PRENATAL YOGA DVDS ABOUT US

About the Movement Center and Rudra Press

The Movement Center: Yoga for Everyone is the yoga studio of Nityananda Institute, based in Portland, Oregon. We are a collaborative of yoga instructors who teach from a shared understanding of hatha yoga and meditation practice as taught by Swami Chetanananda at the Nityananda Institute.

Since the mid 1970’s, we have promoted the experience of Total Well Being in each student through the conscious integration of breath and movement. New and experienced practitioners alike take part in group classes, workshops, private instruction, teacher training courses and outreach programs. The Movement Center is registered with the Yoga Alliance. Yoga for the childbearing year—including prenatal and postpartum instruction, as well as classes for moms and babies—is an integral part of The Movement Center curriculum.

Rudra Press is the publishing division of Nityananda Institute, offering books and audio and video products that support spiritual growth and the realization of Total Well Being. These prenatal yoga DVDs are the first in a series of instructional videos called "Yoga for Total Well Being."

About our Approach to Yoga

At The Movement Center, classical hatha yoga asanas are taught with careful attention to physical alignment and adaptation for individual needs. Movement and awareness are aligned with the breath. We encourage students to focus inwardly, and to move as deeply as possible into the asanas from that inner focus.

The goal of our yoga practice is for each person to experience that part of themselves that is boundless, joyful and completely well. We call that state Total Well Being, and we teach our students how to reach it by dissolving tension in their bodies, minds, hearts, and spirits, and allowing their creative energy to flow. Connecting to the experience of Total Well Being transforms a person’s life on every level and makes it infinitely richer and more joyous.

It is our wish, by sharing the practice of hatha yoga, to help each person access their own deepest creative power and find their own appropriate, individual approach to yoga practice.

About our Prenatal Yoga Teachers

Patty Slote has been practicing yoga for over 30 years and has been a certified instructor since 1989. She developed the programs for Prenatal Yoga: A Complete Home Practice for a Healthy Mother and Baby and Prenatal Sun Salute: An Energizing Practice for a Healthy Mother and Baby with the help of a team of yoga instructors and prenatal yoga students.

Sara Grigsby is a certified yoga instructor who has been teaching at The Movement Center since 1985. She teaches prenatal yoga and continuing practice classes.

Kelly Ponzi is a certified yoga instructor who has been practicing since 1986 and teaching since 1988. She teaches prenatal yoga and yoga for moms and babies. She has a son, Luca, who was born in 1997.

Angie Shoemaker is a certified yoga instructor who has been practicing yoga for 10 years and joined The Movement Center staff in 2002.