Our Instructors
Meet our Dedicated yogis
Our yoga teachers embody what it means to live from love and through asana they put love into motion. Yoga teachers are like master gardeners; they nourish small seeds through collective practice and breath-work. They hold space for still introspection, and facilitate collective movements that enliven people and provides tools that help us understand what it means to Thrive! All of us at Thrive Yoga are committed to spreading the love through movement. We trust that if we can move and love one individual then they can become a beacon of love and light for those we cannot reach.
Brittany (Phelps) Romano
Brittany has an adventurous spirit and a love for the outdoors. Brittany began practicing yoga as a young girl. She lived at Konalani Yoga Ashram during her college years and became a certified 200-Hour Teacher in 2008. Brittany highly values living yoga or yoga off of the mat and she always dreamed of owning a yoga studio. The stars aligned when she landed in Crested Butte, the stars aligned and Brittany opened Thrive Yoga Crested Butte in 2017. She has since launched Thrive Yoga Studios; a yoga studio collective that now serves studios across the Southwest! Brittany teaches and mentors other yogis about how to excel and enjoy entreprenership in her Conscious Business Mentorship Program.
Take time to make your soul happy
Stacey Donaldson
Prana Vinyasa, Yin
Beginning in 2010, Stacey’s yoga practice quickly became her greatest teacher in self-realization and self-discovery. She found the connection between the energetic subtle body, the mind and spirit captivating. Yoga continues to bring her back to the compassionate, courageous and wild human heart. It reminds her we are not separate, but in fact connected to each other and the natural landscape around us.
MARGARET LOPERFIDO
Prana Vinyasa
Margaret stepped into her first yoga class over 18 years ago and fell in love with the practice at once. She completed her 200 hour Prana Vinyasa Yoga Teacher Training in 2013. Margaret’s style of teaching incorporates vinyasa flow with attention to alignment. She strives to challenge each student mentally and physically, while incorporating a sense of levity and humor as a reminder to not take ourselves too seriously. Her hope is that each student will walk out of her class feeling a bit more connected to the earth, to each other and to their own quiet space within.
JULI COLUCCI
Prana Vinyasa
Juli has a diverse background in practicing and teaching movement modalities. She started teaching PiYo and has most recently been trained to teach Prana Vinyasa Yoga. Juli is currently pursuing her 500-Hour Yoga Certification, all while managing running her company, and her beautiful family. If you want a living example of strength and balance, you will want to come practice with Juli.
Carin Lockhart
Carin is a Colorado native that began her yogic journey over ten years ago. The beautiful, holistic pull of yoga drew her to complete her teacher training in 2011 and then to leave the corporate world to teach full time and pursue her advanced 500 certification in 2013. A believer that Yoga Nidra can basically save the world, Carin pursued and completed her Amrit Advanced Yoga Nidra certification in 2018. Carin’s passion is creating a space for other yogis to deepen their practice with classes that integrate yogic teachings, nurturing physical poses and lots of loving energy. www.yogoonthego.com
He who controls his breath controls his mind.
Juliet Stillman
Slow Flow
Yoga is huge part of Juliet’s life. She believes all of the practices (asana, meditation and pranayama) are helpful tools to create balance and ease in this modern day life. Our awareness is so often not in the present moment and we run around on autopilot; not noticing our posture, our breath, our actions and reactions. Juliet says that if we can take the time to formally practice more optimal posture and movement patterns our brain can rewire and we can enjoy that same efficiency all the time. If we take the time to get quiet and still enough so that we can observe the present moment, it will become easier to drop into that state during our everyday.
Juliet recently added an additional 200 hours of yoga teacher training to her 500 hours. She is psyched about the new style that she is teaching which has a Physical Therapy twist to it, so we can address our physical imbalances in our practice and in our every day. Juliet is teaching both online and in the studio.
Jen Laggis
Iyengar
Jen is a Certified Iyengar yoga instructor. She has been a student of Iyengar yoga for nearly 20 years and has been teaching regularly since 1999. She is passionate about the subject of yoga and enjoys the process of self study through the yoga asanas. Jen’s main inspiration is drawn from Senior Iyengar teacher Nancy Stechert of Hotchkiss, CO.
Chynna Collins
Vinyasa
Chynna is an Oklahoma native that has been competitive and professionally dancing since age 3. After being diagnosed with degenerative disc disease and told she could never dance again- and was pointed towards yoga – “it was love at first flight.” She spent 6 years practicing yoga extensively while teaching dance and fitness. She obtained her 200 hour RYT in Ashtanga from Rishikul Yogshala in Rishikesh, India. After traveling in India and soaking up as much knowledge as she could, she has made the permanent move to Crested Butte where she continues to share and develop her practice.
Ashley King
Hatha Flow
Ashley was chanting mantra before she could form actual sentences. After practicing yoga for almost 12 years, she received her first 200HR Teacher Training from School Yoga Institute in 2017. Ashley attended Mountain Heart School of Bodywork for massage and transformational neuro-muscular therapy in 2020. In her classes, you can expect an emphasis on the ‘why’ and how asana can purify the body. Her depth of knowledge in anatomy through her bodywork practice adds to her emphasis on alignment, body metaphoric, and energetics. You can expect traditional practices such as: pranayama, mantra, and meditation in her group classes.
Ashley believes her life’s work is to help others remember their essence, their infinite greatness, and to connect others to themselves through the power of consistent mindfulness practices. When she is not working at Rewild Wellness and Bodywork, and practicing massage, you can find her living life to its fullest with her dog and husband, rock climbing, dancing, traveling the world, trekking through wilderness, mountain running, skiing, or mountain biking.
Energy cannot be destroyed, only changed.
