cleveland State University. Karen has made five trips to India to study at the Ramamani Iyengar Memorial Yoga Institute. Karen was a member of the IYNAUS Newsletter committee from 2003-2008 and has contributed several articles to Yoga Samachar. She served as Registration Chair for the 2011 Midwest Regional Iyengar Yoga Conference in Chicago. Karen currently serves on the Assessments Committee.

Karen’s teaching and practice have been profoundly influenced by Mary Dunn, and she continues to study with Dean and Rebecca Lerner and Laurie Blakeney. Karen completed the Yoga for Scoliosis training program created by senior Iyengar teacher Elise Miller. Study of Sanskrit and chanting with Leslie Freyberg have been a special area of engagement and enjoyment. Karen specializes in blending anatomy, imagery and philosophy to nurture transformation in our yogic practices and our lives. She is an avid supporter of the performing arts and enjoys dance, theater, film and music. Karen loves to chant, sing rounds and croon American standards. She studies jazz piano with Greg Slawson.

Colleen Clark, MFA, OCPS1, CIYT, has an MFA in dance from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, is a Level 1 Certified Iyengar Yoga Teacher and a certified Relax and Renew Yoga Instructor, and works as an Ohio Certified Prevention Specialist.
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In 1999, after decades of being an artist, she began her career at Centers for Families and Children-RapArt as a drug-prevention specialist. There she worked with at-risk youth to support them in making healthy lifestyle choices.

Colleen connects her love of dance and movement with her desire to make a difference in the world. She finds this to be an extraordinarily satisfying journey, and looks forward to continuing doing good work in the world as a prevention educator. Colleen is currently teaching Gentle Chair and Restorative Yoga at Green Tara Yoga & Healing Arts and chair dancing for elders at McGregor PACE.

Colleen had a long dance career and performed on nearly every dance stage in Cleveland. She also taught modern dance, ballet, jazz, improvisation, dance ethnology and dance appreciation at Cleveland State University, University of Akron, Case Western Reserve University and Hiram College. Colleen holds a vision of a peaceful world where people can connect to themselves and each other on a basic human level through body and self-awareness.

Amy Runnels, E-RYT-500, RPYT, has been teaching yoga since 2006 and is a Level 1 Certified Iyengar Yoga Teacher. She is an Experienced-Registered Yoga Teacher and Registered Prenatal Yoga Teacher with Yoga Alliance.
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Amy sought out yoga as a refuge from the stresses of an unfulfilling career in environmental advocacy and a difficult adjustment to life in New York City. Since her first eye and mind opening classes she has devoted herself to the practice. With a desire to share this life-altering physical, mental & spiritual experience, Amy began teaching others in 2006. She is an Experienced-Registered Yoga Teacher and Registered Prenatal Yoga Teacher with Yoga Alliance as well as a Continuing Education Provider.

She began studying Iyengar Yoga regularly with Karen Allgire in 2011 and completed Karen’s apprenticeship program in 2016. Amy also studies with senior teacher Laurie Blakeney regularly in Ann Arbor as well as attending workshops with Dean and Rebecca Lerner. She is an Introductory II Certified Iyengar Yoga Teacher and strives to pass along some of the immeasurable knowledge, compassion, and wisdom her teachers have shared with her. Amy lives in Shaker Heights with her husband, Patrick, and along with her continued yogic studies, is kept busy by their two inquisitive children, their dog Zoe, and Dobby the house cat.

Charlotte Sanpere, PhD, RYT, CIYT, is a Level 2 Certified Iyengar Yoga Teacher. She took her first yoga class when pregnant with her son in 1999. It was a general class at a local gym, but what she felt afterward was a new experience and she has been searching to understand it since then.
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Charlotte did teacher training to become an active learner and that led to her discovery of the Iyengar method. She is a devoted student and a true believer in the teaching of Mr. Iyengar. She studies regularly with wonderful senior teachers including Dean and Rebecca Lerner, Laurie Blakeney and Mary Reilly. Charlotte finds the subject profound and absorbing, and the practice liberating and fun. As a student and a teacher, her curiosity is always renewed.

Charlotte lives in Cleveland Heights, with her husband (an Iyengar yoga practitioner as well), two lively children and a dog (who she believes has a lot of lessons to teach us). Her other passions are literature and film; she has a Master’s in the former and a Ph.D in the latter. Charlotte teaches French at Case Western Reserve University.

Julie Tamarkin, RYT-500, CIYT, has been teaching yoga since 2008. She is a Level 1 Certified Iyengar Yoga Teacher and a Registered Yoga Teacher with Yoga Alliance.
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In 2014, Julie attended Yoganusasanam, Geeta Iyengar’s intensive course in Pune, India and was deeply inspired by Geeta’s refined and brilliant teaching. She is grateful to many wonderful teachers, and for B.K.S. Iyengar’s profound devotion to the subject of Yoga, and Yoga’s transformative methods. In addition to teaching at Green Tara Yoga & Healing Arts, Julie teaches private classes at her home studio in Beachwood.

One of her favorite places is the Domestic Violence and Child Advocacy Center, where she gets to spend time with courageous women and their wonderful children every week. Julie has three grown children and lives in her empty nest with her husband Steve and her dog Millie.