Yoga Classes at Your Workplace
Have Barefoot Movement come to you for just $75 per one hour class.
- Scheduling minimum: one hour, once per week, for 2 months.
- We supply props (mats, blocks, and straps) to be kept at your location.
Give your employees a healthy perk!
If you are injured, pregnant (taking a non-prenatal class), or have any other other conditions, please inform the teacher before class begins. If you are already familiar with how to modify your practice or if would like assistance with that, let them know.
Class Instructors
Alicia Mandac
Alicia first came to yoga in 2008 for the fitness elements but stayed with the practice because of its ability to transform the soul from the inside out. Through yoga she has learned what self-compassion looks like, and more importantly what self-compassion feels like. Alicia decided to pursue teaching yoga as a way to help others learn how to be kinder to themselves and to cultivate a greater sense of mindfulness through the physical practice. She completed her 200-hour yoga teacher training in February 2018 at Almaden Yoga in San Jose under the instruction of Anuja Chaudhri. Alicia believes in slowing the practice down, teaching the asanas in an accessible way, and building a strong foundation on the mat. She is grateful for all of her yoga teachers, past and present, and honors them in every class she teaches.
Alicia Mandac
Bella Lindell
Bella took her first yoga class at a gym in San Francisco in the late 90’s in order to stretch after her long hours of running. Before long, Bella was practicing more yoga than running and began attending yoga lectures, workshops and retreats. Bella has practiced a variety of yoga disciplines on and off since 1997 with numerous Bay Area teachers. In 2010, Bella completed her 200 hour yoga teacher training at Barefoot Movement followed by a Prenatal Teacher Training with Cybele Tomlinson of The Berkeley Yoga Center. Her pregnancy and the birth of her baby in 2010 inspired a deeper, more inward focus in her own practice. This lead to her teaching primarily prenatal and restorative classes. More recently she has expanded again to add Hiking yoga, Kids/Family yoga and beginners’ classes. Her flow yoga classes have an Iyengar influence, with a strong focus on alignment and breath.
Bella Lindell
Emily Borthwick
Emily Borthwick
Emily, a native of Scotland, received her teaching qualifications with Leah Gillman and is a registered teacher with Yoga Alliance. Her career as a dancer and teacher of classical ballet drew her to the disciplines of Yoga but in particular Vinyasa Flow Yoga where the synchronization of the breath and movement come together giving your practice strength and fluidity. This is a prominent feature of Emily’s class along with emphasis on alignment and posture. In addition to teaching Yoga at Barefoot Movement Emily is a member of the faculty at Contra Costa Ballet Centre.
Gordon Jonas
Gordon came to yoga in 2008 as an athlete needing to limber up after years of skateboarding, playing basketball, and arbitrary growth spurts. He had only heard of yoga through the popular early 1990’s Nintendo game “Street Fighter,” which featured an Indian Yogi character named Dhalsim who could levitate, stretch his limbs to incredible proportions, and breathe fire. Gordon tried his first yoga class and was initially discouraged to find out that, tragically, he would likely never achieve such abilities.
He was, however, completely amazed by the effects of practicing Asana, and was immediately hooked. He has continued to explore many styles of yoga throughout the Bay Area’s wonderfully rich and diverse yoga community, while simultaneously practicing other movement arts, most notably the Indonesian martial art PGB White Crane Silat and bodyweight calisthenic conditioning. He teaches a Vinyasa flow-based class that is duly informed by knowledge accumulated from his other physical practices. Alignment, joint health, “relaxed strength,” and integrating breath with movement are all focal points of his class. He hopes to impart an aspect of yoga that he himself is most grateful for the relationship between mental and physical being becoming increasingly salient and vivid.
