Our Instructors
LeeAnna Maniace
Owner/Hatha Vinyasa, Restorative Yoga
LeeAnna was born in Batavia, NY, where she studied ballet, tap, jazz, and contemporary dance at The Dancing Place Dance Academy for 16 years. By fate, she was introduced to the local yoga studio where she first learned about yoga, a world that encompassed not only the physical but the spiritual too. Here she studied Anusara Yoga.
She went on to graduate from the University of Buffalo with a Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology and Health and Wellness. Throughout college, LeeAnna learned other forms of Yoga, such as Baron Baptise and Ashtanga (mostly Vinyasa-based). After graduating college, she moved to the Catskills and started a small organic vegetable farm in Liberty, NY, Sprouting Dreams Farm.
She seeks to share her passion for movement and health with individuals and groups in the community, wishing to increase the prosperity, health, and well-being of all.
With over a decade of yoga training and consistent teaching experience, LeeAnna now owns The Yoga Space Catskills in Hurleyville, NY. Her teaching style and most popular classes are creative alignment based vinyasa as well as restorative yoga.
Erin Dudley
Founder/ Senior Yoga Teacher, Workshops, Rope Wall Class, Vinyasa, Chair Yoga
Erin relocated with her family to the Catskill Region of NY State after 20+ years in the NYC dance and yoga community. She started practicing as a way to heal injuries and grow as a dance artist. Erin received her first certification in 1995 and began teaching yoga asana in 1996 she received an MFA in 2009 and served as faculty for Stony Brook University’s Center for Dance Movement and Somatic Learning until the birth of her son. Erin continues to lead workshops and contribute as a scholar and educator to Yoga Teacher Training throughout the USA and Canada.
“My practice and teaching instruction draws from love of movement, somatic therapies, kinesthetic anatomy, the investigative philosophy of Irmgard Bartenieff, the quiet passion of Astanga vinyasa, the rigorous intelligence of Iyengar Yoga and the knowledge that through movement we can renegotiate relationships with ourself and others. I offer gratitude for the steady guidance of Danielle Tarantola /Yoga Foundation, Krishnamacharya Yoga Mandarim, and my family at the Kula Yoga Project.
My classes are grounded in a lifetime of study, experiments, and practice. I honor no one guru but bow deeply to the ancestors for passing on the knowledge to her contemporaries that unrelentingly shine a light on personal agency through ethical compassionate teaching methodologies.”
Richard Gillett
Tai Chi
Richard Gillett is a medical doctor, author of the #1 bestselling book “IT’S A FREAKIN’ MESS: How to Thrive in Divisive Times,” and twenty-year practitioner of the Tai Chi 24 Yang Form.
Richard has led Tai Chi classes for ten years and is a passionate believer in the harmonization of body, mind, feeling and spirit.
Joy Leon
Nia
Born and raised in the woodsy Catskill Mountains, Joy’s mission is two-fold: engage the power of collective action to make a positive difference in the community, and enjoy the journey while creating the connections to help make it happen.
Joy knows the power of a spark of inspiration ignited under the right circumstances. Dance and performing arts have always provided sparks of inspiration, and luckily, she found her way to a barefoot dance floor early in life.
Many times over, Joy has benefited from the emotional and physical release of dance medicine and free movement. She uses the inspiration she finds in the groove of music and movement to help unstick herself from the restrictions and challenges that are a normal part of daily life as a human.
Lesley Lotto
Vinyasa
Lesley Lotto began practicing yoga more than 25 years ago in Los Angeles where she grew up. But it wasn't until she moved to Montana for a radio career that she began a regular and very personal practice. In Missoula, Lesley tried Hot Yoga (because it's freezing there!), then moved into a sincere appreciation for all styles and lineages of yoga. At that time, one of Lesley's teachers brought a 200 hour certification training to a yoga studio in Missoula from Prana Mandir Yoga of New York. It was a year of intense study into the history and philosophy of yoga, proper sequencing and learning to lead classes and events. Yoga Yay! was born in that training with three besties who loved practicing and "geeking out" on yoga so much we would say, "Yoga.. Yay!". Since then Lesley has done a 300hr. Bhakti Yoga training, Yoga Nidra training, Restorative training, became Reiki 1&2 certified, certified in Thai Yoga Bodywork and Kundalini Yoga and "Untrained and Retrained" answering the call of the Black Lives Matter movement.
Lesley has practiced or studied with Sondra Loring and Kelly Kamm, Guru Singh, Seane Corn, Rolf Gates, Bryan Kest, Sri Dharma Mittra, Dana Trixie Flynn, Rodney Yee, Colleen Saidman-Yee and Gurmukh. Lesley has an at-home yoga studio where she practices daily and offers private classes. She also produces newscasts for radio stations across the country for her other baby, Remote News Service, podcasts and plays guitar. She resides outside in the Catskills of New York.
Katelyn Ball
Sivananda Yoga
Katelyn, a New Jersey native, has been passionate about movement-based arts, spirituality, and self expression from a young age. Living in the Catskill Mountains for the past 5 years, she has gained valuable experience as a Program Educator at The Center for Discovery, a local non-profit organization for individuals with complex disabilities. This work has allowed her to develop a broader sense of empathy, wellness, and perception of the connection between body, mind, and spirit.
Katelyn became a yoga instructor in the summer of 2023, completing her 200-hour training at the Sivananda Yoga Ranch where she studied the Sivananda Hatha Yoga Synthesis. She went on to teach classes and retreats at the Ashram for the duration of the fall season. Kate is dedicated to sharing the joy of self-discovery and building connections within her community. In her spare time, she enjoys being outside in nature, walking her dogs, writing, and making art.
Marina Gregory
Pilates
Marina Gregory teaches Pilates, Gyrotonic, and The Egoscue methods of physical training.
She has taught worldwide, including at The Moscow Art Theater School in Russia, The University of Turin in Italy, NY University in NY, and USC and Stanford in California.
She was trained and certified to teach Pilates by Romana Kryzanowska, The Master teacher and designated inheritor of the Pilates system from Joe Pilates.
Marina taught for Romana for three years before opening her own studio in NYC.
Originally a ballet dancer, she began training in Pilates at 13 years old.