Maria Sobkow

Practicing yoga since 1985, Maria is a Certified Yoga Instructor and registered Yoga teacher with Yoga Alliance. Known in the yoga community by her Sanskrit name, Manorama, she holds multiple certifications from the Integral Yoga Institute and is a graduate of the Yoga Mandali School of Anusara Yoga with a B.A. in Movement Therapy from the University of California at Berkley. Currently, Maria is an instructor at the New York Integral Yoga Institute, and a consultant at the New York University Hospital Center Division of Complementary Medicine. She serves as the Program Director for Fun Yoga's(TM) On-Site Corporate Yoga and Stress Management Programs and conducts yoga workshops for dancers throughout the country. Maria's professional dance background includes classical and contemporary roles with The Royal Danish Ballet, The English National Ballet, The San Francisco Ballet, the London City Ballet, The Vienna State Opera Ballet and The National Opera of Sofia. Her training includes The School of American Ballet, Helgi Tomasson, Richard Gibson, Benjamin Harkarvy, Woytek Lowski, Belinda Wright and Jelko Yuresha. Drawing on her extensive dance and yoga experience, Maria's classes are geared to meet the needs of professionally oriented dancers with the goal of maximizing the body's potential safely and effectively. Her teaching style includes aspects of Kundalini, Integral Hatha Yoga and Anusara styles of yoga, concise application of anatomical alignment, with an emphasis on movement initiation, breath and flow.