ABOUT
YOGA
WITH
AVERY
ABOUT
YOGA
WITH
AVERY
Avery J Kalapa (they, them)
Level 2 Certified Iyengar Yoga Teacher, eRYT500, YACEP, BFA
Avery is an internationally celebrated Iyengar Yoga teacher. They have been practicing since 1999 and teaching since 2004. An advocate for queer and trans inclusive healing, Avery blends alignment and affirming spirituality in asana with somatic precision, reverence, and care. Both rigorous and accessible, Avery’s approach will organize your energy through embodiment. Their deeply welcoming Iyengar Yoga classes strengthen you, as you regulate your nervous system. Avery weaves in yoga philosophy and collective liberation into their classes, and a lot of joy. Avery specializes in functional asana, stability and applied philosophy. Their upbeat, empowering approach to classical yoga helps people get real relief, and access tangible transformation in body mind and consciousness. Avery stewards Sadhana Support Collective, an online yoga school, and teaches retreats, workshops, private therapeutic sessions.
AVERY’S APPROACH
to yoga
Yoga is a relational practice. It is a way to come into harmonious relationship with yourself, your body, mind… and through that, with the external world. Yoga is a healing practice rooted in liberation that fortifies our ability to not only survive, but thrive amidst these challenging, imbalanced times. Some of our greatest happiness, vitality, strength and wisdom can be accessed by reclaiming the parts of us systemic oppression has tried to exile, and in dismantling the ways we perpetuate inherited patterns of harm. Committed Iyengar yoga practice can empower this integration, towards inner and collective freedom.
We can find joy in our lives, no matter what external conditions.
My vast knowledge of functional anatomy and somatic alignment empowers tangible body mind spirit transformation. I bring depth, clarity, humor, and a nurturing, enthusiastic reverence to my teaching. I offer fun, functional, empowering asana as the ground from which we can explore and embody all eight limbs of Patanjali’s system.
Somatic healing isn’t a new trend – come discover a practice with deep roots.
BKS Iyengar revolutionized this embodied approach to spiritual transformation. Come feel for yourself the difference this beautiful method offers.
AVERY’S JOURNEY
To live deeply in yoga, and to share it with you. This is my path. To be the loving light and rigorous depth. Sharing fun, functional, empowering asana as the ground from which we can explore and embody all eight limbs of Patanjali’s system, and the bountiful possibility of practice in beloved community – this brings me so much joy. I am so glad we are connected.
I am deeply grateful to yoga, and my teachers, whose skill, dedication, and care and am indebted to. You have given me my life.
Deep pranams to the Iyengar family – Geetaji and Prashantji, Abhijata Iyengar and Raya Uma Datta. Gratitude to Kim Schwarz for your years of dedicated mentorship; and to Patricia Walden. Other important influential teachers include Ramanand Patel, Swati and Rajiv Chanchani, Faeq Biria, Leslie Howard, Bobbie Fultz, Leslie Bradley, Craig Kurtz, Hong Gwi Seok, Susanna Barkataki, Francois Raoult, Laura Allard, Zoreh Asfar, Patti Lentz, and others.
Your teachings live on through me and my students and this thread of connection is one I work to never take for granted.
I am also a practitioner of Vipassana Meditation, and have kept a daily practice since 2001, when I attended my first course in the tradition of S.N. Goenka.
HOW DID I GET INTO YOGA?
My yoga journey began in the mid 1990s, when, as a teenager, I became interested in some Indian philosophy books my mom collected while backpacking through Southeast Asia in the 70’s. I was curious about consciousness and our relationship to it, and being in service to healing the world. I took my first asana class in 1999, in Baltimore, Maryland, as an art school student. I immediately felt like I had found something essential, something new but also that felt like home.
When I was a kid, growing up with hippie parents in rural West Virginia, I benefited from spending a lot of time alone in nature. Embodied, exploring the magic of imagination, creativity, and the sacred dance of life, I had big dreams, a tender heart, and a lot of energy. As a queer genderfluid teen in the late 90s, living in New Mexico, I was hungry for belonging, which led me to find gay community that included raves out in the desert under countless stars, hip hop, drugs and sex work.
