Uma Dinsmore-Tuli first met yoga when she was four years old: she fell in love, and has been practicing ever since. Her especial passion is deeply nurturing, revitalising yoga that’s accessible to everyone, particularly Total Yoga Nidra and juicy meditative flows and restorative poses. She’s trained over one thousand specialist teachers and yoga therapists in nourishing yoga, and has written four books on yoga and women’s health, including the massive new women’s yoga bible Yoni Shakti - a woman’s guide to power and freedom through yoga and tantra. Uma teaches all over the world, sharing Total Yoga Nidra and Yoni Shakti practices in trainings and retreats from Moscow to San Francisco and from Rekjavik to Lesvos. In 2005 she co-created Santosa yoga camp with her friend and colleague Amanda Brown.

Yoli Maya Yeh is a Yoga & Shiatsu Therapist (AOBTA, VYASA, Yoga for the Special Child) and an Educator in Comparative Religions and Global Studies (MA Comparative Religious Ethics). Raised in her family's Native American spiritual teachings, Yoli spent twelve years of her young adulthood studying language, yoga, tantra, healing arts and meditation in India. A native of Chicago, she blends her understandings of Indigenous wisdom teachings, mind-body science, yogic discipline, and play into innovative learning programs for all ages and abilities. @yoliyogini

I let babies teach me about yoga, and help parents to relax 💛

I have been a Birthlight baby and toddler yoga teacher for 9 years. I also teach baby massage , pregnancy yoga, postnatal yoga and Hatha Yoga. I trained with Tara Fraser (British Wheel of Yoga)
I first met Uma when i was 41 weeks pregnant with my first baby; she and her Brother will be at the camp with me, for our 6th Santosa.

Jai Mā !

Vandita is a social and environmental advocate with a passion for protecting indigenous rights and rediscovering the traditions of this land. In 2006 she found her spiritual teacher, Amma, who gave her the heart opening opportunity to change the world from within.  As part of her ongoing journey, she helps to spread Amma’s message of love and service through Satsangs, organising Amma’s UK visit and sharing sacred songs and ceremony throughout the UK. After time living and working with a community in the Amazon in Ecuador, she is on an evolving path of sacred activism, balancing the inner and outer worlds to create change and a positive impact in the world.

She will be offering a water blessing and discussion on Sacred Activism.

I first trained to teach strong, alignment based yoga, but followed my heart into the arts of shakti-honouring with teachers of Dru, Bihar and Womb yoga to become a yogic nomad. I specialise in yoga that celebrates diversity, deep relaxation and connections to the natural world within and without. At Santosa this year I'll be part of Team 'Nidra. I'll also be sharing a little Wild Yoga - yoga, groupwork and bodywork techniques informed by my own spiritual practices, including druidry, dance, ritual and spirit journeying; and also sharing my ongoing PhD research into alternative and radical yoga. Join me on the wild side.

REFLEX YOGA is a new unique style of Yoga specifically designed to target the Body-Brain neurological, physical and emotional connections. It is a powerful art of movement that gets to the root of all pattern making and pattern breaking, with its fusion of calming restoring Hatha/Kashmir Yoga flow and a range of subtly dynamic Neuro-Sensory movements that have been proved to help children and adults with all types of conditions.Some being:- ADHD- OCD- ASD- Stroke recovery- Anxiety - Sleep disorders- Depression- Learning or developmental difficulties- low muscle tone - Motor-coordination difficulties, and the list could go on……………….

VERONIKA: A teacher with extensive experience, Veronika frequently encounters people who do not respond in the usual way to asana/breath. Questions answered will be: what is the Primitive Reflex system, why we treat it; how significant our Body-Brain connections are to overall health/well-being; how this can lead to certain types of behaviours/addictions and how powerful this method is breaking physical patterns. - A brief Bio: I began my teaching in Reading Leisure Centre, I then taught in and around Reading for 7 years. I moved to London for a year and learnt Ashtanga Yoga before deciding to quit the city for the quiet life of the Herefordshire countryside where I have been teaching and bringing up my family ever since. I now have 16 years teaching experience and have also retrained in a less well known technique called Hatha Kashmir Yoga. I now also work with Yoga4Autsim and have been developing Reflex Yoga from the work in this field.