Gordon Jonas
Hanna Malm, talar svenska
Hanna Malm had taken yoga on and off for 15 years before the birth of her first child, Mia. That life changing event brought her deeper into yoga, and after the birth of her second child, Max she took the Barefoot Movement Flow Yoga Teacher Training. Once she completed her training, Hanna spent a year sailing in Mexico, living on her boat with her partner and two children. During that time, she sought out and found multiple teaching opportunities in different foreign ports, including getting studio time at cruiser clubs and marinas like Club Cruceros in La Paz and Marina Riviera Nayarit in La Cruz. She was lucky enough to be able to do yoga on deserted beaches with her children. Teaching yoga allows Hanna to share her experience with the practice: one that connects all aspects of self – body, mind, and breath – and that by connecting to oneself on a deeper level we also connect to the world around us in a more true way. It is her belief that incorporating the elements of yoga into daily life in small ways, even just taking the time to focus on breath for a moment or remembering posture, leads to a positive change in peoples lives. Hanna’s teaching style is encouraging, supportive, and honest, creating a space where you can get to know your body and expand its capabilities, a safe and grounded environment in which to grow and learn.
Hanna Malm
Henry Lu
Henry Lu
Hilary Near
Hilary has been a student of yoga since 2000 and strives to continually bring a beginner’s curiosity and open mind to every practice. Her classes cultivate each student’s personal practice while also connecting with the power of community. Also a committed meditator, Hilary believes in the importance of a grounded and consistent asana practice to prepare the body and mind for deeper and more easeful meditative inquiry. Hilary found a yoga home at Barefoot Movement in 2013. She completed the 250-hour Cultivate Your Practice and Teaching Skills training in 2016.
Hilary Near
Joivida Ross
Raised by a yoga teacher, Jovida was introduced to asanas at an early age. Contorting into shapes with animal names was a fun game as a child. Based on this early exposure she practiced asana and meditation casually through adolescence and college. As an adult she turned to yoga in the midst of personal and professional transitions and found healing as well as inspiration in the practice. Jovida found her yoga home at Barefoot Movement in 2010 after a number of years sampling a variety of yoga styles and teachers. She completed the Flow Yoga Teacher Training I in 2012, and earned the 500 hour certification through Barefoot Movement’s Flow Yoga Teacher Training II in early 2014. Her primary yoga influences are Leah Gillman‘s alignment-attentive vinyasa flow that incorporates insights from martial arts and dance; vigorous vinyasa teachers such as Stephanie Snyder and Naushon Kabat-Zinn; and practitioner training with Mark Horner, which she began in early 2014. Outside of her yoga practice, she shares her nonprofit management expertise as a consultant, trainer and coach with Movement Strategy Center, where she also practices 60-40 Stance, an applied mind-body technology that incorporates aspects of Mu-i Tai Ji Zen, developed by Norma Wong of the Institute of Applied Zen.
Jovida Ross
Kara Contreary
Kara believes in developing a solid foundation in each asana, and then being adventurous. She encourages building an awareness of the body’s position in space and the relationship between engagement and relaxation that allows the pose to take shape. Every body is unique and ever-changing, and yoga allows for observing and respecting the present while confidently exploring the body’s potential. Kara came to yoga after a lifetime of sports that focused on strength and speed; yoga has provided patience, humility, and a sense of wonder about the human body. Her style allows time to find and feel the poses, with plenty of opportunities to explore.
Kara Contreary
Karen Johnson
In 1980 Karen used crutches to walk into to her first yoga class. It was a great type of physical therapy that led her to a career in barefoot movement and modern dance. She studied at Cal State University Long Beach, winning a Dance Magazine award and an A.D.F. national title. After leaving Los Angeles to live in the Bay Area, she received her degree in the LEAP program at St. Mary’s College then studied with Leah Gillman in her first flow yoga teacher training. Karen loves the way yoga allows the mind to find itself inside the body, awakening the physical to allow the practice of mindfulness and the letting go of judgment. Her classes honor the moments between asanas as opportunities to deepen the breath and be fully in each moment. She connects the poses in a playful manner with the goal to guide others through their journeys in a non-intimidating and fun environment. When Karen isn’t practicing inversions and half moons she is happy making messes as an art teacher at Lakeview Preschool and Redwood Day School.
