Mary Johnston-Coursey
MFA in dance / Para Yoga® certified / RYT 500 / E-RYT 200 / CYT
Mary Johnston-Coursey began her study of yoga in 1980 by jumping into a daily Astanga practice (before there were yoga mats…), and started teaching in 1981. Over the years she has studied in numerous styles and with many incredible teachers. She is grateful to all of her teachers, and is especially honored to be part of a lineage that serves as an incredibly rich and endless resource for growth within her own practice and teaching.
Mary first encountered her teacher Rod Stryker during a weekend intensive in 2004, and knew that this work would somehow change her life. She is currently certified through his training as a Level II Para Yoga teacher. She is also a certified Yoga Therapist through Body Balance Yoga with Jenny Otto. Other influential teachers include Donna Farhi, Judith Lasater, Elise Browning Miller, Jamie Allison, Felicity Green, and Richard Miller. Beyond the yoga world, Mary's teachers include a Jesuit - Jim Mara, a dancer - Aron Tomaroff, and most importantly her amazing parents - Bob and Terry Johnston. Over the years, Mary has integrated all of these influences to work with students individually as well as in group classes, in support of their healing and empowerment.
With yoga as her ground base, Mary holds an MFA in dance, and spent over twenty years as a professional dancer, teacher and choreographer. Her background in dance deeply informs her understanding of yoga: choreography became for her a spiritual investigation and discipline; performing offered her an intimate understanding of energy and its sublime expression through the body; multiple dance injuries gave her as many opportunities for healing through yoga.
Mary also performs as a singer in two bands and as a storyteller, and has taught movement, music and art to kids. She has worked in ceramic, stone, and tile mosaic. She sees creative impulse, in all its many forms, as the source of our joy. Para Yoga is, for her, an opportunity to engage the outward self towards an inward focus, to seek and discover the essential seed of this creative impulse from within. She is both thrilled and humbled to share this work with her students.
Stonecircle music
Mary first encountered her teacher Rod Stryker during a weekend intensive in 2004, and knew that this work would somehow change her life. She is currently certified through his training as a Level II Para Yoga teacher. She is also a certified Yoga Therapist through Body Balance Yoga with Jenny Otto. Other influential teachers include Donna Farhi, Judith Lasater, Elise Browning Miller, Jamie Allison, Felicity Green, and Richard Miller. Beyond the yoga world, Mary's teachers include a Jesuit - Jim Mara, a dancer - Aron Tomaroff, and most importantly her amazing parents - Bob and Terry Johnston. Over the years, Mary has integrated all of these influences to work with students individually as well as in group classes, in support of their healing and empowerment.
With yoga as her ground base, Mary holds an MFA in dance, and spent over twenty years as a professional dancer, teacher and choreographer. Her background in dance deeply informs her understanding of yoga: choreography became for her a spiritual investigation and discipline; performing offered her an intimate understanding of energy and its sublime expression through the body; multiple dance injuries gave her as many opportunities for healing through yoga.
Mary also performs as a singer in two bands and as a storyteller, and has taught movement, music and art to kids. She has worked in ceramic, stone, and tile mosaic. She sees creative impulse, in all its many forms, as the source of our joy. Para Yoga is, for her, an opportunity to engage the outward self towards an inward focus, to seek and discover the essential seed of this creative impulse from within. She is both thrilled and humbled to share this work with her students.
Stonecircle music