Cryn came to yoga at the age of 50, feeling, old, stiff and arthritic. The practice has transformed her life.

Although Cryn started by learning within the lineage of Pathabhi Jois and B K S Iyengar, she has since learned to trust her own intuition rather than follow a prescriptive method. This lead to an initial teacher training with the Inner Yoga Trust (500hrs), graduating in 2008. In the following years she has broadened her offerings to include Womb Yoga, Yoga Nidra, Therapeutic Yoga, Restorative Yoga, and Yoga for PTSD, often consolidating her training with assisting on a subsequent course.

Cryn uses her background in making costumes and her ongoing exploration of anatomy to help ‘read’ the bodies of those in front of her in class. She continues to learn – and agrees with the statements that ‘rest is radical’ and that very often ‘less is more’.

I have been practicing yoga for about twenty four years and teaching for the last eleven. When I first started yoga it was just a class I would go to. It made me feel good, which is why I kept with it - but at the time I didn’t feel the need to take it any further. Pregnancy brought me much more in touch with my body and so it was when I became pregnant with my first child Louis, that my yoga deepened. I began doing yoga every day which I believe helped me through labour and birth. Then a wonderful teacher training course in the tradition of Vanda Scaravelli came along. I chose this course quite by chance - not because of Scaravelli - but because I now had a baby whose needs I wanted to meet and it fitted in with this. As luck would have it the course was just perfect for me. I still miss it now.... The two course leaders Marilyn Freedman and Rosamunde Jordan taught us with a great openness which gave everyone the skills to teach in their own unique way. What I found lovely and has stayed with me in my teaching is the time allowed within the postures and an easiness and playfulness within them. Yoga can be so accessible and with care (and most cases!) very safe to practice. It stimulates the immune system, balances hormones and above all creates a sense of wellbeing. Even if you do just five minutes twice a day (of course more would be great!) after a while it would make you feel really good. The journey of yoga lasts a lifetime and with each breath there opens up infinite possibilities of which path to follow and yet when it comes down to it, yoga can be so simple...

After a challenging period in my life, I found yoga as a transformative spiritual, physical and devotional practice, finding balance and bringing strength, confidence and energy into my life. As a teacher, I am keen to share this with my students. I believe yoga is beneficial for all people on a physical, mental and emotional level as a therapeutic and healing practice. My classes focus on flowing breath and physical postures together to create a moving meditation, entering, energising and uplifting. After spending a few years teaching locally in Stroud, I have spent the last couple of years teaching and practicing abroad in Bali, Thailand and Mexico.

Dynamic Vinyasa Flow is a flowing practice with strong energy focusing on combining breath with asana to create a moving meditation. Beginning with Sun Salutations, flowing through a sequence of postures including twists, balances and forward bends and finishing with a deep relaxation. A perfect way to fire yourself up before breakfast!

Mel's love for Yoga came from a desire for a spiritual as well as physical practice coming from a background of institutionalised dance training but missing a deeper connection to life. She found a strong connection to the Shamanic roots of Yoga from training, living and teaching in Costa Rica, particularly in understanding ourselves as deeply connected to nature and practicing to explore the relationship between the energetic, mental and physical human body to guide us towards living to our full potential. Her practice and teachings developed to be an offering with great reverence and gratitude to the force of unconditional love that is know as Source/God/Goddess/Mother Nature and many other names. Whilst offering a broad range of Yoga styles within schools, hospitals and community centres she has always been fascinated with Therapeutic Yoga. A great joy of Mel’s is sharing Yoga with children with Autism and ADHD and seeing first hand the incredible effects Yoga has on soothing the nervous system, organising the vestibular, proprioceptive, sensory processing and kinaesthetic systems, developing inter-hemispheric communication of the brain plus so many more physical and mental benefits!

