Yoga Co, Santa Monica Yoga, Power Yoga Studio

April Ritchey, Anusara-Inspired teacher, RYT

In the summer of 1998, a friend took April to a little yoga studio in an old converted elementary school in Scottsdale, Arizona. The teacher was warm and bubbly with an insatiable laugh and smile. Her light was so radiant and heart so open that she wanted to know more about her and her yoga. She kept returning to a weekly class and then wandered into a three hour advanced teacher’s class where she watched mostly, trying to do what ever she could. Most of her understanding came from watching her teacher move and contort, always amazed by her radiance. Desiring to have this lightness in her heart, she began her path, not knowing why, just knowing there was something in this yoga that was calling her toward this indescribable thing. Later, she met her teacher's teacher, John Friend, one evening at a workshop in Scottsdale. Before, she would only hear stories of John’s workshops and gatherings in Tucson. She’d see the preparation for his presence and see the aftereffects as well as feel the energy of their experience. Then her heart called out to what it wanted: yoga trainings, workshops, and teaching. Next a baby arrived in the middle of her own birth as a teacher, and with her husband’s expanding career, she moved to Maryland. She landed near Tacoma Park and an Anusara kula where she found form to her understanding of this yoga. With every pose that her Arizona teacher preformed etched in her brain, she learned how to better define the method in words, let go of her attachment to the past, and opened up to a new understanding of Anusara’s of Principles of Alignment. When she flew to Tucson for an advanced level teacher training, she was unprepared for the experience of spending a week with John Friend.  She had never expected to feel a powerful connection to his teachings. From this experience, a new awakening strengthened her sense of purpose to bring healing to others.  Many more workshops with John, and lots of home study while her baby napped, she grew deeper into tantric philosophy and its connection to Anusara yoga. Today, April specializes in prenatal and therapeutic yoga and is currently a student of alternative healing systems.  She believes that yoga is about a deep connection to oneself and how that connection is in constant relationship to others. She has deep unyielding gratitude for all her teachers as well as her students who have taught her how to listen to her heart.