Karen Johnson
Katie Issel Pitre
Katie first came to yoga as a dancer in high school and the two practices have been intertwined for her ever since. Having moved to New York to peruse dance training she found Yoga to be the best way to balance output and input - creatively, energetically and spatially. Yoga became her main physical expression after injuries limited mobility. This opportunity to meet her body in a compassionate rather than competitive practice framed her movement practice from then on. With an intense drive for physical challenge she sought the teachings from Jivamukti Yoga Vinyasa, Dharma Mitra Hatha and supplementing it with strength based training from the Modern and Ballet dance techniques. She brings this movement vocabulary into her yoga classes. Having birthed both of her sons at home she has a personal knowledge of the whole birth process. She feels honored to teach prenatal yoga to expecting women and to share a part of their journey to motherhood. She received her pre and post natal teacher training from Cybele Tomlinson at Barefoot Movement Spring 2016.
Katie Issel Pitre
Leah Curran
Leah is a North Dakota native who transplanted to the Bay Area via Montana. She came to yoga in college as a supplement to her training in ballet and modern dance, and has continued to find benefits of regular yoga practice in her professional dance career. The past few years she has enjoyed deepening her practice and discovering the benefits of yoga in all aspects of life, which has led her to find ways of sharing these benefits with others. She offers creative classes that engage the full body and breath, incorporate elements of her dance and somatic training, and are accessible and fun for all bodies.
Leah completed pre and post-natal training through Barefoot Movement and has many years of experience in teaching dance and movement for all ages. When not in the yoga studio, Leah works as the Director of Operations of Oakland Ballet Company and is most likely to be found in the dance studio rehearsing for an upcoming performance or exploring Oakland via bike.
Leah Curran
Leah Gillman
Leah Gillman is the founder and director of Barefoot Movement. She began using the name, ‘Barefoot Movement’ in 2004 to encompass her yoga teaching as well as her Barefoot Bodywork practice (a form of massage where the practitioner uses her feet to work on the client’s body). In 2010, Leah opened the brick and mortar version of Barefoot Movement and a few years later remodeled and expanded the space.
Leah has focused practices in: Ashiatsu (a.k.a. Barefoot Shiatsu), from which Barefoot Bodywork was developed, with Edward Spencer since 2000; in White Crane Silat, a form of Indonesian kung fu since 2008; and in yoga with Mark Horner since 2010. In her earlier years, Leah pursued a career in modern dance and choreography. She began practicing yoga in 1994 and in 1999 she began teaching yoga classes and studying massage. She began teaching Barefoot Bodywork in 2006 and training new yoga teachers in 2008.
Leah’s Flow Yoga classes have evolved to include elements from kung fu and dance to better prepare the body for traditional yoga asana and life in general. Her classes take students into a clearer state of physical and mental awareness while expanding their capabilities. For beginners, the focus is on the gross-level placement and movements of the practitioner. Over time, as the blueprint of the method becomes increasingly inherent, the practice shifts toward more subtlety and receptivity. Leah lives in Berkeley with her two, delightful, teenage daughters, Naomi and Olivia.
Leah Gillman
Leonora Willis
Leonora Willis established her connection to Yoga during a major transition in her life. During this time, Yoga provided an anchor to secure her, as well as the sails to help her move through life with grace. This experience fueled her desire to become a Yoga instructor, not only to enhance her own continued Yoga practice, but also to help others move through the every day and unexpected transitions of life with awareness, strength and flexibility. Leonora recognizes individual students’ needs and knowledgeably meets those needs in a myriad of ways: with helpful guiding directions, hands-on adjustments, keen Vinyasa sequences. Leonora teaches Yoga classes in the Vinyasa Flow Style, which links the breath to the body’s movement, not only within a pose, but also in the transitions between poses, thus moving students through sequences that challenge the body, aiming to balance mind and spirit. In a Yoga class with Leonora, students are physically challenged while also feeling a sense of being nurtured, safe and supported, which encourages the connection between body and mind, self and universe. By incorporating pranayama, meditation and chanting, Leonora provides her yoga students with a balanced practice that fuels and reenergizes the mind, body and spirit.
