What We Do
Asana at your own pace
Perched on the second floor of a heritage building in Victoria’s Chinatown district, Ashtanga Yoga Victoria is the city’s longest standing yoga community, and the only Victoria yoga studio delivering a full schedule of traditional Ashtanga and the sought-after Mysore Method. Our classical program is supplemented by contemporary vinyasa classes and educational workshops. Our new location (2022) was custom-renovated offering everything you need for practice – a clean, bright and open practice space, sunlight quality lighting, eco-friendly cork floors, showers with purified water, change rooms and gender neutral toilets.
With the most experienced teachers in Victoria and one-on-one guidance, you’ll flow through asanas at your own pace and experience true transformation with every yoga class.
Why Ashtanga Yoga Victoria?
Find your people
Walk up the stairs of Ashtanga Yoga Victoria, and feel at home: this is your space. We are an inclusive community welcoming all ages, genders, abilities and body types. We foster a safe space where you can practice with the support of your teachers and peers. We listen and guide your every posture. Physically, mentally and spiritually, this is where you’re supported to make magic happen.
Our Teachers
Meet your teachers
Arielle
Arielle
Specialties
Mysore Method, Fascial Science, Somatics, Biomechanics, Pranayama
Arielle is the lead teacher and former owner of Ashtanga Yoga Victoria. After completing a degree in Exercise Science, Arielle spent 15 years training professional athletes, running fitness centers and leading a yoga school in Asia. She says balancing her life as a studio owner, yoga teacher, teacher trainer, international presenter and mom of twins, has been made possible by the clarity, discipline and stamina gained through 15 years as a dedicated Ashtanga Yoga practitioner. Arielle has seen the system help thousands of students and knows it has the ability to make a positive change in people when practiced consistently and intelligently with self-compassion.
She has been blessed with the opportunity to spend significant time of study over 18 years with senior teachers Richard Freeman, Paul Dallaghan and Sri OP Tiwari and has made several trips to Mysore, India, the source of Ashtanga Yoga to practice with Paramaguru R. Sharath Jois. Because of that, her teaching is a clear example of East meets West. She highly regards tradition and respects the roots of practice and the true purpose of yoga as a tool of self-understanding. At the same time, she applies latest scientific understandings of human function and what is practical for the modern student of yoga.
Having been at the respected E-RYT500 level for nearly 15 years, and teaching movement professionals for 20, Arielle teaches continuing education courses for yoga teachers, focusing on yoga anatomy, fascial integration, Somatic movement, Prenatal yoga, and adjustment techniques. She has a keen interest in the effect of asana on the nervous system, which is the focus of her thesis research at the University of Victoria.
Arielle carries yoga off the mat as a mother of school aged twins.
Kimber
Kimber
Specialties
Mysore, Vinyasa, Beginners
Kimber first found yoga through injury. After she completed 6 months of hiking the Appalachian Trail in 2007, she was pleasantly surprised that she could not only heal her body through the practice, but that she could also find the same peace she could find while hiking mountains through asana.
Kimber did her teacher training in 2011 in Thailand studying Ashtanga Vinyasa with Larry Schultz based.
Kimber has spent many years traveling between the US and Canada studying many styles of Vinyasa and teaching both in the US and Canada.
It wasn’t until Kimber came to Ashtanga Yoga Victoria that she really started feeling passionate about staying true to the Ashtanga lineage and the tradition of the practice. She loves the Mysore method and couldn’t imagine life without it.
Kimber is the new owner of AYVic and looks forwards to the expansion of the community.
Max
Max
Specialties
Beginners, Meditation, Chakra Balancing
For many years, Max explored a variety of yoga practices across four continents with a particular focus on Bikram Yoga. His personal healing journey eventually brought him to Ashtanga where he began to understand and embrace yoga as a multi-faceted way of living that goes far beyond a movement practice.
For Max, yoga can be a path to remembering our innate wholeness, an antidote to the commonly held concepts of being broken and requiring fixing. This philosophy is reflected in his personal practice as well as his teaching style; always approaching yoga as life itself rather than a fix to a problem.
As an AYVic teacher training graduate, Max has had the opportunity and honor to learn from inspiring teachers, such as Arielle Nash, Richard Freeman, Mary Taylor and Jeff Lichty.
Off the mat, Max is an energy medicine practitioner with a keen interest in the chakras and methodologies to balance these energy centers for sustainable health and wellbeing. Please see his website for more information. [https://www.wholistic.guide]
Michele
Michele
Specialties
Ashtanga, Vinyasa, Mysore, Yin
Michele is a dedicated daily practitioner with over 10 years experience as a teacher. She has immersed herself in the traditional Ashtanga Yoga system for the past 7. Michele’s approach to yoga is rooted in the belief that the practice should be accessible and inclusive for everyone, regardless of age, ability, or background.
