Our Teachers

At Vessel Studios we aim to have not only hire highly qualified instructors, but teachers that bring something special to the table. Vessel studios is a place to grow in your physical practice, and also grow mentally and spiritually. Our teachers reflect these ethos but bring real life experience, fun and joy into their classes to nourish all aspects of the practice.   

Riki Rosenthal

 Founder & Yoga Teacher

My yoga practices started in 2009. I was obsessed from day one but never felt like I was good enough become a teacher. Fast forward 13 years and one Master degree in Chinese Medicine later, I decided to get my official training with The Sacred Fig in early 2020. I started my teaching career on zoom and eventually created a micro yoga studio for woman in my home in Crown heights. We grew so much that during our second year I opened Vessel Studios to accommodate more students. ​If I had to sum up my teaching style in a word it would be: Embodied. I blend vinyasa with mobility, strength building and kundalini meditations because I believe all those elements make a yoga practice feel like magic.​I feel influenced by books like “The body keep the score” and teachers like Navine from Katonah yoga that have taught me how your past is stored in the body and it’s up to us to use movement as medicine. That this will release and change our chemistry to create a better world both internally and externally.My yoga teaching is not dogmatic. It’s meant to inspire, make women feel their best self on multiple planes of existence. 

Ahmed Soliman

Yoga + Meditation Teacher

Hi, I’m Ahmed Soliman. My life events aligned in a way that has developed a very deep passion in me for the practice of yoga and all it has to offer us. I share my passion for yoga with the world so that each individual may experience the healing properties this practice has to offer through the teaching techniques that I have mastered over the years. I am a continuing student of Iyengar yoga, vinyasa, and meditation. I am an Experienced Registered Yoga Teacher (ERYT-200) and a Registered Yoga School (RYS-200) yoga alliance certified teacher with additional specialized training in anatomy, meditation, and yoga nidra. I seek for every student to emerge from practice with me with a deeper understanding of his or her own body. In class, I often say "as you are." I say it in a wide variety of contexts, but at its core, it means that whatever physical or emotional energy you bring to practice on any given day, let's work with that together.

Shayna Denburg

Yoga + Meditation Teacher

My interest in yoga was sparked by my grandmother who started yoga in her 60s. She is my inspiration. I started practicing on my own as a young adult and soon after knew I would teach. I eventually found the training that worked for me and learned under kineretyoga in Israel. As I’ve taught my practice and teaching has evolved. Currently I would describe my classes as a mix of focused alignment and meditative body awareness. I love the opportunity that yoga provides to integrate mind, body and the presence. I aim to teach in a way that is spacious enough to hold the given moment and everything in it.

I love movement — all of it — from the rehearsed steps of a ballet dancer to the proud strut of a New York pigeon. Growing up, I took my first dance classes in a volunteer firehouse and never stopped. After more than 20 years studying ballet as well as contemporary forms of dance, including Ohad Naharin's movement language Gaga, I found yoga. I'm beyond grateful for this practice and love sharing its transformative and healing powers. I recently graduated from the Sky Ting teacher training program, which draws on elements of Vinyasa, Hatha, as well as Katonah yoga. As a teacher, I look to nature, literature, and art to create imaginative sequences that balance effort and grace. Think: heat-building postures, breathwork, and restorative cool downs. I strive to create a safe and welcoming environment so we can meet ourselves where we are, on and off the mat. 

Carlene Olsen

Yoga + Meditation Teacher

Natalie Birnbuam

Yoga + Meditation Teacher

Natalie is a soulful vinyasa yoga teacher born and raised in New York. She completed her 200-hour teacher training in NYC following the Bhakti tradition in May 2018 and has taught in studios and retreats throughout Tel Aviv and NYC. She is certified in Reiki level I and Ayurvedic Counseling. Her classes focus on synthesizing alignment, breath, and strength in order to nurture and restore the natural power and intuitive force within our bodies. Her teaching style is nurturing yet fierce and always creative. Natalie invites the individual to artistically express their thoughts, bodies, and minds in order to live in full vitality. She seeks to create a space where students at all levels can feel safe to explore the spirit-mind-body connection.  

Leah Yassky

Yoga + Meditation Teacher

Always moving, Leah began dancing and practicing yoga at a young age. In high school, she did work-study with her teacher Gemma Farrell at Gratitude Yoga in Princeton, NJ. She went on to study dance at Oberlin College with a focus on contemporary choreography. Leah received her 200-hour at Sky Ting (NYC), which opened her to a rich community of practitioners that she continues to learn beside. She loves to share intentional, well-crafted sequences to cultivate mystical, imaginative space through breath. Leah lives in Crown Heights, plays Mahjong on her roof, and plays the theremin. 

Brianna Carallo

Yoga + Meditation Teacher

Brianna has always had a passion for movement and wellness. She/they loves to help people connect with their bodies and breath through mindful yogic practices. For her, yoga helps create a space of openness and vulnerability within the body, mind and soul - without judgment. Brianna believes that intentional movement and breathing is medicinal, as it awakens the mind and transcends beyond the physical. They encourage each student to embrace where they are in their practice and to love themselves fully. Yoga is unity, is love, is for all people!