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

My yoga practices started in 2009. I was obsessed from day one but never felt like I was good enough to become a teacher. Fast forward 13 years and one Masters degree in Chinese Medicine later, I decided to pursue a teacher training with The Sacred Fig in early 2020. I started my teaching career on Zoom and eventually created a micro yoga studio for women 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 each element makes yoga feel like magic.I feel influenced by books like “The Body Keep the Score” and teachers like Nevine Michaan of 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, which 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, and make women feel their best self on multiple planes of existence.

Dia Dearstyle

Yoga + Pre-Postnatal Teacher

As a teacher my #1 goal is to hold space for every single person who wants to practice yoga, no matter their circumstance. In each class I provide a warm and inviting experience that honors emotional and physical safety while offering creative, alignment-based flow sequencing. And I hope that my teaching communicates that though Yoga is a disciplined practice worthy of reverence, there is also space for silliness and fun. We combine effort with ease in our physical practice, and also in our minds and hearts.

I recently moved back to Brooklyn, NY from the Hudson Valley with my husband, visual artist Benjamin Dearstyne Hoste, our sweet new daughter, and all our house plants!

Rachel Sherman

Yoga + Meditation Teacher

After Rachel’s first savasana at the age of 18 she felt like she had more space in her head and knew there was something magical to yoga. As she slowly grew her confidence in her practice, she became more courageous and confident in other areas of her life. From this place of using asana to look within, she aims to create sequences that are intelligent, dynamic, and accessible. Her classes draw from her experiences as a student in Vinyasa, Mysore Ashtanga and Katonah lineages. She hopes to inspire compassionate movement as a joyful conversation with the body, a sound blueprint for the mind. Over a decade later, it still feels like magic.

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 was first introduced to Pilates at a physical therapist’s office in high school. I had just dislocated a hip at a track meet and discovered that my injury was directly tied to a lack of core strength. Over the years, I kept up with the PT regime for injury prevention, but in 2018, Pilates took on a whole new meaning for me when I discovered the reformer. After taking more than 100 classes as a student, I signed up for teacher training because I wanted to learn how to build booty-kicking workouts that combined muscle burnout, balance work and flexibility. When I moved to NYC and left my Method reformer community behind, I built a mat workout that I could virtually teach Texas clients who still wanted to feel the addicting burn of my reformer classes from thousands of miles away. My mat classes can be described as 60 minutes of beat-driven empowerment that instills in clients a mind-body connection that (1) increases efficiency of muscular movement so you learn how to create a big burn from a tiny move, (2) heightens body awareness so you better understand your body and its daily limits/needs, and (3) engages your body & mind so you leave each class feeling strengthened, uplifted and supported.

Caitlin Rondina

Pilates Instructor