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Lisa Kazmer is a New York City based Certified Iyengar Yoga Teacher (CIYT). 

I’ve been practicing Iyengar Yoga since 2012 but my journey with yoga and movement started well before that. I grew up in upstate New York with an avid love of ballet and attended The University of the Arts in Philadelphia, PA from which I received a BFA in Modern Dance. Changing from bun-head to barefooted, it was at Uarts that I learned bold new ways to move across space. Modern Dance, in all it’s expressions and styles, was an invitation for me to curiously interact with the space around me and within me. It was during this time that I also took my first yoga class. 

I moved to New York City in 2006 and received my yoga teaching certification from Cyndi Lee’s Om Yoga Center and have been a full-time yoga teacher ever since. I’ve taught at Reflections Yoga, Pure Yoga, Om Yoga Center, Maha Padma Yoga Center, and Destination Maternity as well as the YMCA of Greater NY, senior centers, CUNY Graduate Center, and BronxArtSpace. In 2009 I took my first trip to India, spending six weeks practicing Ashtanga Yoga and Pranayama in Mysore with V. Sheshadri and studying Philosophy with B.N.S. Iyengar.

In 2013 my husband (following a new job opportunity in Asia) and I moved to Hong Kong. While there, I taught a lot of one-on-one yoga sessions that had me darting up and down Victoria Peak in a mini-bus. Hong Kong is where I really began practicing Iyengar Yoga in earnest after meeting George Dovas at the Iyengar Yoga Centre of Hong Kong. In 2014 we were moved to Singapore. There Jacqueline Ospovat, Anjani Shah, and Peter Thomson became my main teachers. While in Singapore I taught at a variety of yoga studios, regularly contributed articles to Namaskar Magazine, and was able to make two trips to Pune, India to study with Geeta Iyengar at the yoganusasanam conferences.

In 2016 we came back to the New York City and I returned to many of the spaces I previously taught at and nestled into a regular practice at the Iyengar Institute of NY. In 2017 I enrolled in their two-year Teacher Education Program, followed by a mentorship with Matt Dreyfus, and joined the teaching faculty at the Institute in 2023. The rigorous process of becoming an Iyengar Yoga Teacher has helped me become a more mature yoga practitioner, clearer communicator, and skilled teacher. I hope to continue to share my love of yoga with students keen to learn. 

parvritta janu shirshasana

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