Meet Our Yoga Teachers

SUE-ELLEN KOHLER

Sue-ellen Kohler (she/her) is the principal teacher and owner of Black Lotus Studios. She has been practising and teaching Iyengar yoga for more than 30 years. Sue-ellen moved to Sydney in 1985 as a young professional dancer from Melbourne to join Russell Dumas's company 'Dance Exchange' and then later with the performance group 'The Sydney Front'. She was performing at Expo 88 when a fall from stilts crushed a vertebra in her spine. This accident became an important catalyst for her yoga development, helping her to understand yoga's capacity to heal on a holistic level. She undertook teacher training with Martyn Jackson at the Australian School of Yoga in Bondi Junction and started teaching there in 1989. Sue-ellen became a certified Iyengar Yoga teacher in 1995 while undertaking her apprenticeship with senior Iyengar Yoga teacher Peter Thomson.

Sue-ellen was one of the first teachers in Sydney to introduce 'stretch' classes to gyms as a form of extending yoga practice beyond the boundaries of yoga-specific school sites. She was also well-known and loved for her stretch classes at Sydney Dance Company in the early 90's. As a student of Peter Thomson, she began teaching at the Glebe Yoga School in 1993 and continued when he moved the school to East Sydney as the Sydney Yoga Space. When Peter Thomson closed his school in 2007, she created Black Lotus Studios and opened her yoga and natural therapies centre in Enmore, bringing most of the SYS teachers with her. Since then, she and her partner Melissa Coote have built a gorgeous, purpose-built studio in their garden in Marrickville. You'll find her most days either practicing or, teaching or cleaning in the leafy garden studio.

MARGARET LUM

Margaret has been a practitioner of Iyengar yoga for 25 years. For the past 10 years, she has studied under Peter Thomson and Sue-Ellen Kohler, teaching at Sydney Yoga Space and Black Lotus Studios. This training has given her a foundation for understanding how yoga is integral to life. For a few years, Margaret made a sea change with her family to the beautiful South coast of NSW, where she ran classes for locals. Consistent practice and dedicated teachers have supported her well-being and self-awareness, as well as practical life skills for teaching yoga and meeting the challenges that come with juggling work and family.

SUZY WOLANSKI

Suzy has been driven by the expression and exploration of movement in various forms since she was a little girl. Modern dance featured throughout most of her life, along with the study and practice of Tai Chi. Throughout the years, Suzy studied various styles of yoga as well, but it wasn't until 2006, when she began training at the Sydney Yoga Space with two inspirational teachers, Peter Thomson and Sue Ellen Kohler, that she felt like she was 'home'. It was her first introduction to Iyengar Yoga, and she has been enthralled and stimulated ever since! The intelligence of the Iyengar method of learning asana and the benefits and surprises of sustained practice have always been a source of wonder and continue to serve as an important touchstone for personal discovery.

Suzy is also a certified dance/ movement specialist, focusing her work on the developing and transformational relationship between the mother/baby dyad. As a founding board member and volunteer for the not-for-profit organisation, 'Mum for Mum' since 2009, Suzy offers emotional support and weekly mentoring for vulnerable mothers for the first 12 months of the baby's life. Yoga informs all that she does, providing a framework by which to live a meaningful life.

BLYE WILSON

Blye was first introduced to Iyengar Yoga in the mid-1980s, and she knew from the start that it would play a big part in her life. During the busy period of bringing up her daughter and son, yoga study was reduced to reading books (pre-www) and attending classes sporadically. It was not until 2003 that regular classes were again possible. In 2005, she first began attending the Sydney Yoga Space and discovered the inspiring teachings of Peter Thomson and Sue-Ellen Kohler. The importance of 'Intelligent action' that runs through all of their teachings began to give some understanding that dedicated yoga practice is life & culture-changing.

She has attended numerous Intensives and workshops with PT in Bali, Thailand and Sydney. PT runs an ongoing Teacher Development program that Blye is involved in. It provides a forum to a community of teachers globally, the valuable training that these meetings provide help when teaching students about the subtle aspects of yoga practice.

VINCENZA SCALONE

Vincenza Scalone has been an Iyengar yoga practitioner for more than 20 years. But her first taste of yoga was at the age of six — a weekly class in the library at Orange Grove Public School, taught by Miss Vishunat. Vinnie grew up in the kitchen of Italian reception venue Conca D'Oro. One of her earliest memories is of her being put to sleep on a kitchen bench under a tablecloth while her parents worked the late shift.

Yoga and food became the twin passions that continue to fascinate her. Trained as a chef, Vinnie worked in restaurants and as a recipe writer for television cooking shows before opening her successful Lilyfield cafe, Pane e Cipola. Vinnie continues to work as a teacher at Sydney Seafood School. After rediscovering yoga in her early 20s in Varanasi, Vinnie began classes with Sue-ellen Kohler at Peter Thomson's Glebe Yoga School in 2000. She has been a student of Peter and Sue-ellen ever since and has completed her Introduction Level 2 assessment. When faced with the challenges of family life, her yoga practice has been a source of great strength and self-awareness for Vinnie — a gift she feels privileged to share with her students.