I'm Abby, mainly teaching privately and offering ongoing training and mentoring for yoga teachers. I specialise in working with dancers and performers and also with people recovering from eating disorders or chronic illnesses. I've now been a yoga teacher for 22 years, a teacher trainer for 15 years and a university lecturer and educator working in the field of dance since 2005.
Yoga and me
I first practiced yoga as a student in the 1980s, going to mainly Iyengar-style classes. Strict teachers and attention to alignment appealed to me at the time and it resonated with my dance training background.
After my son was born in 1997, I was inspired by Madonna (who wasn't?) and started going to Ashtanga Vinyasa classes at my local gym, taught by the wonderful Nigel Jones. I became very interested in the transformations that took place in my body and mind and wanted to know more. I was further inspired by John Scott and spent several years attending his classes and one of his early teacher trainings. One thing led to another and soon before I knew it I had given up my day job and entered the world of yoga teaching. Since then I've experienced all sorts of yoga and trained and studied with some amazing teachers.
Embodied awareness and alignment interest me as does the relationship between our breath and our physical and emotional states. Recent research into yoga + Neuroscience now allows a deeper understanding of how these practices work and I try to weave both creative exploration and scientific underpinning into my classes. I teach in the Vinyasa Flow style as it's come to be known and am influenced by teachers such as; Claire Missingham, Julie Martin, Bo Forbes and Annie Carpenter. More recently, I have focussed on learning and teaching Restorative yoga - with Anna Ashby at Triyoga, London and Dina Cohen
Teaching
I started my teaching journey over 25 years ago as a dancer and teaching 'stretch type' classes in the late 1990's, then started teaching Ashtanga Vinyasa in 2001, later officially qualifying as a yoga teacher through Yoga Campus (formerly the Life Centre) in 2006.
I've taught for Still Flowing Yoga in Ibiza and set up Embodied Dancer, a unique, dance-specific yoga teacher training programme that has trained 3 cohorts of students as well as teaching many CPD's workshops and other training events.
My approach to training and mentoring teachers is to offer a space for growth and change, meeting each individual where they are and offering tools and practices that support the evolution from student to teacher. I specialise in hands-on adjustments and assists and bring my experience of body work, including thai yoga massage, to these trainings.
My qualifications
200 Hour Yoga Teacher Diploma, Yoga Campus 2006
Yoga Alliance as an EYT-200. YACEP
Post Graduate Diploma in Dance Science Trinity Laban, London 2013
PhD Yoga and the Dancer, in 2012 was at Middlesex University, London 2012
B.A Dance Studies. Middlesex University, 1995
Body work qualifications in Therapeutic massage and Seated acupressure chair massage and Thai yoga Massage
25 hours Adjusting the Primary Series - Abby Daniels 2002
30 hours Techniques of Teaching - John Scott, Penzance 2003
36 hours Embodying the Flow - Shiva Rea 2004
36 hours Prana: The Power and Path of Yoga - Rod Stryker 2004
20 hours Eat Breathe Thrive Yoga Food and Body Image intensive 2016
20 Hours Mandala Methodology - The Yoga People 2019
33 hours Restorative Yoga Level 1 - Anna Ashby at Triyoga 2020
30 hours Restorative Yoga - Dina Cohen, Golden Door London 2021
22 Hours Restorative Yoga Level 2 - Anna Ashby at Triyoga 2022
