Swaha Yoga Athens - Aerial Yoga Center

Tanya is the co-founder and director of Swaha Yoga Center. She started her meditation practice at the age of 14 when her parents decided to initiate their two children into Transcendental Meditation by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. Study and practice of TM triggered Tanya’s interest in Eastern Philosophies and Yoga as well as the vastness and awe of existence itself. After completing her university degree in Fine Arts and Design, Tanya traveled to India where she studied yoga at the Yoga Vedanta Forrest Academy, and upon her return started teaching yoga. Since, Tanya has visited India several times where she has studied Yoga and Yogic Lifestyle in an Ashram setting. Some of her most influential teachers are Swami Atmaramananda - Yoga Vedanta Forest Academy, Swami Muktananda – Divine Life Society and Surinder Singh. Tanya also studied at Trika Yoga in India, an esoteric, Kundalini-based Hatha Yoga school. Around the same time Anusara Yoga, a western style of yoga developed by a student of B.K.S. Iyengar, came to Tanya’s interest due to the way it dealt with alignment and the biomechanics of the body. She completed Anusara Yoga Teacher Training and Yoga Therapeutics at Shantaya Yoga and Bodywork School with Jonas Westring in Thailand. In 2010 Tanya studied at Unnata® Aerial Yoga in New York with its founder Michelle Dortignac, and brought Aerial Yoga to Greece for the first time in the beginning of 2011. Tanya has attended workshops and immersions with various teachers worldwide such as Shiva Rea, Paddy McGrath, Diane Long, etc, and she has worked for four years next to Swami Nirvikalpa in Yoga Studio Maroussi where she learned a whole lot from her dear teacher and friend. In October 2011 Tanya attended the Advanced Yoga Teacher Training and upon successful completion was given the title of Yoga Acharya - Master of Yoga, by Yoga Vedanta Forest Academy. Tanya Popovich is Head Teacher at Swaha Yoga Center Teacher Trainings and she conducts Aerial Yoga Teacher Trainings together with Michelle Dortignac of Unnata® Aerial Yoga. Tanya combines her knowledge of various aspects of yoga in a unique teaching style that integrates therapeutic body alignment, rhythmic flow, expansion of breath and vital energy, concentration, meditation, positive mental outlook and proper rest and nutrition. She promotes yoga as a way of holistic lifestyle through which one moves towards the flow of cosmic harmony and joy.

Jonni-Lyn Friel began yoga as a child in Canada, joining her parents practice. At 13 she suffered shoulder problems due to competitive swimming and found that yoga allowed her to continue training. Jonni-Lyn has traveled around the world, practicing and finding teachers everywhere from India and South-East Asia to Central America. Along the way she became certified in Thai Massage and Face and Head massage in Chang Mai,Thailand and taught Kids Yoga to her kindergarten class in Tai Chung,Taiwan.  Her first teacher training was done with Vivi Letsou at Nysy at the studio's very first teacher training in 2006. Jonni-lyn has completed three teacher trainings in Bhakti Flow with the amazing and loving Rusty Wells,the first teacher to show how sweat, love and music can lift you up to another place. Many more workshops,immersions and teacher trainings have been done throughout the years in Anusara, Jivamuhkti and Ashtanga .

The real moment that all the  different aspects of yoga came together was when Jonni-Lyn traveled to Mysore,India and studied with her teachers Venkatdesh and Hema at the Atma Vikasa Shala. Through these teachers,she finally discovered how to bring all the aspects of Yoga together, and place them in all parts of life. Studying with these generous people changed the way she thought about yoga and taught yoga. So blessed to have met and studied with so many wonderful teachers,she tries to teach in a way that honors them. Classes are a mix of joy,music, philosophy,alignment and hard work. Jonni-Lyn loves to chant and sing and teaches in the Classical Hatha tradition and Bhakti Flow vinyasa style. She is also a BASI Pilates teacher,Pre-natal teacher and Kids Yoga Teacher.

Sakis Albanis has been involved with sports from an early age. He was training is classic sports and played basketball with local teams.
He graduated Tourism Management and worked successfully in the fields of tourism and events.
The last 4 years he has been practising and teaching Pilates and he is certified trainer by BASI Pilates, teaching mat and equipment classes. He is also a certified TRX trainer, while continuously attending seminars and training programs.
For Sakis Albanis the avocation with the alternative forms of sport is a way of life, which with dedication and enthusiasm transmits to his students, creating a pleasant and efficient environment.