Meet Arianna… Your Director

Like most people, Arianna came to yoga for physical relief from disease. Back in Japan, in early 1991, she found herself doing yoga for the first time. It was a desperate plea from her body to bring relief from a stomach disorder as she curled up in child’s pose, not really knowing it was yoga. Soon she found herself in a classroom and spent many hours on her own entrenched in The Sivananda Companion to Yoga. It was indeed her companion and very soon there was relief and healing.

Four more years of headstands, downward dogs and lots of classroom time with the best Iyengar style teachers around inspired Arianna to join a teacher training.

She left the East to meet her teacher Bikram Choudary and completed his rigorous teacher training in 1995. What a change it was from life in the East to life in Beverly Hills, with the flamboyant Bikram and a sizzling hot Yoga room. At her great expense, she stayed under his light almost a year, a privilege and a chance to see that she wanted more. Stay in Beverly Hills, a poor yoga teacher or continue to study in India and rather live more like a king? India it was!

Arianna turned up in Pune, at the doorstep of the great BKS Iyengar. She somehow found herself in the presence of the word’s best teachers, not once, but twice! There was nothing flashy about the Ramanini Iyengar Memorial Institute except for the depths of devotion expressed by the Iyengar family and their students. Again she found herself upside down on her head, in 5 minute downward dogs and hoping that she would not get kicked or chastised by Gheta or Prashant.

A stay in Rishikesh was also in order. This was easier than driving by moped across Pune and it seemed a place closer to God, resting at the foothills of the Himalayas.

Back and forth, between East and West, Arianna traveled, always teaching and practicing, hoping to settle into a studio of her own. Marriage and children have a way of making your roots dig deep and flowers to blossom. Finally, Chesapeake Hot Yoga was built.

Arianna's Family
Arianna is a Navy wife and mother to two beautiful boys ages 7 and 9. Her husband Ed and her have made Virginia Beach their home for the past 6 years and count on staying a lifetime!