MEET ESTHER
Esther is the founder of Elements Australia and creator of Elements Studio in Brisbane, Elements TV a brand new yoga + wellness app and facilitator of Elements Retreats and Trainings.

She has been practicing yoga for over 18 years and is a + 500 ERYT trained teacher, Certified Life Coach and AntiGravity / Aerial teacher , Movement Coach and Marketing Guru.
Esther followed her heart to share her passion for yoga, movement and people and draws her inspiration from Functional Movements, Gymnastics and Power Yoga - she loves challenging her students strength and stamina and will make sure each student is taken to the edge of their comfort zone. Growth requires planting new seeds and breaking habits and movement routines that come easily to you. Esther’s classes focus heavily on intelligent activation cues to make you feel and activate in each pose. You are always invited to see your practice as a discovery journey as Esther teaches you a multitude of ways to transition, adapt, and shift from one pose to another.
Esther believes humans are meant to move everyday, in many different ways, pushing, pulling, hanging, jumping, swinging, sliding, building strength and increasing your heart beat just as much as letting it drop deep to nourish your nervous system. Her teachings incorporate traditional yoga just as much as functional movement and primal movement elements - a true Modern Yoga approach.
Esther teaches a range of class styles from traditional formats such as Power Yoga, Vinyasa, Hatha and Yin to strength focussed classes such as Core and Sculpt inspired by resistance training and unique Movement classes incorporating Functional Movement, Primal Movement, Gymnastic drills, Monkeybard and Rings.
Esther has trained with and takes her teaching inspiration from
- Duncan Peak, Power Living Australia
- Benjamin Sears, Luxyoga US + France
- Noah Maze, the Maze Method US
- Shane Perkins, Yandara Yoga Mexico
- Patrick Beach, Awakening Yoga Academy
- currently inspired by Movement Guru Jackson Lennan

QUALIFICATIONS
Bachelor of Multimedia + Arts + Communications
+ 10 Years Art Direction in Advertising Agencies around the globe
200H RYT TT with Bryce Tunny in Brisbane
300H RYT TT with Shane Perkins, Yandara Yoga Mexico
100H Advanced Sequencing with Duncan Peak
50H Advanced Anatomy Training with Noah Maze
AntiGravity Teacher Training
100H Restorative + Yin at Yandara with Alison Eaton
100H Life Coaching Certificate with Anna Suil Master Trainer NLP
100H Immersion with Benjamin Sears
2 years / Studio Manger Bend+Fly
Creator of Elements Australia the Wellness Business

Coming from a background in Gymnastics, Danique has always had a deep love of strong, functional body movement. She discovered Yoga in 2009 and her practice helped her to overcome a long term struggle with anxiety, disordered eating and body image issues, as well as allowing her to feel more connected to the world around her. From this grew a great desire to share Yoga with others, so she made the decision to leave a decade long career as a Bookkeeper to pursue this passion and began her career as a Yoga Teacher in 2014.
Since then has continued to study different styles of movement to quench her never ending thirst for knowledge of all things health and fitness.
She is a self proclaimed anatomy nerd who has a strong passion for safe and proper alignment & through her teaching she aims to inspire those around her to reconnect with themselves through movement & breath, while falling in love with their bodies and all of its incredible capabilities.
As well as being a E-RYT500 Vinyasa Yoga Teacher, she now also teaches Mat Pilates, Restorative & Yin Yoga, Meditation, Barre, Lagree, Kids Yoga and Acro with her partner, Rhys.

QUALIFICATIONS

2014 - Being Yoga - 200hr Yoga Teacher Training
2016 - Being Yoga - 300hr Yoga Teacher Training - incl. Restorative Yoga, Yoga Therapy for Back Pain, Creative Vinyasa Sequencing, Advanced Vinyasa Sequencing, Align & Refine, Kids Yoga & Chakra Vinyasa
2018 - Fire, Nectar & Creativity with Martin Collyer - Shri Yoga
2018 - Barre Body - Barre Teacher Training
2018 - Rainbow Kids Yoga - Kids + Families Yoga Teacher Training
2019 - Yin Yoga Teacher Training
2019 - Clinical Yoga Therapy Teacher Training
2019 - Trauma Sensitive Yoga Teacher Training
2020 - Mat Pilates Teacher Training
2020 - Lagree Fitness Method Instructor Training

MEET LEANNE

Leanne started practicing yoga in 2011 in Vancouver BC. Although she didn’t know at the time, she sampled many different styles, specifically hatha, kundalini and vinyasa. Her yoga journey finally began to deepen in 2013 when she became a daily practitioner of Bikram yoga. This is a Hatha style yoga in heated rooms. It was an encouraging style for her at the time, as the repeated sequence helped her feel change in her body. Before yoga, she could hardly touch her toes! Leanne was a classic gym/runner and non-stretcher.

