OUR DIRECTOR: Natalie South is a Naturopathic Doctor (ND) and an E-RYT. She has been studying yoga since 1999 and has been a teacher since 2008. Natalie is also the current director of Yoga in Schools. You can read more about her on her website & blog: www.nataliepedro.com & nataliepedro.wordpress.com

• To create a respectful, self- responsible, positive yoga environment where all paths are honored.
• To build a strong sense of community through cooperation, networking and referrals within the yoga community.
• To serve as a resource for the local community, alternative and traditional medicine, the wholistic health field and public education.
• To increase personal and global awareness, while assisting individuals in physical, mental and spiritual development.

We support our mission by offering 26 yoga classes per week in a variety of levels and styles to accomodate a wide range of students. Our classes offer a safe and comfortable space to explore both the general aspects of yoga and the more subtle energies that exist within the practice of yoga. We also offer a Yoga Alliance approved 200 Hour Hatha Yoga Teacher Training Program which teaches a comprehensive curriculum covering asana (poses), ayurveda, anatomy & physiology and many esoteric aspects of yoga including (but not limited to) pranayama, chakras, sanskrit, mantra and philosophy.

Our Yoga In Schools (YIS) program has been offering yoga classes to Santa Fe's public school students since 2001. The program trains yoga teachers to teach a special Yoga In Schools curriculum which includes teaching students yoga poses to build strength, flexibility and concentration, teaching breathing techniques to bring calm into the body and teaches the students to have greater awareness of their impact on those around them. In 2009, the program expanded to include a program specifically to teach Test Taking Skills to grades 3-6. Since these grades are required to sit for mandatory testing each year, the YIS program developed a skill set specifically for this situation. It offers students and teachers a few yoga poses and a few breathing exercises that can be used during testing. The feedback from teachers and students has been overwhelming for this new Test Taking Skills program and for our continued yoga classes. We are very fortunate and honored to be able to bring yoga to the schools and appreciate all of the financial support we receive from parents, community supports and Parent Teacher organizations.

Beginning in the Fall of 2011 Yoga in Schools will begin offering 3 distinct programs to high school and middle school students. The first program is designed specifically for teenage athletes. Yoga teachers work directly with sports teams to increase total body strength (not only sport specific strength), increase flexibility and decrease the likelihood of sports related injuries. The second program is offered through general PE classes at the school. Yoga teachers offer a series of yoga classes during PE as part of the overall physical education curriculum for each school. This is coordinated through individual PE teachers and yoga instructors. And the third program is an after school program at the Santa Fe Community Yoga Center open to all middle school and high school students Monday, Wednesday and Friday afternoons from 4 to 5pm. PE credit is available through the after school program as well. All YIS programs are free to the students and the schools.

The Yoga Center's founder, Michael, passed away in 2004. Michael created a great sense of community at the Yoga Center and this community continues to thrive. Many of the students at the Yoga Center have been attending yoga classes with us since we opened in 1996. We are always welcoming new students into our ever growing yoga community.

We are a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization and depend on the financial support of our students and our community. If you would like to help support our Center and its mission, your donation may be mailed to the following address:

Santa Fe Community Yoga Center
PO BOX 23167
Santa Fe, NM 87502

You may also click the donate button below to be redirected to our secure non-profit PayPal site:

Michael Maitreya Hopp—A Friend to All
January 7, 1961 - December 25, 2004

Michael was a well-known and loved leader, healer, teacher and creator of  community in Santa Fe. Michael passionately believed in being of service to mankind and in the power of community to enhance and enrich the lives of all. His dedication to a life of service and spiritual leadership was inspired by his great yoga teacher, Sri Swami Satchidananda, who gave him the name Maitreya, which means "friend to all", as they stood together on the banks of the Ganges River.

A 14-month pilgrimage around the world, including nine months in India, brought him back to Santa Fe in 1995 to create and direct the Santa Fe Community Yoga Center.

Michael was passionately involved with the men's community. He led the 14th annual New Mexico Men's Wellness Conference at Ghost Ranch Conference Center in 1998, choosing for its theme, "Healing the Healer Within". The conference continues to provide the opportunity for men to gather, share their stories and their feelings, to hear the wisdom of other men, to explore new realms of personal growth, and to deepen their relationships with other men in a safe, supportive environment. For many years Michael organized an annual gathering, entitled Man2Man, which brought together gay and straight men in order to promote mutual understanding and support for all men. Michael was also  deeply concerned with reconciliation between men and women, receiving training in gender reconciliation during 2002 and 2003 in Boulder, CO. He brought that work back to Santa Fe, offering gender reconciliation workshops through the Community Yoga Center.

Michael's community involvement included service on the Interfaith Council, as the moving force behind the labyrinths built at Frenchy's Field and the Santa Fe Community Yoga Center, creating community among the yoga studios of Santa Fe, teaching yoga and  meditation within the prison system of New Mexico and as a promoter of tolerance and understanding among all fellow beings.

Michael Maitreya Hopp passed on Christmas Morning 2004 while visiting his family in Redwing, Minnesota. Michael, his partner Jane Prouty, and his nephew, Nathan Schmidt succumbed to carbon-monoxide poisoning.

Michael's work lives on with the continuation of the Santa Fe Community Yoga Center and the Yoga In Schools program. Heart Mountain Prison Project continues to bring yoga and meditation to those incarcerated in New Mexico. His spirit continues within the hearts of all those whose lives he touched.