Rudy Peirce

Rudy Peirce is a gentle yoga teacher and teacher trainer from the Berkshires of Massachusetts who has been part of the Kripalu tradition for more than four decades. He arrived at Kripalu as a resident staff member in 1982, qualified as a Kripalu Yoga teacher the following year and was soon training other teachers himself, going on to lead dozens of trainings; Kripalu now counts him among its Legacy Faculty. He holds a master's degree and Kripalu's 1,000-hour certification, and has also trained as an Ayurvedic yoga teacher.

Over the years he has shaped his own approach, Dynamic Gentle Yoga, which keeps the movements simple and slow and offers choices at every stage, so that people who doubt they can do yoga at all can take part and still arrive at real stillness and meditation. For many years he and his wife, Joyce, travelled to studios along the East Coast; in 2020 they moved their teaching online and founded Gentle Yogis, a small online studio with a daily breath and gentle movement class followed by community reading and conversation. He also mentors gentle and chair yoga teachers, records guided practice audio and leads retreats at Kripalu and abroad.