Jessica Noll
Jessica is a 200 hour registered yoga teacher, and 95 hour certified children’s yoga teacher from Phoenix, Arizona. She is trained in making yoga and mindfulness inclusive and accessible to individuals of diverse abilities and backgrounds. She started practicing yoga in 2016 in order to help with shoulder pain after a car accident, but instead found it transformed her whole life by creating a space to access peace and better understand her body. Jessica believes yoga is much more than the physical practice, and therefore her classes focus on breath awareness and connection of the mind, body and soul.
GUY CIULLA, L. AC.
Lilavati Eberle
Vinyasa, Slow Flow
Lilavati started practicing yoga in 2006, and quickly realized that becoming a yoga instructor was her path! She graduated from a 200-hour residential training in Integral Yoga Hatha at Satchidananda Ashram – Yogaville in the fall of 2007. After which she decided to continue living at the ashram, to deepen her practice. That one-month training turned into a her home for the next twelve years, not only practicing and teaching yoga on the mat, but living yoga. After completing her 500-hour training at Yogaville, she has since continued her studies to be certified in Yin Yoga and Accessible Yoga.
“The teachings of yoga have been my guiding light for well over a decade now, and my life is so much richer and happier for it. I believe every body deserves yoga, and I love to share the teachings of yoga with those who want to learn.”
Theresa Schaul
Vinyasa & Therapeutic
A native of Chicago, Theresa spent ten years practicing at London’s leading studio. There she completed her 500 hour teacher training diploma accredited by the British Wheel of Yoga and Yoga Alliance in 2016. Her love of yoga is rooted in its transformative qualities and ability to create awareness for conscious living. She continually experiences profound effects on the mind, body and spirit from yoga practice. Theresa’s classes concentrate on breath and alignment, incorporating philosophy, anatomy, meditation, pranayama, mantra and restorative elements where appropriate. She brings a positive, playful energy and lightness to the practice.
Autumn Shanti Brown
Vinyasa
Chloe Dascoli
Restorative
Chloe is an adventurer at heart with a love for the experience of exploration and curiosity. She found yoga in high school and has found it to change her life multiples times since. Chloe has a passion to share this life-changing practice with others. For her, the experience of exploration extends not only to the outside world but the vast world that is our own bodies, minds and souls. In yoga, the two become beautifully intertwined in a practice that reminds us we are not separate from the whole. Chloe’s classes weave together alignment-based asana with breathwork and meditation to create a full spectrum experience that leads students to lean into their own beautiful existence.
Yoga is the dance of every soul with the music of every breath that creates inner serenity & harmony
Annie Tunkey
Slow Flow and Prana Vinyasa Yoga
Annie discovered Prana Vinyasa yoga in 2005 when she borrowed a Shiva Rea DVD from the Crested Butte Library. The connection to body and breath through movement inspired a yoga practice that culminated in a 200RYT certification. Annie desires to create a space where students can drop-in and deepen the connection to themselves through their yoga practice. Classes are based on Vinyasa flow and combine music and movement to create a space dedicated to self-realization and connection. Annie enjoys teaching students of all levels.
Ashley Sargent
Therapeutic Yoga
Ashley has been teaching yoga since 2006 and is 500-RYT certified. Her background is in Iyengar yoga and therapeutic yoga is her passion. Come experience the benefits; all bodies and abilities are welcome! Privates available day of class.
Lisa D'arrigo
Women’s Circle and Prana Vinyasa
Lisa is a Prana Vinyasa Yoga Teacher and also trained certified Aromatherapist, Earth Medicine Practitioner, Reiki Master and Advanced Crystal Master. She likes to combine these modalities into workshops, crystal yoga classes and Women’s Circle offerings.
Ashley Jackson
Ashley is a Certified Rolfer, Advanced Certified Yoga Teacher and Pilates Instructor serving Crested Butte and Gunnison, CO. She graduated from the Rolf Institute of Structural Integration in Boulder, CO in 2015 and has over 1500 hours of training in yogic studies. Ashley obtained her BFA degree from Western Colorado University in 2007. My goal as a Rolfer™ is to help you find a greater degree of ease and freedom in your body. I strive to find the right balance in life and in my body, and Rolfing® has been an integral part of my ability to stay strong, healthy, flexible, manage stress, and feel connected. She believes in the power of movement to alleviate tension, channel energy and ignite awareness and is dedicated to unite community through intentional practices and a whole lotta love. She is a student first and teacher second and aims to continue her studies yearly to evolve her offerings. When she’s not teaching or rolfing, she is traveling, playing in the mountains or searching for a tantalizing meal with her husband and pup.
Like a tree, you have to find your roots and then you can bend in the wind
MELISSA STEWART
Vinyasa, Slow Flow, Trauma Informed
Melissa Stewart is a 200 hour certified Yoga Instructor trained specifically in Trauma Informed Yoga practices. She is passionate about the connection of the mind, body and the spirit to heal us from the inside-out. She incorporates gentle movements, breathwork and intentional meditation into her classes. Melissa is also a certified Life Coach for women and incorporates the medicine of yoga into her coaching practices. When she’s not on the yoga mat, Melissa is exploring the outdoors and spending time with her husband and 3 teenage children.
Allie Mcfarland
Vinyasa, Power Vinyasa, Slow Flow
A native of Crested Butte, Colorado, Allie is an ardent movement facilitator, and has an extensive background in Dance Instruction and Choreography. Since receiving her RYT 200 certification, she has expanded her movement knowledge to include teaching Vinyasa, Slow Flow, and Power Yoga. Allie’s love for Yoga is rooted in her passion for body awareness and the desire for conscious living through the integration of body, mind, and spirit. In her classes, you can expect a focus on creative sequencing and alignment, with hints of her choreography experience interwoven throughout, to create a streamlined and powerful flow.