WildYoga Teacher Training: Fire Element

About the Venue and Teachers

• Balanced Rock Foundation

  5.0 (5 reviews)

  Yosemite Valley California

  Balanced Rock inspires health and wellbeing through deep connection to nature and spirit.Who We AreBalanced Rock is a Yosemite-based non-profit that has been inspiring health and wellbeing through our programs and classes since 1999. Yosemite National Park is a world-heritage site celebrated as one of the most sacred places on earth. We are honored to offer backpacking journeys, weekend camping retreats, day-hikes, workshops, and lodge-based programs that focus on inward reflection, coupled with outward exploration of this incredible place.Our compassionate, personable, and expert staff share a rare and unique combination of local Yosemite knowledge and passion for its natural history, with a spirited dedication to contemplative practices including yoga, meditation, and the creative arts.Our courses are generally appropriate for all levels of experience. Join us in the wilderness this year to cultivate holistic health and wellness, rejuvenate yourself, and transform your life!What We DoAt Balanced Rock, we’re devoted to providing opportunities for mindful living, self-care, and community involvement in connection with the natural world. Our core programs are nature-based retreats, workshops, and transformational adventures in Yosemite. Balanced Rock experiences offer a setting to cultivate personal balance, and to support our personal and community health. This is inspired by the wisdom found in spending quality time with the natural world. Balanced Rock courses pair the outdoors with contemplative and creative practices (yoga, meditation, art, music, Ayurveda, and self-care) to foster compassion, and facilitate personal empowerment. A Balanced Rock journey can transform your life!Yoga in YosemiteYoga means union, and at Balanced Rock we focus on the union of our experienced connection with the natural world. Yoga in Yosemite is our breath as we walk along the trail, our posture and awareness as we share a delicious backcountry meal, our challenges with unforeseen obstacles, and our comfort in telling our story around a campfire. There are many reasons to practice yoga asana (postures) in the wilderness and all of our programs offer optional, mostly outdoor yoga classes with instructors registered through Yoga Alliance. We believe that any form of connection with the natural world is so important at this time in history, and yoga asana (postures), pranayama (breath-work), and meditation are particularly good tools to access this connection. Not to mention standing strong and stretching tall on top of a granite dome in is unbeatable!
• Heather Sullivan

  Heather has lived in the Yosemite area for 20 years. The steep granite valley walls, seasonal change of the river song, and community of animals and humans have deeply shaped her being and world-view. She co-founded and served as the first Executive Director of Balanced Rock. She now serves as Managing Director using her skills of non-profit management and leadership, group facilitation, community building, mentorship, and program development to hold the vision for Balanced Rock and lead the organization through its continued evolution. She delights in creating unique, powerful programs and supporting staff and instructors to shine their magic in the world. She is a gifted teacher and seasoned mountain guide at heart and makes sure to get in the field as an instructor each season. Balanced Rock is Heather’s life work which blends her passions of yoga and mindfulness practices, creative writing, play, connecting community, creating transformative and healing experiences for individuals and groups and emphasizing the importance of healthy local food. She is 200hr E-RYT and 200hr CRYT certified with Yoga Alliance. Her latest joy and success is creating a Kid’s Yoga and Mindfulness Program for grades K-6 in the El Portal School System. She is a CMT in Shiatsu and Lomi Lomi massage, an Ayurvedic body-worker and a certified Birth Doula. Other passions include: river boarding, rock-climbing, skiing, mountain rambling, and music. She seeks new experiences and learnings with a child-like twinkling curiosity and hopes to share that joy and zest for life with others.
• Eliza Kerr

  Eliza has been living in Yosemite since graduating Phi Beta Kappa from UC Berkeley in Conservation and Resource Studies in 1993. She has been leading people on adventures in the outdoors since 1989, working for NatureBridge (formerly Yosemite Institute), Outward Bound in Colorado and Alaska, Where There Be Dragons in Tibet, and Wild Women Workshops in Alaska and Yosemite. Eliza co-founded Balanced Rock in 2007 and since then has served as an instructor. She has served as both President and Vice President of the Board of Directors. Eliza first discovered yoga in 1991 while living and studying in Nepal and India for a year. Since then she has been a passionate practitioner, studying a variety of styles including Iyengar, Bikkrim, and Ashtanga with Pattabhi Jois and her primary teacher, Richard Freeman, with whom she has completed a month long teacher training, as well as twelve other week-long intensives. Eliza has been teaching a blend of these styles in Yosemite since 1995 with an emphasis on breath, flow and joy. She was certified as a Clinical Ayurvedic Specialist from the California College of Ayurveda in 2000 and also holds Ayurvedic certificates from the Amercian Institute of Vedic Studies, Rishikesh College of Ayurveda, the Kripalu School of Ayurveda, and the Ayurvedic Institute. She is currently practicing Ayurvedic medicine in Yosemite. Eliza is passionate about making the world a better place through cultivating personal balance and awareness and facilitating others doing the same. For Eliza, connecting with the natural world and yoga have been two powerful forces for growth and peace. In her work she aims to share these experiences so that others may reap the benefits. Eliza lives with her husband, Nate, and two daughters, Calliope and Scarlett. While not busy with her little girls, she enjoys rock-climbing, surfing, and playing guitar. Website: elizakerr.com
• Dennis Eagan

  Dennis Eagan E-RYT 500 is the Director of the Balanced Rock Yoga Alliance-certified WildYoga Advanced Study and Teacher Training Program as well as the instructor for the Balanced Rock Energies of Nature backcountry course. He became a dedicated sadhaka in 1989 and gradually developed an hour-long home practice under the guidance of Lynne Minton, an Iyengar-style teacher in Anchorage, Alaska. Yoga saved him from back surgery twenty-three years ago and since then it has allowed Dennis to lead a very active life. The positive results in his own body inspired him to learn more about yoga. After nine years of dedicated practice, Dennis moved to Berkeley, California to pursue yoga studies full time at the Piedmont Yoga Studio, directed by Rodney Yee. He graduated from their 320-hour program in December of 1998 and has been teaching ever since. Dennis spent seven years in Berkeley, teaching 15 classes a week and attending weekly classes with Donald Moyer, the director of the Yoga Room (one of the earliest yoga programs in the country), Tony Briggs, the director of Turtle Island Yoga, and of course Rodney. During that time he experienced a wide range of students from the high-energy vinyasa/ashtanga students at 7th Heaven in Berkeley to wheelchair bound yogis at the Cerebral Palsy Center in Oakland. In addition, he attended many weekend workshops with other top teachers including Ramanad Patel, Tias Little and Richard Freeman. Currently he directs the Advanced Study/Teacher Training Programs at the Yoga & Movement Center in Walnut Creek and the Bo Tree Yoga Studio in Davis. Dennis has also been a wilderness guide and outdoor educator for over three decades. His guiding experience ranges from the Artic to Baja and from the summit of Denali to the depths of Grand Canyon. Dennis offers workshops and wilderness retreats throughout the west, from Alaska to Mexico. He is a contributor to Prana, the online newsletter of the Green Yoga Association, and is writing a book about the Gulf Coast of Alaska from the perspective of a kayaker. Website: wildyoga.com Dennis Eagan on Youtube