Christie Makanna was first introduced to yoga 20 years ago when she walked into one of Rodney Yee’s Iyengar classes in Oakland, CA. Coming from a dance background, she was immediately hooked on the practice’s focus on detail. She studied with Yee for five years until he moved to New York. She apprenticed with Alice Joanou, with a focus on Patanjali’s Sutras and the teachings of Krishnamacharya, and is currently a Baptiste certified teacher.

The Baptiste Journey into Power sequence has allowed Christie to connect fully with her students, while still focusing on alignment and breath and a deep respect for the philosophy and traditions behind it. 

She believes yoga is for everybody and it can be a steadying force in an unsteady world.  She wants her students to find their own strengths and connect to the deepest part of themselves in the process.  

 “Yoga has brought me back to myself over and over again,” says Christie, who traces her path to yoga back to her Berkeley childhood and an early exposure to the philosophical teachings of Trungpa Rinpoche and Meher Baba. 

“For me it’s almost an undoing so we can get in touch with ourselves and everything inside us, the divine, god, we’re not separate from any of that. I believe yoga has an incredible power. It raises us to a higher ground. That said it’s disruptive. Realizing one’s potential is not business as usual.”