It all started when…

I heard about a hot yoga training at Kripalu Center in Massachusetts in 1997. I wanted to teach, but it turned out that style was not for me. While I was taking the training I saw someone practicing Ashtanga Sun Salutations and in that moment I knew…
I returned home and searched for an Ashtanga training that seemed interesting. Luckily, I found a month long training that began in the Spring of 1998 at It’s Yoga, San Francisco, led by Larry Schultz. We practiced, watched, learned, breathed and fell in love with the Modified Primary Series and Rocket yoga in that 2nd floor studio. I truly feel blessed to have had that time with Larry and my mentor Mark.

Once I returned to PA I began to teach anywhere I could: community centers, YMCA, anywhere that would have me. I took trainings with David Swenson and learned the rest of the Primary Series along with how to assist and modifications for students just beginning the practice.

In 1999 I received a call from my 2nd cousin, Brenda, who was opening her own kickboxing studio in Allentown. She offered me space to teach there on her off hours. We named our studio Alive and Kicking, which was the first yoga studio in the Lehigh Valley. Our yoga classes grew and I eventually took over the space on my own. In 2001, we outgrew the space and moved to the Silkwerks building in Allentown. I renamed the studio Lehigh Valley Yoga Center and we started offering other styles of yoga, belly dancing and other related workshops.

Just before we opened LVYC, I traveled to Maui, Hawaii to take a week long Primary Series intensive training with Nancy Gilgoff, Ashtanga practitioner, instructor and old friend of David Williams. On our day off from training, Shari, Ruthie and I went to take a class with David Williams and see what his method was all about. David did not do hands-on assists as I had been used to with my other Ashtanga instructors. I was free to do the postures of the Primary Series without feeling like I had to ‘get’ anywhere other than where I was right then and there. It allowed me to be in the moment, within the practice. Something I had experienced separately up until that moment. I floated away from that class realizing that I had found my teacher and the method I would follow for the rest of my life! I have hosted David multiple times for weekend workshops in the Lehigh Valley, at my first studio Lehigh Valley Yoga Center and eventually at Emmaus Yoga. I offer a teacher training that is my way to honor David and to show the incredible effect David has had on thousands of students, all over the world, over the past 50 years he has been teaching. I've spoken with many students who feel that David’s method of teaching allows them to enjoy their practice again and focus on ‘what’s invisible’: the movement of prana to raise your endorphins, bring more happiness to your life and avoid injuries. ~
Erica McHugh E-RYT500