Her offerings will include group classes of Self Awakening Yoga Therapeutics (a non weight bearing, floor based meditative movement focusing on breath and gently releasing stagnant energy in the connective tissues, particularly in the pelvis and lower back, psoas muscle and shoulders) and One-to-one accessible Yoga for children with Autism and ADHD.

Yoga Artist, musician, activist,mother. Elena Riu completed a Yoga Campus (The Life Centre) Yoga Teacher Training Diploma in 2007. She is also a certified Children and Teens Yoga and Mindfulness teacher and was recently fortunate to received Tich Nath Hahn’s Five Mindfulness Trainings at his retreat in France where she also led Children Yoga workshops.

Elena has taught kids classes at The Special Yoga Centre and at Yoga Home. Last summer Elena co-directed the Yoga for Kids and Families activities at Santosa Yoga Camp. In June Elena delivered a session on how to incorporate Tich Nath Hanhn's Pebble Meditation into a Yoga Class for the TeenYogaUK Teacher Training. Her classes use inspiring yoga stories and myths to instill reverence and compassion while weaving fun imaginative movement with mindfulness and relaxation.

Elena has been practicing yoga since she was 11 and after arriving in London where she was introduced to Shadow Yoga by John Evans. She has continued to study with Zhander Remete and Emma Balnaves as well as Paulene Morphet. In the past few years Elena has been fortunate to receive mentoring from Uma Dinsmore-Tuli which has grown her deep interest in Yoga for female health and menstruality. Elena also teaches yoga and Mindfulness’ Circles for females of all ages.

Currently Elena is completing a Red School Menstruality apprenticeship with Alexandra Pope and Sjanie Hugo Wurlitzer as well as further training in Mentoring Circles for girls. She is the founder of Hackney’s Women Yoga and Mindfulness Circle and Yoga Seedlings, Buds, Blossoms and Flowers. Elena has been a concert pianist for many years and is a Professor of piano at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance where she has recently led a Pilot Study about the benefits of yoga for musicians suffering from PRA and MSDs. The pilot study was jointly funded by Better Practice: Musical Impacts, Teaching and Learning and the Keyboard Faculty. She has been integrating Yoga and Mindfulness in all her teaching. Recently, Elena delivered Yoga and Mindfulness sessions for young musicians at the North London Conservatoire. Elena also has a dance background. Elena has an 9 year old daughter who loves discovering the world through yoga. She has full DBS and is insured by the Yoga Alliance.

Mark TJ Keane, following a personal awakening in 2003, works with the kundalini energy through Kundalini Dance, where Mark uses his natural ability to use the medium of dance to reach states of absolute bliss and ecstasy. He trained as certified Kundalini Dance teacher in Byron Bay, Australia in 2005, one of the first to do so, and brought this practice to the UK in 2006, founding Kundalini Dance UK.

Mark is a fully trained and certified Kundalini Yogi. He has practiced this most powerful form of Yoga for over a decade, having qualified in Anandpur Sahib, Northern India in 2005 with 3HO in the residence of Yogi Bhajan. Mark brought Kundalini Yoga to Bristol in 2006, and is one of the most recognised Kundalini Yoga teachers serving the South West of England.

Mark is well known for conducting ‘Kundalini Fire Dance’ journeys in woodland or sacred stone sites, using shamanic drumming, ritual, dance and fire to honour the seasons and accelerate personal liberation at the eight points of the wheel of the old calendar which is more in harmony with nature.

In addition to Sleeping Serpent, Mark also reignited the ‘Conscious Clubbing’ movement in the UK in 2010, which are alcohol, drug free dance events with positive energy and superfood. This has now evolved into the most advanced system of natural ecstacy through a powerful combination of Cacao Ceremony, Kundalini Yoga, Kundalini Dance, Conscious Clubbing and a Gong Bath, and is known as ‘Kundalini Clubbing’.

He recently is pioneering a drum and fire dance form for men, known as Xistdance, activating the divine masculine qualities of the Warrior, Wizard, Lover & King.

