5Q Interview with Kelley Doyle @shantikelley

1. Tell me about your personal journey with yoga. Why is it important to you?

Yoga is a pathway of transformation through embodied awareness + awakening. Allowing what shows up on the mat to help inspire or heal or activate balance inside and out for me. Mantra, mudra, movement + meditation for balance and peace. In challenging times yoga sadhana has been my lighthouse, guiding me deeper into access this eternal and internal source of “light” and in times of ease or celebration, it’s a way to express my soul through movement and align with the “universal dance” of sacred movement and devotion in motion. yoga has been a source for me since I was 14 years old in my first year of high school in 1984 and I can’t imagine where I would be without this practice~ the practical tools within the philosophy and embodied practices of both yoga and Ayurveda are invaluable to my life.

2. When did you first begin teaching yoga? What made you transition into a leadership position?

I began teaching in 1993 in Mammoth Lakes, California at the age of 23. I didn’t actually pursue this career in my beginnings, I was going to a class that was attended by about 3-5 people on average and the teacher asked me if I would teach the class while he went to study with his teacher. I was taken back by this idea, I had never been to India, I hadn’t been practicing for 20 years, I thought to myself, “how is this possible!?” So, I called my teacher Gayna Uransky who was an intermediate Iyengar teacher who could certify teachers back then and asked her what she thought ~ she said: “teach, that’s how you will learn what you need to know.” And so it began. Realizing I had a TON to learn I signed up for the Yoga Works teacher training in 1999 with Maty Ezraty and Lisa Walford and then a few years later began my journey with Shiva Rea and now teach others to guide Prana Vinyasa yoga classes. It’s truly my passion and my path.

3. What makes your classes unique?

Hmmm… well… first thought that comes to mind is that I’m teaching them! And second thing is that each class has its unique experience also because of the friends that come to flow. I truly vibe with what’s happening at the moment and use the elements to help ground, nourish, activate, circulate or create balance through the lens of the elements. Some personal influences are the moon cycle, season, weather, what’s going on in the “world”, planetary influences, personal statement and of course picking up the flow of the current vibe of the friends and the room and reading their body language. And so, I choose music and movement that is inspired by all of these things. Music is super important to me too! No “background” elevator style music, please! I love to use music to truly inspire the friends in the flow to deeper activation, inspiration, and healing through the music. And honestly every class is unique because of the person offering the class, right? Even if a class is “scripted” (I hear this is a thing??) or the same general sequence like in Ashtanga, the unique quality is the teacher, the students, and choice of music.

4. How does music benefit your guidance in a yoga class?

Music, if used with intention, is an essential tool in the flow of a yoga class for inspiring, activating, releasing, nourishing and expanding the potential of the experience to really bring it all together. If music is used for the background then I say don’t use it all, the breath is more potent than sound whispering in the background without purpose. Live music is, of course, the most amazing if the artist is in that organic connection to the flow of the room ~ it’s like magic! This creates an alchemy that is profoundly transforming as well as an experience that will be held in the cells forever!