Yoga opened the door to heal from shame, stop using substances, and reclaim authorship of my life, build self acceptance, and gave me tools to discover new worlds. As a person with then undiagnosed ADHD, yoga and meditation also became crucial for navigating my neurodiverse brain. As a person with a lot of mobility, I dove into Ashtanga style classes but kept getting hurt. Once I found Iyengar Yoga’s stabilizing approach to asana and began to learn yoga philosophy, it changed everything. From the time I had the good fortune to began study with Kim Schwartz, my first mentor, in 2003, my orientation has been focused on functional anatomy, stability, and alignment as ways to reorganize the mind and subtle energies.
Hungry for depth, and finding this subject endlessly fascinating and relevant, I embarked on decades of committed study, which I continue to engage in – I will always be first and foremost, a student.
I know asana practice is a reliable way to shed the complexity of gender dysphoria, mental overwhelm, and reveal the beauty of existence; I have built my life the center these practices. Through highs and lows, parenting, and many changes, yoga practice has been my sanctuary, anchor, and key to open the doors to my life’s unfolding.
The path was long and winding
though; I was closeted in yoga for
many years.
I have been a full time teacher since 2004. A serious practitioner, I have over 15,000 hours of training. I’ve acquired way too many certifications: eRYT500, YACEP, certifications in trauma informed yoga, kids, teen and prenatal yoga, yoga for the pelvic floor. In 2018 I passed intro 1 and 2 Iyengar Yoga assessment after more than 5 years of preparation (and overcoming the belief I was too much of a queer freak to be a CIYT) to become a Certified Iyengar Yoga Teacher. In 2022 I completed assessment for level 2. I’ve travelled 3 times to India to study Iyengar Yoga.
Through much of this, I led a double life. Queer and trans organizing, drag shows and antiracism activism over here, yoga “professionalism” over there. Ten years ago I began to increasingly work to bring these two worlds together. I am a passionate advocate for queer and trans wellness, and have been involved in many yoga equity projects.
However, while teaching in person at studios pre-pandemic, (and being the breadwinner for myself and my two children) though I held a non-binary identity, I felt I couldn’t go fully into gender transition, or I’d loose my yoga career. The studios I taught at were wonderful spaces, but with internalized transphobia and imposter syndrome, I perceived a binary.
When the Covid-19 swept through our lives in 2020, and I launched classes online, I experienced a beautiful surprise: there are SO many other trans yoga lovers out there! This allowed me to find the inner courage to pursue gender transition, which has revealed for profound levels of integration, joy, and healing. My trans journey has opened the way for me to be a more authentic teacher and human. I love teaching all students, and, being able to create a trans celebratory sangha space for sadhana is incredibly rich and impactful.
All people, especially folks who have been left out of or turned of by mainstream yoga spaces, should have access to the revitalizing nourishment of deeply informed, classical yoga that goes beyond fitness, without having to code switch or assimilate in order to practice.
“One thing I am loving about this style of yoga is the body awareness it seems to strongly focus on.
I have found it frustrating that after 15 years of practicing yoga, when I still don’t really understand my body or what the poses are for. Practicing with you just a few times has already made me begin to actually understand. This is revolutionary!
Everything you teach has resonated so deeply for me and I just can’t express my gratitude and excitement enough for this opportunity to get to continue to learn from you.
My inner wisdom is jumping for joy like it’s just been waiting for me to finally notice what’s there for me and to return to the empowered sense of self that I have known before but lost touch with. I truly believe that this path will be the solution to all my perceived “problems”. So the journey begins. Thank you for who you are and what you bring to the table. Thank you for helping me to feel a lightness of being that I haven’t felt for many months. I feel so honored and blessed to get to be a part of this.”
– Clarissa (she, her)
I am skillful at helping those with range of motion challenges to understand how to work intelligently and safely to open up, while also helping folks with hypermobile bodies to adjust their practice to find stability. I can help you with anxiety, shoulder pain, top surgery recovery, SI joint issues, fertility, and so much more!
