Alex Halenda

Alex Halenda grew up in Miami in a devout Christian family, was homeschooled for much of her childhood and spent long, quiet stretches outdoors. At fifteen she persuaded a Buddhist teacher at her high school to lead a meditation session, and the crowd that turned up became a school meditation club. Yoga followed, and she has now taught for about sixteen years, with training in Ashtanga, power and yin styles, study of yoga and psychology, and a year of yoga and service at Mount Madonna Center in the community founded by Baba Hari Das.

She is based in Los Angeles, where Kinship Yoga in Highland Park is her home studio. She teaches around ten classes a week, mostly heated vinyasa and hatha with some yin, and also leads sessions on breathwork, mantra and inversions and part of the studio's 200-hour teacher training. Her classes are known for clear cueing, humour and careful options for every level, and she likes to pair physical effort with a question to contemplate. She shares free full-length classes on YouTube, sells recorded practices as audio downloads, and leads retreats, including a week at Esalen on lila, the idea of life as divine play.