Michele believes that yoga is a transformative practice that goes beyond physical fitness, offering a path to self-discovery and spiritual growth. Her classes are characterized by a safe and supportive environment where students are encouraged to explore their own limits and progress at their own pace.
In addition to teaching, Michele attends workshops, festivals, and retreats to continue her education. When Michele is not teaching, she can be found practicing yoga, crafting, and spending time with her family.
With a warm and nurturing presence, Michele welcomes you to the mat and invites you to explore the transformative power of yoga. She is passionate about sharing the benefits of yoga with others and helping students cultivate a lifelong practice that enhances their well-being and connects them to their true nature..
Michele has completed the 20-hour foundational training in Trauma Sensitive Yoga with the Centre for Trauma and Embodiment
Carolyn
Carolyn
Specialties
Mysore, Flow
Rachel
Rachel
Specialties
Ashtanga, Mysore, Advanced
Rachel became a dedicated daily practitioner shortly after she was introduced to Ashtanga yoga in 2000. She began teaching the method throughout Victoria in 2001, placing her among the most experienced yoga teachers in the city.
From 2009 to 2015, she was blessed to teach with and be a student of Jeff Lichty and Harmony Slater at AYVic. Always passionate about expanding her practice and her understanding of yoga, Rachel has made five trips to India to study intensively with R. Sharath Jois and Sharmila Desai. In 2017, her intense dedication to the practice resulted in official authorization to teach directly from R. Sharath Jois. In recent years, she has also developed a profound relationship with her mentor and Certified Ashtanga teacher, Angela Jamison.
Rachel’s approach is simultaneously traditional and light-hearted. She takes seriously the classical Ashtanga system, but ensures that all students approach yoga in a way that is safe, accessible, joyful, and appropriate to their own abilities and interests. Her commitment is to showing students that a disciplined practice is both inherently rewarding and also a way to deepen one’s physical and spiritual life.
Ash
Ash
Specialties
Beginners, Led Ashtanga, Slow Flow
Ash (she/her), who also goes by Ash, is an RYT-200 in Ashtanga Yoga Foundations, as well as an artist, daughter and auntie who has been practicing yoga for 14+ years. Starting her yoga journey in high school thanks to the vision of a wise teacher, Ash aspires to follow in those footsteps and create a supportive pathway for individuals to begin their own yoga journey. She has been through all the stages of grit, give-up, consistency, and resiliency that yoga practice brings up and can happily share a story or two! With a special love for Ashtanga Vinyasa and the do-it-yourself methodology that this lineage inspires, she also finds solace in the slower, more restorative flows that support the activation of the parasympathetic nervous system. Especially when life throws you curve-balls! Sweat or slow down, come feel the growth with Ash.
Branden
Branden
Specialties
Vinyasa, Yin
Branden’s journey into yoga began 9 years while he was playing competitive hockey. What started as a way to develop greater physical mobility, has grown into a practice that has helped him to deepen his connection with the sacred.
Branden is a dedicated student. He maintains a regular practice, has taken multiple yoga trainings including Ashtanga Yoga Victoria’s Foundational Training with Arielle and Paul. Since then, he has taught extensively in Victoria and Saskatoon, operated a studio in Saskatchewan, and assisted a Yin Yoga teacher training.
His intention as a teacher is to make yoga accessible, fun, challenging, and transformative. He encourages students to use the postural practice as a bridge to integrating yogic philosophy and their connection to the sacred, into their daily life.
Currently studying acupuncture at Pacific Rim College, Branden is excited to be back in Victoria teaching yoga and enjoying all the outdoor adventures Vancouver Island has to offer.
Holly
Holly
Specialties
Prenatal, Restorative, Yin, Kundalini
Holly has been enjoying the benefits of body-mind wellness from Ashtanga and Yin yoga since 2009. She jumped into taking her first teacher training immediately, with a passion to better understand the system and philosophy, as well as a desire to share these ancient technologies with others.
Facsinated by the healing that comes from the mind-body-breath connection, she began the Yoga Therapy program at Pacific Rim College in 2011 and went on to study Thai Yoga Massage.
By 2014 Holly was ready for Mysore, India, where she immersed herself in the traditional Ashtanga practice with Saraswati Jois. In addition, she has been blessed to study with many gifted teachers during her year of travels in India, Thailand, Bali, and Australia.
She became Prenatal Yoga Certified during her own pregnancy in 2017 and it has been her passion ever since to empower women on the motherhood journey. She can’t imagine a life without yoga and is humbled by the growth and healing that she sees in students, as well as continues to unfold in her own life.
Holly is grateful to feel nourished by her practice so she can bring her authentic self forwards with clarity, compassion and strength in her teaching, her massage practice and as a new mother.