Hola! my name in Maeioum, from Mexico. I look forward to share with brothers and sisters the Sacred Space of The Heart, all around the world. One of my strongest Life motors is the realization of our True Nature, for all sentient beings, that’s why it was a blessing to become a Hridaya Yoga instructor, based on the teachings of Sri Ramana Maharshi: Self Enquire, and then to surrender to Sri Mooji´s direct path for Freedom. In this I found a powerful set of techniques to step into The Heart, this path has changed me deeply as I learned to live with an Open Heart, expand to my actual Spaciousness and light up my Consciousness in order to reveal my True Nature. That’s why I feel the calling to share these teachings with you all. In my vision the only possible way of living this life is in harmony within ourselves, with Mother Nature and with each other, in mutual Respect and Love, and I see the way to achieve by humbly fulfilling our purpose and allowing and helping others in doing so, realizing the Union with the One Source, guided by the Grace of God. I consider myself an Adi-Shakti Mother devotee and have received instruction from a high mountain Brazilian Woman Priestess, a Buddhist Roshi in Japan, a Mother-touched Saint in India, our native Mexican Shamanic healers and “the ancient unity-celebrating rituals”, that had seen me dance to the moon with our wise Grandmothers. I’ve been following meditative and healing practices, which are part of my way-of-sharing with the world. I’m a therapist in water and Holistic Massage, and promote woman wisdom in lunar circles and circular dances, and had keep learning ways of support our elders, our pregnant mothers and our children. I was blessed to have parents that were into metaphysics so the spiritual dimension of life was part of my vision since I was a child, and it became apparent for me that Nature has many clues on how to connect with ourselves, in a way that powerful feelings arise within, stirring up a longing for Oneness and an understanding of life.

I an a somatic movement practitioner, Feldenkrais teacher, a dancer and a birthing doula. I passionately believe that through deepening our connection to our bodies we deepen our connection to ourselves, to others around us and to our environment. I find movement and dance as a door into a greater awareness and to a more meaningful joyful journey of life.

I will teach “Awareness through movement” classes (Feldenkrais method) which offers a unique and practical way to realise our potential more fully and to generate greater flexibility and connection of body and mind through mindful gentle movement. I’ve been teaching Feldenkrais for 14 years and with every class I teach I dive deeper into the treasure of wisdom, kindness to oneself and others, self acceptance and non judgmental approach to learning and growing and the door to greater awareness which it offers.

I’m very excited to be part of Santosa this summer.

Dances of Universal Peace:

Sacred Songdance is a beautiful way to meet the people with whom you have been doing yoga. Within the circular dances we meet several partners, exchanging with each the blessings of the touch, the glance, and the heart. We sing beautiful mantric melodies, and move with gentle rhythmic steps side to side and in and out, making a a dancing mandala. Our arms form the shapes of the devotional gestures of the heart and soul. This practice originated in San Francisco in the 1960s when Samuel Lewis an American Sufi Master, disciple of Hazraat Inayaat Khan, who taught his flower power students how to develop reverence and discipline as a necessity for feeling the bliss of the Divine. It is a great joy to do these dances and a wonderful way to come together as One.

Astrological Yoga:

I am trained in the astrological yoga of Samuel Lewis and the Kundalini Yoga of Yogi Bhajan. I use also my experience as an actress to inform my lessons on distinguishing the unique qualities of the planets in action within our daily lives. In my classes I cover yoga mudras, and postures, kriyas and mantras which will enhance the positive strengths of qualities you may be deficient in or inflamed with a surfeit of. For instance if you are Moon deficient, it will be very hard to feel safe and cosy and at home anywhere. People will tell you that you can't listen and that you are insenstive to their needs. Conversely if your Moon energy is overflowing you will be clinging too much to cosiness, reluctant to forgo home comforts and far too sentimental and attached to people. There are certain simple yogic practices that bring the Moon into balance within you. The same goes for the other six major classical planets.

Belinda Betony is a Herb Practitioner, ecologist and nature guide. She has a passion for nature and loves to inspire other to deepen their connection to the wild. This year at Santosa she will be running a bat and moth evening, a plant spirit connection workshop and a new moon wild medicine making ceremony.