THE Owners
|
Melissa Kaban OrtizMelissa Kaban Ortiz, MA, RYT, R-DMT, is a 300-hour registered yoga teacher with a focus in Vinyasa Flow. She found yoga as a perfect complement to her interests in wellness and background in dance and has been gratefully teaching classes for 10 years now! She trained for her initial 200 hours in 2011 with Ellen Kaplow and taught locally with Satsang Yoga and returned for another 100 hours with Shannon Elliot at Onyx Yoga and is happy to back in training for the next level 300 hour with the amazing team at Bhakti Barn. Melissa has called Alluem Yoga in Cranford her home for the past 6 years and has been so grateful to Gina Pachkowski, owner and friend, for the opportunities to share this practice with so many and stay connected with inspiring teachers to continue learning. Melissa works as a dance movement therapist and trauma-informed mental health clinician with children and adolescents in a partial hospital program in Jersey City. She has always used movement, dance, and yoga to facilitate healing and will fiercely advocate for everyone to have access to these tools. Melissa offers her students unique and meaningful sequences while teaching both creativity and sustainability within an energetic flow. Her love for traditional yoga philosophies and supreme music both feed and energize the practice. Ultimately, she is grateful to the connections yoga has brought her and is committed to sharing this with others.
|
|
Arnaldo OrtizArnaldo began his journey to yoga through a love of physical fitness and interest in a more mindful practice. He pursued a deeper practice in 2013 at Nirvana Wellness Center in Montville, NJ, and completed his 200-hour yoga training in 2015. Since 2015, Arnaldo has taught at many studios across the NJ counties, but has always called Nirvana home, and has been blessed to have a supportive mentor in Elissa Cuellar, who has always inspired him to do more with the opportunities and gifts we've been given. Arnaldo does his best to use his many experiences as learning opportunities, in order to create teachable moments, both for himself and others, in the future. Arnaldo teaches a variety of classes, but does love an open-level, challenging, powerful practice with dynamic vinyasa flows, drawing awareness to the breath and focus to the mind. He’s spent the last several years exploring and developing his practice both on his mat and in his life, and continues to do so in hopes of sharing that practice with others.
|