Our Teachers
The yoga teachers at Black Lotus Studios are certified or in training through the BKS Iyengar Yoga Association of Australia and Peter Thomson, Senior Iyengar Yoga teacher.
I’m sure you have seen those ads offering three month yoga teacher training courses? Well, we don’t do that! The tradition of yoga dates back thousands of years and we believe that practice and yoga understanding is the work of a lifetime. The teachers at Black Lotus Studios have all been doing it for quite some time.
Sue-ellen Kohler
Sue-ellen Kohler (she/her) is the principal teacher and owner of Black Lotus Studios. She has been practicing 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 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 from 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.
Sue-ellen Kohler
Sue-ellen Kohler (she/her) is the principal teacher and owner of Black Lotus Studios. She has been practicing 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 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 from 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.
Margaret Lum
Margaret has been a practitioner of Iyengar yoga for 25 years.
Sebastian Cilento
After finishing University in Melbourne in 1988 Sebastian left to live on his aunt Diane Cilento's property 'Karnak' in the Daintree Rainforest, Far North Queensland.
Diane ran 9 month courses in esoteric studies with all the students living and working together as a self-sustaining community. He stayed for four years. It was an experiment and preparation for the needs of the future and a question about the sense and significance of life on Earth. This was the beginning of a Spiritual search that has led in many directions and has found many teachers. Sebastian began practicing Iyengar Yoga in 1992 at the Hatha Yoga Shala in Bondi Junction with Shandor Remete, an intense and inspiring teacher who lit the fire of practice and discipline, the persistent work through yoga to burn off the dross, to work through the outer shell and reveal the deeper Reality of life. In 1995 he went to live in Santa Fe, New Mexico where he spent the next seven years doing a jewellery apprenticeship and continued his study and practice of yoga with Stephen Norvell.
Sebastian Cilento
After finishing University in Melbourne in 1988 Sebastian left to live on his aunt Diane Cilento's property 'Karnak' in the Daintree Rainforest, Far North Queensland.
Diane ran 9 month courses in esoteric studies with all the students living and working together as a self-sustaining community. He stayed for four years. It was an experiment and preparation for the needs of the future and a question about the sense and significance of life on Earth. This was the beginning of a Spiritual search that has led in many directions and has found many teachers. Sebastian began practicing Iyengar Yoga in 1992 at the Hatha Yoga Shala in Bondi Junction with Shandor Remete, an intense and inspiring teacher who lit the fire of practice and discipline, the persistent work through yoga to burn off the dross, to work through the outer shell and reveal the deeper Reality of life. In 1995 he went to live in Santa Fe, New Mexico where he spent the next seven years doing a jewellery apprenticeship and continued his study and practice of yoga with Stephen Norvell.
Suzy Wolanski
Suzy has been driven by the expression and exploration of movement in various forms since she was a little girl.
Suzy Wolanski
Suzy has been driven by the expression and exploration of movement in various forms since she was a little girl.
Blye Wilson
Blye was first introduced to Iyengar Yoga in the mid 1980’s and 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 teaching of Peter Thomson and Sue-ellen Kohler. The importance of ‘Intelligent action’ that runs through all of their teaching, 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.
Blye Wilson
Blye was first introduced to Iyengar Yoga in the mid 1980’s and 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 teaching of Peter Thomson and Sue-ellen Kohler. The importance of ‘Intelligent action’ that runs through all of their teaching, 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
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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 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 Yogas 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 practise has been a source of great strength and self-awareness for Vinnie — a gift she feels privileged to share with her students.
Vincenza Scalone
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Mauris at tellus ligula.
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 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 Yogas 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 practise has been a source of great strength and self-awareness for Vinnie — a gift she feels privileged to share with her students.