After a regular practice for many months, she wanted to dive into a Yoga Teacher Training. She wasn’t sure if she would be able to teach (stage fright), but really admired her many teachers in Vancouver. Leanne was already in study to become a Traditional Chinese medicine Practitioner - studying acupuncture and herbology, but loved yoga and needed to learn more.

At the beginning of 2015, she began a short teaching intensive to start the journey. She took a Strala Teaching Intensive with Tara Stiles. Strala is a modern yoga style incorporating Vinyasa with Qi Gong theory. So think really flowy, non alignment focused yoga. Instead of thinking about the posture, its focus is primarily to get out of the head and feel into the movements and breath. Very different to Bikram!

After that intensive, Leanne joined a full 200 hour YTT later that year in Karma yoga. After the Strala training, Leanne had stopped Bikram and started practicing Dharma and Vinyasa. She loved Dharma for the heavy inversion practice, and Vinyasa for learning the alignment cues. She wanted to learn more. Her first 200 hour course was a Vinyasa focus with Yin element to give understanding on the opposite theories. Her 200 hour was a one month intensive at Karma Yoga in Vancouver. Her lead teacher in this program was a Vinyasa trained with heavy influence in Ashtanga - which is the blueprint of how Leanne teaches today.

Karma Yoga was a center developed for giving opportunity to all walks of life. The program was intense and focused heavily on philosophy as it is the path to help heal past traumas. After receiving a partial scholarship for the program, Leanne went on to teach Karmic hours for the first year after her training ended (until moving to Australia). She is forever grateful for the Karmic path as it was the only reason she was able to stand up and teach in front of the public eye. Understand it was a service to others made the task less frightening.

Leanne was lucky while in Canada to practice with the many epic teachers in Vancouver such as Meghan Currie, Chris Dugan, Slava Golovough, and Steve Ferezzi. These teachers are still to this day her main influence - not only in the epic skill level they had but in their personality as a teacher, creativity and personal practice. During her time in Vancouver, Leanne completed 4 years of study to become a Traditional Chinese Medicine Practitioner (herbologist and acupuncturist).

After moving to Australia, Leanne went back to NYC in 2018 to study her 500 hour program with Sri Dharma Mittra. While in Vancouver, she learnt that her favourite style to practice was the Dharma lineage. The classes were always a blend of vinyasa and workshop-style postures where she learnt more interesting transitions and had a lot of fun with these teachers. The class was never stuffy - it was always a group laughing, learning many postures and transitions, listening to hip hop - absolutely no ego. On top of the fun of the class was a more in depth look at philosophy, pranayama and meditation. You always hear the phrase “that’s not yoga”. This phrase does not exist for Dharma yogis. It is a lineage of full compassion, challenging Asana, freedom to be seen and zero judgement. It was the real deal to her. She was so excited and humbled to train under Yogi master himself 80 year old Sri Dharma Mittra. This took her philosophy interest to the next level and her favourite part of the advanced training was the Spiritual discourse lead by Sri Dharma himself.

Within these studies and after, Leanne has studied short courses in Yin, Tantra theory as well as sat her first 10 day silent Vipassana meditation. She is, like all yoga teachers, a forever student, and most recently spent 2020 studying under Paul Grilley for Yin and Carlos Pomeda in yoga history, philosophy and Tantra. She is looking forward to her first Vedic meditation course with Jac Lewis in 2021.

WHAT TO EXPECT FROM LEANNE?

Leanne is looking forward to talking about ancient philosophy, and how we can apply it to our daily lives now. How do we apply this in our teaching? What does science say today? Expect her philosophy teaching to be rooted in a practical manner, with easy to add application into your teaching and your life. We will take a more in depth look at the scriptures, and how to pick apart the intelligence to create empowering sequences.

Expect to learn more advanced Pranayama and meditation techniques, while simplifying it into your own personal practice. Understand the meridian theory when teaching Yin to understand if the sequence makes sense for your theme. And above all - how to find your Dharma. How to find your unique purpose and message as a teacher. We all have unique experiences which make us all valuable teachers. Helping the students find their Dharma and confidence gives Leanne so much joy.

QUALIFICATIONS

2012 Registered holistic nutritionist - Vancouver, Canada
2015 25H Strala Yoga intensive - Seattle, USA
2015 200H Yoga training - Karma Teachers in Vancouver, Canada
2016 Traditional Chinese medicine practitioner (acupuncture + herbology) - ICTCM Vancouver, Canada
2018 500H yoga training - Dharma yoga NYC, USA
2020 50H Tantra training - Creature yoga online
2020 20H functional Yin - Paul Grilley online

Laura has a love for health and the human body. She's an experienced yoga and meditation teacher with a masters in chiropractic, honours in health science + bachelor of biomedical science. Laura joins us as a very special and experienced guest facilitator, with her incredible understanding of the human body: teaching and inspiring our students through their anatomy segment of their teacher training.