INSTRUCTORS
 Terry Alvord has been passionate about leading an active lifestyle her entire life. Before becoming a dedicated student of yoga in 2003, she had been a fitness director at the YMCA in St. Joseph Michigan, fitness instructor, teacher trainer, an adjunct instructor of Wellness at Lake Michigan College, personal trainer, synchronized swimmer as well as a triathlete. She was on the National Faculty which revised the YMCA Healthy Back program and a consultant in revising the YMCA Pre-Natal program. She has earned certifications from the American Council on Exercise, American College of Sports Medicine and has a Bachelor of Science in Occupational Therapy. In addition, she has completed the 200 hour Camp Yoga Teacher Training to earn certification from Yoga Alliance as a yoga instructor.
Phone number: 510.809.7075
Phone number: 510.689.3806  Cynthea Denise, R. N.,
longtime practitioner and seasoned yoga teacher, recalls the urge to twist her body into "odd shapes" as a child, graduated from Piedmont Advanced Studies Program in 1996. She feels at home in the yoga studio and delights in guiding bodies of all ages in opening, as the yoga asana awakens and reconnects us to the inherent wisdom of our body. To register for her next mama/baby postnatal 8-week series, email Cynthea at lunayogini@yahoo.com.
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Stack Buss brings a sense of joy, freedom, and gentle exploration to teaching. StackÕs classes emphasize alignment, body awareness, and integration of breath, body, and mind.
A graduate of the 3-year Yoga Room Advanced Studies Program, Stack teaches yoga in the Iyengar tradition with a special focus on the inner body, observing yoga as a moving meditation. Stack has always understood life through the physical plane, has played and coached many sports, thinks the body is fascinating, is interested in how different types of bodies function and thrive, and how the physical form interplays with the unmanifest.
Laura Camp (Co-Director) began movement training in her early teens, and was a professional contemporary dancer for 15 years. In the late 90's, a dance injury led her to yoga. She was mentored by Robert Boustany in Houston, a physicist who had been teaching an eclectic blend of Iyengar, Ashtanga, and Qigong since the early 70's. Laura began her teaching practice in 1998, and she enjoys uniting classical hatha yoga with the dynamics of contemporary dance, the core integration of Russian and Chinese acrobatics, the body tension principles of rock climbing and circus aerials, the softness of release technique, and the mindfulness of Vipassana meditation. She has been co-directing and teaching at Monkey Yoga Shala since 2001, and thinks she has the most wonderful job in the world (for her!). Laura also enjoys her work as a circus aerialist and writer. For more information on teacher trainings, retreats, events, and workshops, please visit 
Charles Holman, a gifted yoga teacher, was certified with the US Yoga Association in 1998, and certified in ashtanga vinyasa yoga at Its Yoga, San Francisco in 2000. He co-founded The Yoga Source in Berkeley with Jazz Poitier in 1997. Charles holds a 3rd degree black belt in Tae Kwon Do, he is a personal trainer and has been teaching athletic somatic arts for twenty years. Charles' yoga classes are dynamic, challenging, and fun. You will often be encouraged to remember "you're stronger than you think you are," a mantra passed on to him by his teacher, Larry Schultz of Its Yoga. 510.860.0931 
Issabella Shields Grantham recently completed Laura Camp's Yoga Teacher Training and she is honored to share her practice with the community at Monkey Yoga. She officially discovered yoga four years ago in one of Rusty Wells' exuberant Bhakti Flow classes but realized yoga is what she had been practicing throughout her life as an athlete, acrobat and trapeze performer. Issabella encourages her students to move beyond self-perceived limitations yet maintain ahimsa (non-violence) to the body.
Tim Thompson (Founder, Co-Director)
first learned anatomy drawing comic book super heroes and intense althetics as a wrestler in high school. He began his teaching career at Sheffield Pre-school and at Step One, a natural progression for the sixth of seven siblings who has ten nieces and nephews. Years of West African dance, Contact Improvisation, Capoeira and ballet brought him to UC Berkeley as a dance major. While on staff at Piedmont Springs as a deep tissue massage therapist, he began his apprenticeship with Rodney Yee. A three-year graduate of Piedmont Yoga Studio’s Teacher Training Program, Tim taught Iyengar yoga at PYS, the Courthouse Athletic Club, Temescal Arts Center, Thunder Road, and at various public schools. Studying with Sarah Powers ignited his love of Ashtanga yoga and he eventually developed Isometric Monkey Yoga and the Primate and Simian Series. Influenced by Bucky Fuller and Islamic art, some of his bamboo creations populate the Shala. Tim was voted as the Best Yoga Instructor 2008 in the East Bay Express Reader's Poll. Feel free to call in or email any questions about yoga or related monkey business. Phone number: 510.595.1330 or email