Raised in New Orleans, Louisiana from the age of two, Melanie’s interest in yoga began in high school through her interest in and natural inclination towards Eastern thought. This culminated in a deep desire to travel to India at an early age, a desire later fulfilled when she was 25.
In her last year of college and still saddled with depression, yoga became a way to mitigate its symptoms and gave her life the only sense of meaning she could find at the time. As college came to an end, she found herself without any clear direction except the lingering call to travel to India. She moved home to save money and in 1994, made her way to the subcontinent.
Melanie arrived at the doorstep of Pattabhi Jois with no background in the Ashtanga Method or knowledge of Pattabhi Jois. By this time, she knew she loved doing yoga and based on her understanding of Eastern philosophy, felt there must be more to it then she had come across in America.
At first, Melanie was told to sit in the back of the room and watch and before she stepped onto a mat knew the Ashtanga Method was for her. The quiet of the room, the grace and intention of movement and the vibration of breath caught her attention at its core. In 2001, Jois asked Melanie to take Certification.
There were many gifts Melanie associates with encountering the Ashtanga Method. One gift was that in New Orleans, no one knew about Ashtanga and there was very little yoga. This meant that for her to progress outside of Mysore, Melanie had to find the will to practice alone or not at all. She learned early on to be self sufficient in her practice and to allow the practice, through the lens of daily practice, to be her consummate teacher.
Another gift was that Melanie happened to Mysore before Jois and the Ashtanga Method caught on hugely in the west. She had the good fortune of meeting many gifted teachers who had already made yoga their professional calling. Maty Ezraty was one such teacher. They met on Melanie’s first trip to Mysore and Maty invited her to work and study at her own studio in America, Yoga Works. Outside of Melanie’s practice, Maty taught her more about observation and alignment then anyone else. It was a new world for Melanie, one that would take her many more to understand.
In 2013, Melanie began closer investigation of the subtle bodies with Anodea Judith. In Anodea’s work, Melanie found a new vocabulary for what she was already experiencing and teaching. It strengthened Melanie’s belief that with yoga alone, it is too easy to side step the real internal work that must be done within each of us to reach wholeness. Melanie makes use of this study in both her teaching and personal life.
Melanie began sharing the Ashtanga Method with her New Orleans community in 1997 and opened her studio, The Ashtanga Yoga Room, after Certification from Jois in 2001.
She lives with her husband, son, beloved animals and mother-in-law in New Orleans. She holds a B.A. in Psychology from New York University.
