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Our Teachers
At Vessel Studios we aim to hire instructors 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
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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
Judy Romelien
Yoga + Meditation Teacher
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.
Meera Sarathy
Yoga + Meditation Teacher
Born and raised in Queens , Judy grew up with a movement background. Studying multiple styles of dance from the age of 5 up until college, Judy has a profound love for music and its connection with movement. She received her 200 hour vinyasa teaching training in the beginning of 2021. You will find a wide variety of music in her classes accompanied by a dance flow style of yoga . As a teacher, she strives to guide people to linking their minds and bodies through their practice while also connecting their movement to music.
I believe wholeheartedly that all people have the right to bodily autonomy, improved health, wellness and equity. This mission has brought me to my training in yoga, public health and reproductive justice. I completed my RYT-200 in 2021 at aUM Yoga in Ann Arbor, MI and am so excited to build my practice in Brooklyn! My signature classes combine hatha and vinyasa lineages for a slow flow that builds strength, mobility, and body awareness. My goal is for practitioners to feel safe, comfortable, and grounded in their bodies, on and off the mat.
Kelsey Block
Yoga + Meditation Teacher
My yoga journey started when I was looking for a gentler, more creative form of movement after several years of intense weightlifting. I received my 200 hours from Heatwise Yoga in 2020 and feel so grateful to be apart of the yoga community in New York. I view yoga as an active meditation and incorporate mobility, vinyasa and restorative (and some amateur comedy) in my classes. It’s important to me that my students feel like they belong in class no matter their shape, size, or ability. When I’m not teaching, you can find me in Prospect Park, reading, or with my cat children.
I am a Crown Heights-based Pilates instructor and dance artist. I have been teaching movement for over a decade and hold Pilates certifications from the Kane School and East River Pilates, as well as a BA with Highest Honors in Dance from Smith College. As a facilitator, my job is to listen, collaborate with, and support you. In my classes, we will get moving, revitalizing your relationship with your body by deepening your awareness and knowledge of self. My classes are both sweaty and contemplative. Clients often describe me as intuitive, empathic, empowering, fun, and grounding.
Sofia Engelman
Pilates Instructor