We all have social conditioning that keeps us stuck in old patterns. We replicate internalized oppression that affects our sense of self, and our relationships. We often blame ourselves for the ways we struggle, as we cope with intergenerational trauma, late stage capitalism, and being alive in a pivotal time on the planet. We use yoga as a playful laboratory to heal from the past. We develop our capacity for staying joyfully engaged. We reclaim a sense of wholeness and belonging.
My offerings center and deeply welcome queers, trans, BIPOC, outsiders, allies, socially conscious healers, change makers! I am a rigorous teacher, but also compassionate and nurturing. I teach all of my classes in a way that centers accessibility, and what is your work in the pose to bring you into balance.
I AM HERE FOR YOU.
You know yoga practice can be transformative. Feeling clear, strong and spiritually connected empowers you to live in integrity, resourced and rooted in purpose.
Unfortunately, a lot of modern yoga is a reductive, watered down version of ‘fitness’ flow that prioritizes conforming to a performative image, “positive vibes,” and toxic weight loss ideals. Yoga connected to lineage is increasingly rare in the west, in this era of Instagram influencers and AI driven yoga apps. Even in well meaning studios, common approaches to asana and sequencing often fail to help you progress in your practice, and can even cause frustrating injuries. On top of that, for anyone whose identity has been pushed to the margins, pressure to assimilate runs rampant. Harmful mainstream culture is often replicated in yoga spaces, through its cis, hetero, white, classist norms. Being an outsider is a blessing, but navigating this world is exhausting, complex, and heartbreaking. In order to survive, maybe you’ve sometimes disconnected from your body, your needs, or from certain parts of your sweet, sacred self. While it’s gotten you this far, you know it’s time for a deep shift.
You’re up for deep practice, but not into the BS.
You want to have a deeper, more committed practice – but it can be hard to find yoga that actually works with your body- not against it – so that you can experience the empowering strength and stability. Pain relieving anatomical alignment, energizing clarity, somatic release… these forms of embodied healing are within reach. Come explore practice that effectively releases the stress, fatigue, and mind-body challenges you face.
There are so many folks – maybe you are one – who are hungry to explore the full system of classical yoga in a way that uplifts their values around social change, collective healing, and how to integrate their physical practice with the rest of life. I am here for you. I teach yoga in the rigorous, adaptive, somatically precise method of the Iyengar lineage through an anti oppression framework that uplifts inner healing towards collective liberation.
Appreciative of your incredible body and all the amazing things it can do and feel, compassionate towards yourself and all you’ve been through, that brought you to this point. What would it feel like to let go of the layers of armor, to soften and be seen, to play and explore freely, the inner and outer wilderness?
To feel rooted in your truth, tender and fully alive? And to know deeply, that whenever challenges come, you’re connected to your inner strength and guidance. I so want this for you – to have a deep, committed yoga practice that nourishes you on every level, and empowers all the ways you show up.
Imagine feeling completely at peace with who you are.
This stability-centered approach to asana supports dynamic strength, supple autonomous movement, inner body length, and nervous system regulation.
Come explore structural reorganization and right relationship in your joints. Rebuild the neutral curves and fluid movement of the spine, and explore integrative core and pelvic floor health to globally decompress your body and clear out residual pain and fatigue. The physical entry point of asana allows for safe, effective mental, emotional, and energetic alignment, and profound spiritual connection.
We practice to reorganize our bodies and minds, nervous systems, patterns. Such practice makes healing within and the collective, tangible.
A few career
Highlights
I delivered a speech in tribute to Geeta Iyengar at the 2019 USA Iyengar Yoga Convention in Dallas, and also spoke at the 2018 Centenary Celebrations in Pune, India honoring BKS Iyengar. I was a featured model and yoga teacher in the Adidas + Wanderlust Summer 2019 Collection, and received a grant from Adidas to produce Yoga for All: a Healing Justice Immersion. I have offered yoga as a collaborator with organizations such as Embodied Philosophy, Tumblr, and several Universities. Twice I was a featured teacher at Driftless Yoga Festival. I have contributed to an article in Yoga Journal, a chapter in Jivana Hayman’s book Accessible Yoga.
