alleyCat Teachers

Every summer for many years, alleyCat Yoga practitioners have embarked upon an early morning ritual of practice at sunrise (6:00 – 7:15 a.m.) for 21 days straight. And this year anyone from around the world can take the class LIVE ONLINE over Zoom. Why on earth would someone do that, you might ask? Answer: Because it could change your entire life. 

No joke. After 21 days of getting up and practicing yoga before you start your day, I’m convinced that you will experience one or all of the following benefits: You will feel like a new person. You will have more energy. You will be more confident. You will have better health. You will have more clarity and insight into how you live your life. You will be more loving toward yourself and others. You will be stronger and more flexible in your mind and body. You will love the morning.

This year the 21 Day Sunrise Yoga Adventure will be structured around the first and second steps of the yogic eight-fold path—the Yamas and the Niyamas. These are the ten ethical practices from the yoga sutra that help you live your life with more grace and kindness on and off the mat. Read More »

Kathryn Sienna passed away on April 3, 2020, in her 57th year. She was born July 27, 1963 in St. Louis, Missouri; the daughter of Aloysius V. and Virginia Lee “Ginny” (Heher) Grieshaber, the fifth of five children born of this union; the sister of Mark, Mary, David, and Matthew; the mother of Ely Kale Powell. She was preceded in death by her mother and her brother David.

She grew up in South St. Louis County, Missouri in a large Catholic family. Her father (originally from Ste. Genevieve, Missouri) was a dentist and her mother (originally from the City of St. Louis, Missouri) a homemaker. She was known in her family as “Katy.”

She was a 1981 graduate of Lindbergh High School in South St. Louis County. She attended College of the Atlantic — an innovative and unorthodox liberal arts college dedicated to the study and practice of human ecology — located on an island, in the middle of a national park, along the ocean, near Bar Harbor, Maine. She later went west to California, first to massage school in the late-1980s, then to yoga teacher training in the late-1990s. Upon completing her training in 1998 at The Yoga College of India in Los Angeles, she became a nationally certified yoga teacher. 

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I first met Lynn Maloney at Kirtan at the original alleyCat studio years ago. Lynn Maloney has been part of alleyCat since the early days, having known Ken and Kathleen as residents of the Kripalu Center. Having been the beneficiary of both her acupuncture practice and her yoga classes, I can attest to her vast knowledge of presence, awareness and sacred practices.  Read on to learn more about what inspired Lynn to become a yoga teacher and ultimately an Acupuncturist. Lynn Maloney teaches monthly Meditative Yoga classes at alleyCat on from 2-4p the 3rd Saturday of the month.

aCY:  What drew you to the practice of yoga?

Lynn: In my late twenties, I moved to New York City, fresh out of graduate school at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where I had completed a masters degree in the history of science and a certificate in archival administration. I worked in mid-town Manhattan and flew across the country frequently for my job. It was during this time that I discovered the Kripalu Yoga Center, just two hours north of New York. The peace and aliveness that I felt after my first weekend trip to Kripalu started me on the exploration of  yoga. Guidance to focus on my breath, pay attention to my food at meal time, and enjoy walking on the beautiful grounds, all while free of the stimulus of TV and cars was actually exciting.  I would return to my life in the city with fresher eyes, more attentive to my surroundings, and longing for more of what I had learned at Kripalu.

aCY: What inspired you to become a yoga teacher and what has influenced your style of teaching?

Lynn: My style of teaching has been influenced by the emphasis taught at Kripalu, practicing full awareness on the experience of being on the mat as practice for being fully present to life off the mat.  The knowledge that choosing to shift my focus to my present, embodied experience can change my mental, emotional and physical tension inspired me to share the practices of yoga. The effect of my first yoga classes at Kripalu was a feeling of being centered, relaxed and joyful. Learning that joy was accessible with a simple shift of focus on a few practices of breath, movement, and intention inspired me to learn more. I eventually moved into the Kripalu Yoga Center and stayed for three years, completing my yoga teacher training while I was a resident.

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If you have met Lynn Rossy in person, you know that she is full of life, animated, and joyful. Whether I run into her downtown at Main Squeeze, at a community event or the studio, Lynn’s eyes sparkle as she delivers an enthusiastic greeting.  Lynn has been a long-time student at alleyCat, in fact, she began practicing with Ken and Kathleen back before the studio officially began. The first time I met Lynn she was standing in the studio entry way on top of an ottoman to make herself taller and giving a humorous lecture to Ken.  Like I said, she is full of life!

A few of the reasons I am thrilled to bring Lynn in to teach at alleyCat are her background in mindfulness and meditation and her commitment to Kripalu Yoga, the tradition in which I study and in which the studio was founded. Keeping true to the “meditation in motion” aspect of Kripalu Yoga, her classes flow together seamlessly and are infused with compassion and joy.  Lynn has led MBSR classes and retreats throughout the community for a number of years and brings the grounded presence of an experienced meditation guide into her classes. Read More »

I’m thrilled to introduce you to one of our new teachers, Brockell Briddle. Brockell is not so new in that she taught at alleyCat a few years ago before leaving Columbia to pursue bodywork training. Over a year ago I begin having conversation with her about returning to alleyCat to share her gifts as a teacher. Ken and I knew that his time as a teacher was winding down and I wanted to bring in another very well trained teacher who guides from the center of traditional, spiritual centered practice. I was searching for a specific type of teacher, grounded in a Hatha Yoga and someone who understood the mission of alleyCat. The conversation for her return began in January of 2017 and in October 2017 Brockell returned to Columbia.

Brockell is a full of life, warm, friendly and inviting with a smile that will make your day. Her background in body work and interest in anatomy makes her the perfect complement to my interest in energetic alignment and yoga philosophy. Deeply knowledgeable about human anatomy I think it is fair to call her an “anatomy geek”. She has reverence for the body and a detailed understanding of body mechanics. Brockell has assisted Ken in his Global Yoga Journey’s retreats for the past four years. She was the perfect fit to take over some of Ken’s classes. Additionally bringing Brockell to alleyCat allowed me to deepen our offerings in therapeutics as well as add an amazing human being and wonderful teacher.  Read More »