Leonora Willis
Lita D'Acunto
Lita D’Acunto
Mary Beth Ray
Mary Beth (MB) has been exploring yoga as both a philosophy and physical practice since the early 1990s. Over the years she has practiced various styles of yoga and continues to study yoga philosophy and related arts and sciences with wonderful teachers from India and the West. Since 2006 her personal practice has been focused on the Ashtanga Vinyasa system in the self-paced Mysore style of Sri. K. Pattabhi Jois. She currently studies with local teacher Adam Rumack and takes workshops and intensives with other senior Ashtanga teachers from around the world. She has been teaching since 2009 and is registered through Yoga Alliance E-RYT500, and YACEP.
As a teacher MB shares yoga as a day-by-day, moment-by-moment practice of tuning your awareness to the presence and quality of your breath. In her classes she guides you with subtle alignment cues, gentle hands-on adjustments, and suggested modifications that will help you develop your own inner and outer strength and flexibility. Practicing with MB you will hone a healthy balance between effort and ease and discover a more graceful engagement with your everyday life.
Mary Beth Ray
Natalie Russell, se habla espanol
Natalie began practicing yoga as a 16-year-old high school athlete. Yoga was a way to maintain strong muscles, decrease risk of injury, and increase endurance by learning more effective ways of breathing. In fact, she still uses yoga for all of those things, but over the years yoga has become so much more. For Natalie, yoga has become a method of self-exploration in addition to providing a framework for tackling life’s twists and turns. She has traveled to Costa Rica, India, and Thailand with her mat and has had the privilege of practicing under the guidance of several talented teachers. Her classes combine vigor and playfulness with the intention of providing a space for each student to meet their edge.
Natalie empezó a estudiar el yoga a los dieciseis años. Durante ese tiempo, era una atleta y yoga fue una manera en que pudiera mantener los musculos fuertes, reducir el riesgo de lastimarse, y aumentar su resistencia a propósito de respirar más profundamente. De hecho, el yoga todavía la ayuda a hacer todas estas cosas, pero a través de los años también se a convirtido a ser muchísimo más. Para ella, yoga ha sido un método de autoexploración y también le dió una esquema para superar los giros y vueltas de la vida. Ella ha viajado con su mat a Costa Rica, la India, y Tailandia y ha tocado la privilegia de practicar bajo la dirección de una variedad de instructores talentosos. Sus clases combinan el vigor y la jugueteo con el intent de proveer un especio en que cada uno puede enfrentar sus límites.
Natalie Russell
Rikki Tan
Rikki Tan
Rikki was first drawen to yoga in her early 20s, through the sprinkle of classes offered at her university and the local gym in her small LA suburban hometown. Coming from an extremely competitive athletic and academic background, yoga provided a refreshing change in pace and mindset, as well as an opportunity to more deeply explore her own spirituality. Since graduating and moving to the Bay Area, yoga has become an integral part of her life, providing her immense solace, introspection and strength during hard and happy times alike. Rikki intends to bring the same compassion, patience and playful curiosity to nourish her students’ yoga practices and daily lives as teacher have done for her in the past.
Tako Oda
Tako Oda
Tako Oda took up asana yoga to support his martial arts and meditation habits about a decade ago, and found vinyasa yoga in particular was helpful in developing flexibility and connection to the breath. As his yoga practice grew, less tangible benefits became evident in other facets of his life such as singing, teaching, parenting, and well… living. Tako began to view asana yoga as a practice in itself — one that has made a (tiny) dent in his overactive monkey mind.
Yoga in Tako’s class emphasizes journey over destination. He believes falling over during challenging poses holds as much value as sticking them, and is arguably more fun. Come prepared to engage your practice with a playful curiosity.