In 2017 I have became a core organizer for ABQ Queer Trans Community Yoga. In 2019 I helped create the Reclaim Pride Yoga Challenge. In 2020 I organized a free Queer Trans Community Yoga 6 Month Guest Teacher Series featuring trans and non-binary primarily BIPOC teachers, thanks to a grant ABQ QTCY received from the Trans Justice Funding Project. I co-organized Ahimsa and Action, a presentation at the 2019 IY Convention that drew over 200 participants, and co-taught a 6 week course with Jen Tucker, ‘Embodying Antiracism’ for white folks, in 2020. The spirit of this work has continued to grow through producing several Queer & Trans Yoga retreats, with wonderful collaborators, which have been successfully designed to create at least 50% trans and at least 50% BIPOC participation.
It is a joy and honor to have taught hundreds of workshops and private sessions, and thousands of classes, and close to 20 epic retreats in the US, Mexico, and Costa Rica.
But the biggest highlight is working with my beloved students, and witnessing their brave, committed practice and incredible transformative wins.
I am honored to explore this work together, and constantly inspired by the beauty, meaning, and emerging possibilities we continue to discover together.
While Iyengar Yoga is at the center of my work, I am also a lifelong artist. I created the illustrations for pelvic floor yoga expert Leslie Howard’s book, Pelvic Liberation. At the 2018 Centenary Celebration in Pune, India, I painted a large artwork of Guruji that was signed by Geetaji and Prashantji that now hangs in the new Iyengar Yoga Center in Mumbai. In 2019 I created a Geetaji t-shirt that raised over $900 for Bellur. At the 2026 Iyengar Convention in Philly I created another live painting of Guruji in front of a live audience as a fundraiser for Bellur Trust Fund, which was sold in a live auction for $1450. My visual art has been included in many groups and solo exhibits; I’ve painted murals, and my work has been included in a handful of publications, including Mothering Magazine and Yoga Samachar. I had the honor of performing aerials and other circus arts in Topsy Turvy Queer Circus and Wisefool’s BUST shows.
Yoga Certifications:
(listed most recent first)
- Certified Iyengar Yoga Teacher Level 2
- Certified Iyengar Yoga Teacher at the Introductory 1 &2 Level
- Trauma Informed Yoga Certification with Mark Lilly, Street Yoga
- Yoga for the Pelvic Floor Teacher Training with Leslie Howard
- YogaKids Certification
- Pranayama Certification with Francois Raoult
- 500 RYT Yoga Certification from High Desert Yoga (2008)
- Prenatal Yoga Certification with Colette Crawford
- 200 RYT Hatha Yoga Certification from Temple of Kriya Yoga
some programs and projects:
in Albuquerque and surrounding areas
- Media Arts Charter School: Teen Yoga Asana and Philosophy classes for freshman class
- Kid’s Yoga at Montessori of the Rio Grande Charter School
- Yoga for Autism at John Adams Elementary
- Yoga at MATS Detox/Rehabilitation Center
- Crossroads for Women: Free 8 week Yoga Program for CFW clients transitioning out of incarceration.
- Lovelace Labor of Love: Prenatal yoga taught at Lovelace Hospital
- Milagro: Prenatal Yoga for women in recovery from narcotics addiction.
- Arts in Medicine: Chair yoga in hospital waiting rooms as part of the AIM program.
- To’hajiilee/ Canoncito Band of Navajos 8 week Senior Chair Yoga Program, through the CBN Diabetes Department
- Santo Domingo Pueblo Health Center Free Yoga Series for staff and community members, 2018
- Queer Trans Community Yoga (free/ donation based monthly class) through partnership with NM Transgender Resource Center 2017-present
- Trans and Nonbinary Yoga Workshop at the Mountain Run Center, 2019
- Embodying Nonbinary Workshop, 2020
- over 10 years of offering Retreats in the US, Costa Rica, and Mexico
- Children’s yoga classes at Montessori of the Rio Grande Charter School