Teacher Biography

Anna Laurita E-RYT

Anna Laurita has studied yoga since 1991. She has since lived in 7 countries (in Asia, USA and Latin America) and studied ways of peace and happiness found in each country. She has folded those peace petals into the davannayoga style which she teaches in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico in her yoga shala. Anna is an *E-RYT, *E-RPYT, *E-RCYT through the Yoga Alliance, a Senior Yogic Arts instructor, and holds a certificate in Vinyasa Krama in the Krishnamacharya lineage. She offers Yoga Teacher Training programs 4 times per year. Her teachers include: Master Duncan Wong, Sharon Gannon, David Life and Srivatsa Ramaswami. She is known for her powerful practice, intuitive understanding of the body and her creative, and engaging teaching style.
Genlux Magazine (Oct. 2010) said "Anna is powerful in the most enlightened sense of the word. Her personal journey is inspirational, her wisdom elevating and her teaching transcendent."

* E-RYT - Experienced Registered Yoga Teacher; E-RPYT - Experienced Registered Prenatal Yoga Teacher; E-RCYT - Experienced Registered Childrens Yoga Teacher

Anna's teaching philosophy is that you should leave her class feeling "Yoga Good!" With a renewed spirit and energy. She encourages students to go a little deeper and explore their practice in hopes of creating a better understanding of themselves and how they can adapt to new or deeper postures through their breath and intention. She creates a safe environment for experiment and a light hearted tone. Great music is essential to her practice. Anna believes in organic mixes of yoga, combining different yoga styles and different disciplines of physical movement to create a beautiful yoga practice.

Karli Pierce

Since her first yoga class in 1999, Karli has wandered through a highly self-directed practice. This practice included experimentation with Bikram, Ashtanga and Kundalini. This changed when she arrived in Puerto Vallarta in August of 2009 and first entered Davannayoga; here she found the loving community of dedicated practitioners that she unknowingly sought, and immediately intensified and formalized her practice. She feels that yoga is the way to connect with the best part of yourself, to shed the unnecessary and to get to the true heart of you.

Originally from San Francisco, Karli has also lived and practiced in Quito, Ecuador, and Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic before arriving in Vallarta where she now lives with her two kids and wonderful husband. A teacher at heart, Karli has taught elementary school in California and international schools in her various homes around the world, but now she looks forward to the challenges of teaching yoga to adults and sharing her new and expanding knowledge of yoga with you in her classes.

Raoul Diaz De la Garza

piano music composer

Raoul will lead monthly Kirtans at davannayoga beginning in September, 2009. Watch the Events page for specific dates. His experience in music and the magic of music in yoga, meditation and life is immense.

Raoul's background includes 2 years at Beijing's School of Performing Arts, PRC. and two years at UC Berkeley California, USA as well as 5 years of Private Piano Immersion in Mexico City with Piano Masters.

For the past six years he has been the director at Saraswati Multidimensional Creativity. This group explores the creative process of music and language as an expression of consciousness.

Prior to his music career, Raoul's creative background includes being creative director at McCann Erickson, in Mexico, Japan and Hong Kong. He spent five years prior producing, editing and assisting the director for Mandoki films in Mexico City, Mexico.

Raoul leads a meditation group twice per week in his own meditation space in Vallarta and loves to surf, practice yoga and meditate.

He has performed live piano concerts in Australia, China, France, India, Japan, Lebanon, Mexico, New Zealand, Spain, and the USA.

He has produced six CD's of piano music composed in India, Japan and Mexico.

"The attraction that one finds in music makes one wonder if there is a mystery hidden behind it, if there is a language of sound which could be learned. The answer is that the language of music and sound is the language of the soul. It is our inner language, the natural language of life."

"It is the tone and rhythm of sound which have an influence on the tone and rhythm of our being. By the help of music we can tune ourselves to the spheres where we wish to be, aiming to higher planes of expression where we can discover the inner and outer balance of our own bright soul, for understanding, freedom and love."

Barbara Crompton.

