Michelle LaRue
Intermediate Junior II

Michelle has practiced yoga since 1994 and has been teaching yoga since 2001. She made her first visit to Pune, India, to study with the Iyengar family in 2005 and returned in 2008. Michelle's primary teachers are Mary Dunn, Judy Brick Freedman and Brooke Myers.

Michelle began ballet training at the age of eight and performed professionally as a modern dancer for twelve years in San Francisco and New York.

Michelle loves teaching Iyengar Yoga. Her teaching is strong and precise.

She blends physically demanding asana work with clear verbal instruction.

Her aim is to instruct and lead her students while allowing them to stay connected to their own experience.

Hugh Millard
Introductory Level II

Hugh has studied Iyengar Yoga since 1991 and began teaching in 1997. He has traveled to the Ramani Iyengar Memorial Yoga Institute in Pune, India for two extended stays in order to study with the Iyengar family.

He began his studies with Mary Dunn and Manouso Manos. Since 2001, he has traveled regularly to California to study with Donald Moyer, the director of the Yoga Room in Berkeley.

His favorite quote about yoga is:

"I do not think that I know It well and yet I know that it is not unknown to me. He of us who knows It, knows That; he knows that It is not unknown to him.

He by whom It is not thought out, has the thought of It; he by whom It is thought out, knows It not. It is unknown to those who discern of It, by those who seek not to discern of It, It is discerned.” –Kena Upanishad, Section 2.2, 2.3, translated by Sri Aurobindo.

Hugh offers his advice to students, “Examine why you are doing yoga, stay with it and don’t give up. Iyengar Yoga makes the practice of yoga experiential – physically, emotionally, and mentally.” Hugh describes his teaching style as patient, exacting, and humorous. “Do no harm. I aim to observe the student and teach according to what I see.”

Tori Milner
Intermediate Junior II

Tori Milner began studying Iyengar Yoga in 1996 and teaching in 2001. She has trained in India with the Iyengar family twice and her primary teachers are Mary Dunn and Robin Janis.

Tori was formerly an account executive for graphic-design and public-relations agencies. She received a bachelor’s degree in English and women and gender studies from Sweet Briar College, in Virginia.

In her teaching, she strives to be clear, challenging, insightful, and motivating, to help students create greater awareness and joy in their own lives. “Having the privilege of watching students progress is very rewarding,” she says. Also rewarding is helping students cultivate perseverance, and conquer fear and doubt.

She advises new students to have fun. “Learn to take the practice of yoga seriously—without taking yourself too seriously,” she says, a challenge she is familiar with. She remembers being a raw beginner herself. “I saw a friend’s sixty-something-year-old mother do a headstand at a party and was inspired to try yoga. It happened to be Iyengar Yoga, and I was drawn in from the beginning of my studies—amazed that I could indeed lift my kneecaps and explore strength and flexibility that I had no idea existed within my own body or mind.”

James Murphy
Intermediate Senior I

James Murphy began practicing yoga in 1988 and has taught since 1990. He has made 10 extended trips to India to study with B. K. S. Iyengar and Prashant and Geeta Iyengar.

James began his study of Iyengar Yoga with Mary Dunn and Kevin Gardiner after a 10-year career with the Alwin Nikolais Dance Theater.

Describing his experiences in classes in India, James says, “Besides gaining invaluable insights into the physical aspects of yoga, I observed how Mr. Iyengar works on a psychological level to challenge students to go beyond their limits.”

At the Institute, James teaches a full range of classes, including a class for those living with HIV/AIDS; he also does mentoring and training in the Institute’s Teacher Training program.

Currentlythe director of the Iyengar Yoga Association of Greater New York, James continues his leadership role in working to create evolving programs and an active interchange of teachers and practitioners in our four-state area.

In addition to his study of yoga, James is keenly interested in people and cultures around the world. Providing yoga study and experiences in people-to-people understanding, James and Mary Dunn lead groups to such fascinating places as Cambodia, Bali, and Turkey through Yoga Out There.

A yoga practitioner of unusual integration and ability, James is featured in the Yoga Journal book Yoga, has appeared in the Yoga Journal Calendar, and has been interviewed for numerous articles in national magazines.  

Through rhythm and sequencing, James creates an experience of integration in his classes that is both challenging  and  sensitive to the subtler aspects of the practice.

Brooke Myers
Intermediate Junior III

Brooke Myers has studied yoga since 1973 and taught Iyengar Yoga since 1987. She has trained many times in India with the Iyengar family. Her primary teachers are Geeta Iyengar and Mary Dunn.

Brooke’s social conscience informs her teaching. “Yoga should be for everyone,” she says. “We have to make a real effort to go where the need is.” Her outreach efforts have taken her to psychiatric hospitals and a drug rehabilitation center. She co-taught the Institute’s HIV/AIDS class for many years.

Brooke has taught special classes for knee and back problems, depression, and menopause.

The spiritual aspect of Iyengar Yoga inspires her teaching style, which is simple, reverent, and aspiring. “To motivate people, you have to first give them the experience. I can’t talk to them about their breath or their inner self. I have to show them that if they learn to come back into their heels and lift their chest, they won’t feel so depressed. I have to find physical ways to show them spiritual and emotional states.”

Brooke’s previous career was in radical experimental dance and theater. Along with political causes, she is active in animal rescue.

“I’m still looking for ways to use yoga to bridge the gulf between all kinds of people,” she says. “It should be possible—one of the meanings of yoga is union.”

back to top