Steffi Retzlaff

Born & raised in Germany but I have always been a traveler and now live in Canada. I hold a MA and Ph.D in Linguistics, Languages and Education and have worked in Europe and Canada but feel most alive when I can get out of my head an into my body.

I teach and practice yoga and dance because I have to. Because it feels and fills me up and empties me out. Because it has the power to heal my physical and emotional wounds. It is where I feel most at home. It's my point of stillness and my pool of energy. My sanctuary and my disco floor. I love yoga & deep nourishing breaths. I bend so I won't break. I inhale & exhale to smell the moment. I get out of my head and into my body. I am real.

My classes are inspired by many teachers and types of yoga and by my background in dance. Over the many years of teaching dance as well as teaching in an academic setting, I have become very adapt at sensing the energy in the room and to flow with it. I also know that as we flow through life we find ourselves sometimes in very habitual patterns. And this happens in our yoga practice as well. We get very rigid and set in our ways. In my classes I invite her students to embrace the change from the way they might have practiced yoga and to allow for dynamic ease.

The Joy of Movement has always been in the centre of my practice. I have practiced yoga since 2006 and the Ashtanga style was a perfect fit back then. Over the years I have come to appreciate many more styles such as Vinyasa/Hatha Flow, Hatha, Hot, Power, and Yin. Yoga, dance, meditation and breath work have helped me to work through back injuries from two accidents as well as academic burn-out.