Barbara Crompton is a recognized luminary in the yoga,health and fitness field. She draws from her immense background of hatha yoga, yoga flow, power yoga,yoga trance, yin yoga, pilates, Nia, fitness and anatomy to uniquely weave together a master class. Her love of movement,her zest for living and her wisdom and knowledge from her travels and study in India and Thailand creates a dynamic yet calm and richly personal experience for all she touches.

Barbara Holschneider

I started learning techniques of Kundalini at the age of 16 at the Fraternidad Universal of Monterrey thanks to my grandmother which planted the seed of yoga in my heart. I didn't realize how important it would become in my life until my husband was diagnosed with cancer. While I was caring for him in Houston, Texas during treatment, I started practicing daily to cope with the difficult spiritual, physical and emotional situation we were going through. With Yoga I found my strength and inner peace for my daily life.

Then I started complementing my practice with Bikram's, Ashtanga, Jivamukti, Vinyasa flow and Mandala styles by taking multiple workshops.

I have been teaching yoga for 8 years. I have partnerships in two yoga centers in Monterrey, Mexico. One is called Balance (in the municipio de Santiago) and the other Yoga Chikitsa (in the municipio de San Pedro Garza Garcia). I also worked with GENTV( a local TV network) to produce a TV Yoga program in Monterrey for a year and a half.

When I teach Yoga I want people to experience yoga as a way of life, learning how to balance mind, body and soul in order to have a more fulfilling life. I use Yoga as the aid of mental and physical exercises to become aware of our true divine self by emphasizing the importance of the mind remaining calm, because as the saying goes, only when the water is still can you see through it.

Nora Plonsky

Over the past 25 years Nora Plonsky has experienced yoga with teachers from various traditions as she has traveled throughout the world and lived around the United States. In 2002 she received her Yoga Alliance certified training in Phoenix, AZ with an emphasis on assisting those with various physical conditions. Her teaching reflects these diverse experiences as she leads you through a practice that honors the individual. You can expect a class that emphasizes strength, flexibility, and proper alignment for a healthy body and deep breath work and meditation for a peaceful mind. She has taught in Europe, Mexico, and Arizona at various wellness facilities, senior centers, conferences, elementary schools, and at the college level

Yoga is about playing and experimenting. The mat invites us to express our individuality, intuition, and creativity.

Paola Montes Campillo

I have been practicing Yoga for four years.
My first yoga studies began with the precise alignment discipline of the Iyengar style and then I moved onto explore Vinyasa and other variations. In the past two years I have been dedicated to the Ashtanga style practice and from the many styles I have practiced I have built a well-rounded and creative Vinyasa style for my students with attention to alignment, breath and intention. With a flare for creativity!

Knowing that yoga practice needs to be creative, evolving and to easily transmited to others, so I took the Teacher Training at Davannyoga to enhance the experience of being a student and a teacher. I also wanted to enhance my personal practice. Through this program I gained the teaching skills needed to easily transmit my experience and creative, feel-good yoga practice to my students.

Yoga practice needs to be progressive in order to achieve a connection between body, mind and spirit. While practicing Yoga one needs to be constantly aware of your breath and wellness. Your body needs to be listened to, treated with love, respect and kindness.
This strong internal connection (Union) must be to be in harmonize with your environment. Practicing Yoga starts with YOU!

Alejandra Suarez

Eleven years ago I met my beloved teacher Geshe Tenzin Wangyal with whom I began to learn meditation practices from the Tibetan Bon tradition. At that time I lived in Valle de Bravo and I soon became part of a very loving and supporting group of practitioners.
Seven years ago I moved to Puerto Vallarta with my two sons and my husband and found in yoga the same kind of loving community and also the perfect complement for my spiritual path.

I've been lucky to learn yoga from teachers with very different backgrounds and styles but all with great love and kindness. I started teaching three years ago and I just loved to to be able to share something that is so precious to me.

Yoga is a refuge where I can let go of everything and just rest in the present moment. It is a great place to be.