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 provide 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.
LILAVATI EBERLE
Owner, Thrive Yoga Crested Butte
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. Lilavati became the owner of Thrive Yoga Crested Butte in November of 2022.
“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.”
Take time to make your soul happy
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
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.
Heather Bell
Slow Flow
Heather Bell was introduced to yoga through the Iyengar tradition at a young age right here in Crested Butte. As her personal practice evolved, she was inspired to pursue a full 200hr teacher training to deepen her understanding of the life philosophy and application of all things yoga. Initially, her goal in training was to supplement her practice in Ortho-Bionomy, but she was later inspired to explore teaching as another avenue to share the embodied lifestyle with her fellow humans. Too much of the time we experience our world and ourselves through our minds alone; Yoga teaches us to live in the mind, body, and spirit as a more complete being. Finding balance, stability, and joy on the inside creates balance, stability, and joy on the outside.
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.
He who controls his breath controls his mind.
Juliet Stillman
Strong and Slow, Slow Flow
Juliet Stillman has been practicing yoga for 30 plus years and been teaching for about 15.
She is passionate about continuing her education and has over 1,000 hours in teacher training credits.
She believes yoga should be a safe practice that supports daily functional life. The goal of every class is to
optimize posture and movement patterns in order to find freedom, ease, and longevity of movement.
This in turn creates a cascade of positive effects in all areas of our lives. Her mission is to empower each
student through education, to encourage self-study and curiosity, and to model the life of a modern
yogi.
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.
jackie Just
Prana Vinyasa
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.
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 300 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.
Kaitlyn Grace
Vinyasa
Kaitlyn Grace is a Crested Butte native, a mountain girl at heart, who loves to travel, create community spaces for heart-centered connection, and study healing modalities . She is a registered RYT 500hr Yoga Teacher, specializing in therapeutic yoga and mind-body connection. Her classes focus on deepening self awareness and cultivating more ease in the body. All of her studies, including Incan Shamanism, cognitive science, and quantum physics come together in her classes through holistic sequencing. Kaitlyn believes that yoga is about balancing strength and softness that ripples out into every area of life.
Yoga is the dance of every soul with the music of every breath that creates inner serenity & harmony
Autumn Shanti Brown
Vinyasa, Vin-Yin
Autumn Shanti Brown was introduced to yoga at a very young age and has dedicated herself to teaching from a humbled, knowledgeable and genuine space. Autumn’s passion about yoga shows up in her teachings! Her classes take students deep into the physical body, which leads to a transformative experience in the mind. She believes “that’s when we find true balance within our lives and our practice.”
Autumn completed her 200hr certification with Yogaworks and finished her 500 RYT with the highly regarded Joan Hyman (who she still studies with).
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.
Annie Tunkey
Slow Flow and Prana Vinyasa
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.
Like a tree, you have to find your roots and then you can bend in the wind
Beth Robinson
Barre
Beth is a Colorado native who lives in CB South with her husband and two young daughters. She is a Barre Forte certified instructor and co-owned a barre studio in Edwards, CO before she and her family made the move to Crested Butte in 2021. Beth loves spending time outside with friends and family while strengthening her mind and body in nature. She appreciates the value of commitment to self-care and is excited to be a part of Thrive Yoga and it’s community!
Lo Storer
Restorative
Lo stepped into her yoga training after only taking a handful of classes back in 2011. From the start she knew yoga was the path for her. After completing her 200 hour she spent much of her twenties traveling the world. Teaching here and there but returned to her home studio Laughing River Yoga to finish her 500 Hour training and from there started to get serious about teaching. She teaches slow and mindful breath and body based practices meant to ground and relax the physical, emotional and energetic systems. Lo has taught all around Vermont, internationally and now gratefully in Crested Butte. In addition to yoga, Lo is a full time photographer and the creator and director of the beings of yoga project.
Sara Herrera
Hatha Flow
Sara is a high-spirited Colombian, enamored with CB and with yoga. She started practicing it in 2013 but really strengthened her practice in 2019 when she moved to the US. She has found that yoga provides a mind-body-spirit connection that helps her navigate life, heal and evolve.
She got her 200hr teacher training in Bali and is keen to spread the wisdom of yoga with all the people in her community. She intends to use yoga as a transformative avenue for self-growth. Oh, and don’t be surprised if she sneaks a little Spanglish in her classes!
Lo Storer
Vinysasa
Lo stepped into her yoga training after only taking a handful of classes back in 2011. From the start she knew yoga was the path for her. After completing her 200 hour she spent much of her twenties traveling the world. Teaching here and there but returned to her home studio Laughing River Yoga to finish her 500 Hour training and from there started to get serious about teaching. She teaches slow and mindful breath and body based practices meant to ground and relax the physical, emotional and energetic systems. Lo has taught all around Vermont, internationally and now gratefully in Crested Butte. In addition to yoga, Lo is a full time photographer and the creator and director of the beings of yoga project.