Instructors

Celeste Cooper

I love the human body, and am constantly reminded what a miraculous gift it is.  I’ve been dancing since the womb; it is an integral part of my being.  Dance is not something I do it is something I am.  I began classical study at the age of 7 and have never stopped.  I found yoga 13 years ago in college and naturally fell in love.  For me personally, yoga is my path to the divine as lose my ego self in the focused flow of my body and breath through asanas.  I became a yoga teacher to further help people relieve their pain by offering asana and pranayama as tools to bring balance.  Yoga is a holistic healing system; body, mind and spirit are recognized as intricately intertwined aspects of our being.  We cannot affect one without all the others.  I especially enjoy teaching restorative classes, and I love introducing beginners to yoga so I may watch them them grow in their posture and practice.

Danielle McLean

I have spent so much of my life searching for emotional relief and the answers to life’s troubles outside of myself – through the avenues of traditional counseling, medication and relationships, just to name a few. What I have simply come to know through my yoga practice is that all of the answers I’ve ever needed are right here, inside of me, and I’m learning how to find them. That is what yoga does for me. Oh, and, a nifty side effect is that I’m in best physical shape ever!  In my class I hope to guide you through the physical aspects of yoga with an underlying focus on the vast importance of our breath. Our breath is the most powerful tool we have; a tool that is often taken for granted and is right at our finger tips. This breath literally sustains life and is an incredible gauge for how we are feeling. While we take on the challenges that day-to-day life has to offer, we can be aware of our breath. If the breath gets choppy or labored, it is our cue to back off and take a break. If the breath, however, is fluid and strong, we may want to intensify or try something new.

Douchka Lecot

Douchka started learning yoga at the Dallas Yoga Center in 1996, and during several years after, attended classes on and off from different teachers and styles while traveling and frequently moving to different countries.  In 2001 stressed out by a highly demanding job, and in great need of reorganizing her life to shift priorities, she made a conscious decision of taking care of herself in all aspects – mental, physical and spiritual.  She then started attending more yoga classes on a regular basis, initiated her own practice at home, and dug deeper into yoga and its healing power.  Very soon, her yoga practice was helping her making decisions and some major life changes occurred.  That’s when she realized she needed to share this incredible ancient technique with others through teaching, and so began her yoga-teaching journey in 2004 at Cosmic Cafe.  With a vast knowledge of Ayurveda, nutrition and aromatherapy, she considers herself an “eternal” student constantly exploring and researching alternative therapies and techniques to help relieve aches and pains in our stressful world.  She’s committed to her true mission of sharing yoga with others as a powerful tool of Life.

Irma Kusuma

I have been dancing since I was in kindergarten. According to my mom, I was dancing before I was walking. In the last 10 years, I studied samba and flamenco formally, and is active in the salsa scene in Dallas. Zumba is a combination of the feel good Latin dancing with aerobic exercise. Unlike any other Zumba classes, mine combines cardio with stretching and abs exercise as well. My goal is to help my students get in shape and also to lift up their spirits!

Jen Lawson

In my classes, you will move, breathe and explore, and will be encouraged to listen to your breath and body in order to make choices that feel right for you in each moment.  My hope is that you will also somehow experience that sense of coming home to yourself, of finding comfort in your own skin, of finding that connection to something that is so much bigger, so much greater, than we are.  When I first decided that I wanted to teach yoga, I wondered how I could possibly do so when there were so many physical poses that I could not do.  I soon realized that I was missing the point.  When I began teaching, I worried that I would not be able to share the amazing tools of yoga with others since I am still quite aware of the struggles I have with my own “real life poses.”  Then I realized that, once again, I was missing the point.    This yoga is not about perfection, it’s not about performance, and it’s not about knowing everything there is to know.  It is called a “yoga practice” for a reason…

Melissa Goodall

As a physical therapist for the past 6 years, I have always studied and been drawn to the anatomy of the body and the way that our muscles move us through space. As an active person, I’ve played a number of sports through high school and began practicing yoga once I reached college to help fill in the time I acquired once I could no longer participate in sports. I was looking for something to maintain my flexibility and strength and found so much more when I stepped to my mat.  I had always found calm, peace, strength, and flexibility while practicing but I truly came alive when I began my training and finally teaching these same practices to others. I learned that yoga is so much more than a physical practice limited to the hour that I am in the studio and on the mat. I have learned to integrate yoga into all aspects of my life which allowed me to let go of undue stress, anger, pain, and suffering that I had held onto for the greater part of my life. The freedom that I now feel through my yoga practice has been such a gift to me and I can think of nothing better than to share this gift with as many people as I can through my own teaching.



Sally Kate Tinch

Zed Zaremba